History-Making: The Trump Way
by David Smith
August 2023
Former White House Correspondent, David Smith, on America’s latest, sad frontier.
Watching Washington D.C. at work these past few weeks has surely offered evidence of how the DNA, the history, the siren song of freedom of the United States has come back to haunt the Republic as never before. America, the home of the brave, once so capable of fighting a King for its independence, has travelled to yet another new, if truly sad frontier: indicting an ex-President who could be its next President, for brazenly trying to overturn the very democracy he dares to lead again.
We can be under no illusions here. Donald Trump is in the dock, and faces a total of 91 felony charges that could put him behind bars for decades. But the legal process is unlikely to decide the outcome. The real trial that looms for mother America is a political one, to be determined most likely by the voters at the ballot box in 2024. Trump, for all the guffaws we outsiders might feel, is truly dangerous if he wins. A President Trump, second time around, could so obviously bury the other memorable half of that anthem’s endline—“land of the free.”
Of all the evidence laid out, as Trump was arraigned in court—charges read to him before pleading not guilty, then insisting to the cameras that he’s the victim of “political persecution,” or posing for that mugshot that says “never surrender”—well, the most striking testimony came from his Vice-President Mike Pence, a longtime lackey who towed the Trump line during those four years in power. Pence kept exhaustive notes, by all accounts, and when he refused to do Trump’s bidding, and go to the Congress to block certification of Joe Biden’s election as President, Trump told him: “Mike, you’re just too honest.”
Likewise, of all the judgement calls we heard in Washington DC, as the commentariat digested the vile nature of a former President comparing his treatment to Nazi Germany, it was hard to ignore the chilling verdict of one Bennie Thompson: Congressman from Mississippi, the chairman of the committee that investigated the armed onslaught by Trump supporters on the Capitol in January, 2020, just as Biden prepared to take office.
“We once had a civil war in this country, and we came out stronger for it,” he said, trying to celebrate that Trump’s indictment meant no one was above the law, but then warning of the bitterly divisive conflict to come. “We have to hold on now to the hope we can emerge stronger from this fight.” He noted, in a mournful tone, that the polls show Trump and Biden tied in what looks like their rematch next year. Many voters are saying they want neither, and history tells us that can favour the challenger.
“The real trial that looms for mother America is a political one.”
The tell-tale signs of what Trump does next speak loud and clear. He will have an army of lawyers, funded by the millions he is now raising from supporters for his defence. He will argue that America’s prized first amendment, aka Freedom of Speech, means he had every right to believe and say that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him. At his side will be Republican party figures, including some running against him for the nomination, propagating his line that Justice is being “weaponised” by the Biden administration to conduct “lawfare…persecution” against him and those he represents.
“Trump’s play, his strategy, is to stay out of jail by winning the election, then having his own Justice Department swat away these charges,” says Washington lawyer George Conway, who knows the fellow well (his ex-wife Kellyanne was a key adviser in the Trump White House). “We as Americans are not prepared for what is coming, we cannot conceive of a leader who wants to steal Democracy, by stealing the Presidency.”
Clearly, the Trump campaign will continue to enjoy the support of a serious slice of the American media. Just watching Fox News, Rupert Murdoch’s right-wing tribune, you can hear the narrative dripping with Trump’s talking points. “The case against Trump is weak, poorly framed, a stretch way too far,” say their legal eagles, and regular commentators.
The Wall Street Journal, no less, has been of like mind, questioning the legal theory behind some of the charges and the whole notion of a “conspiracy to defraud the United States.” All this will be augmented by their intense scrutiny of the many misdeeds of Joe Biden’s son Hunter, a drug addict turned political lobbyist who has earned millions via shady deals abroad, from Ukraine to China, and liberal use of his Dad’s name. “The Biden crime family,” as Trump casts them.
Talk to Adam Schiff, California congressman and outspoken member of the panel whose investigation of the insurrection on Capitol Hill that triggered the latest indictment, and you hear all will be well. Watergate set the benchmark for removing a President and his nefarious deeds. America is not some populist’s playground, not Silvio Berlusconi’s Italy, nor Boris Johnson’s Britain, or Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil. Now Justice, and the rule of law, can win out. “The only thing more dangerous to our democracy than holding the powerful to account when they seek to subvert elections, would be the failure to do so.” So concludes Schiff.
Fine words, but in the past few weeks, on the ground in affluent Northern California, Joe Biden territory, never TrumpLand, you could hear the street-level divide that now imperils the America we thought we knew. “I loathe Trump,” says Joanne, a 60-something volunteer at a Public Library. “Lock him up.” To which her colleague Dawn interjects: “Trump’s guilty, but I do buy the idea there’s one law for him, and another law for Biden’s family.”
“There’s the rub. Whose America is it?”
Parking outside, stepping down from a giant Harley-Davidson motorbike, small businessman Joe Ross wears a helmet proclaiming “F**k Biden.” “Donald Trump is the only one telling the truth, about what’s really going on in Washington DC,” he remarks, as he heads into an afternoon of tele-commuting. “Drain the swamp is an understatement of what we need to do for My America.”
There’s the rub. Whose America is it? The America of Lincoln, and ending slavery? The America of Franklin Roosevelt, creating the number one Superpower from the ashes of World War? The America of Ronald Reagan, triumphant as the Cold War concluded? Now comes Donald Trump, facing prison for trying to steal an election, and lest we forget amid the sound ‘n’ fury, that’s quite simply such a grave political crime in any democracy.
