When Trump shows you who he is….
Steve Benen examines Donald Trump’s recent campaign rhetoric about imprisoning political opponents:
Last year, as his legal crises intensified, Donald Trump grew explicit about his intentions to retaliate against his perceived foes with politically motivated criminal cases. In September 2023, for example, the former president suggested he’d have “no choice” but to prosecute his political opponents in a possible second term.
The Republican added soon after that when prosecutors took steps to hold him accountable for his crimes, “what they’ve done is they’ve released the genie out of the box.” (I assume he meant “bottle.”) This came on the heels of Trump vowing to appoint a “real” special prosecutor to go after President Joe Biden and his family.
That’s all Trump means by “Great Again.” Be cruel and criminal enough that no one will dare cross him. That’s it. Sell ’em snake oil. Deliver retribution. Commit more crimes as president for his own sick pleasure and for MAGA’s entertainment. He plans to turn the U.S, as Rome turned, from “from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust.”
Trump told Newsmax in a Tuesday interview:
“So, you know, it’s a terrible, terrible path that they’re leading us to, and it’s very possible that it’s going to have to happen to them,” Trump said when discussing his guilty verdict.
“Does that mean the next president does it to them? That’s really the question,” he added.
Why does such bluster matter? Benen explains:
1. Trump is promising to abuse the system. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee is talking about deliberately trying to prosecute his perceived political foes, not because there’s evidence of them doing anything wrong, but because he was held accountable for his own crimes and feels the need to retaliate. Trump is, in other words, effectively promising voters that he’ll commit impeachable offenses.
2. Trump already tried do in the recent past what he’s promising to do in the near future. While in office, the Republican went to great lengths to weaponize federal law enforcement in the hopes of seeing his opponents get prosecuted without cause. Those efforts fell short, but Trump intends to learn from the failures and have greater prosecutorial success in a second term.
3. Republicans are on board. If there was a point in which GOP officials were uncomfortable with the idea of Trump deliberately abusing the powers of the presidency and using the levers of power to retaliate against his domestic enemies, that point has since passed: Too many Republican policymakers are now enthusiastic proponents of retaliatory prosecutions based on conspiracy theories that don’t make any sense.
4. The logic is stark raving mad. To hear Trump tell it, fair is fair: Since he was prosecuted by critics, it stands to reason that he can return the favor if he’s returned to power. But that’s not how any of this works. If a police officer arrested a thief caught in the act of stealing a car, it does not mean that the thief would be justified in trying to later arrest the police officer. The suspected criminal could not credibly go to court and argue, “Well, the cop released the genie out of the box.”
Logic has nothing to do with it. Law has nothing to do with it. Emotionally stunted and feral at what pea-sized core he possesses, Trump the Petulant means to strike back at those what done him wrong for his wrongdoing. How dare they.
Benen concludes:
5. Trump is proving Biden right: President Joe Biden and his re-election campaign are eager to make the case that Trump is an authoritarian who intends to undermine our justice system and abandon the rule of law. The more the Republican talks about prosecuting his foes without cause, the more he proves Biden right.
Trump cares little about being right. He cares a lot about getting even.
Makes your American hearts swell, doesn’t it?
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