Every time I think I've written all I care to write about Trump in dozens of posts or hundreds of tweets, he manages to do or say something even more outrageous. The amount and effect of Trump' gaslighting his minions are stunning: according to polls, there is at least a large plurality of the GOP which believes the 2020 election was "stolen" and results are "fraudulent", never mind the fact that all of his "evidence" has been publicly debunked and he lost 61 of 62 cases (his lone victory had to do with time constraints on voter post-election ability to cure ballots in Pennsylvania, which involved an insignificant number of votes), including every major one, including at SCOTUS, not to mention losing decisions of his own nominated federal judges. Never mind the facts he hinted weeks before the election he would not accept the results of an election loss, he had lagged behind Biden in almost every national poll and m every disputed state he lost--including Arizona and Georgia.
Of course, this wasn't the first example of Trump gaslighting. A simple Internet search reveals others. Here's a relevant excerpt:
In the last few weeks [Oct. 2020] he has spread conspiracies of mail-in voting fraud and the ‘deep state’, claiming Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden is secretly controlled by “people that are in the dark shadows” and describing a mysterious plane “completely loaded with thugs wearing… dark uniforms”. He has also accused leading Democrats of forging Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dying wishes for her Supreme Court replacement to be chosen after the November election, suggesting Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, or Adam “shifty” Schiff are responsible. At a campaign rally last week, Trump told supporters that Covid-19 affects “virtually nobody”, just as its US death toll passed 200,000, and August’s Republican National Convention saw him lead a charm offensive aimed at African American voters, trying to uphold his claim that he has done more for the black community than any President since Lincoln. To help maintain this alternate reality, in a militant, polarized America gripped by racial justice protests and the world’s most Covid deaths, he has continued his attacks on the ‘fake news media’ that challenges it.
He dismisses any GOP critic as a "RINO" (Republican-In-Name-Only), even though he sought the 2000 Reform Party (Ross Perot) nomination and was a registered Democrat for much of the 2000's, not to mention contributing heavily to Dems in his then heavily blue home state, New York, even bragging how Hillary Clinton attended his third wedding.
As if we didn't already know how Trump tried to extort Ukraine President Zelensky into opening a criminal investigation of the Biden's (to derail Biden's candidacy), we have already seen how Trump tried to pressure the Georgia Republican secretary of state into flipping the state's election results (a likely violation of Georgia law). He tried to get Pence to reject enough duly elected elector votes to throw the election into the Congress (where he thought he controlled enough single state votes to win the election), although the 12th amendment gives the VPOTUS no such discretion.
If that wasn't enough, we have recently learned that Trump had tried to push an unconstitutional executive order to seize state voting machines. But at a recent Texas rally, Trump all but confirmed he had sought to overturn election results and even worse suggested if reelected he might pardon some or all of the Jan. 6 rioters and accomplices which he feels have been treated "unfairly". It is not Trump's place to judge matters of law and order in our justice system. He seems to think the end justifies the means. i.e., to disrupt the Congress, a violation of the Constitution. Trump is in a state of denial, like thinking he could pardon himself. I'm fully convinced there are constitutional limits to the pardon power: "The President … shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment." (U.S. Const., art. II, § 2, cl. 1.) If the President were above the law, there would be no carve out for impeachment, and Congress has a lot of discretion in determining grounds for impeachment. The very idea that Trump could give a blanket pardon to violations of federal law basically undermines it and violates the Presidential oath.
Trump also encourages national protests to any attempt to prosecute him or his businesses. I don't question the rights of his minions to protest, a constitutional right. But his self-serving nature in manipulating people is obvious and morally contemptible. And the idea of reelecting someone who has been impeached twice, doesn't recognize the constitutional limits to his authority and would corruptly exercise said authority is nauseating.
I don't think it's likely Trump could get elected in 2024. Oh, at present, he could probably get nominated again.
I, for one, have had my fill of Trump. His post-election temper tantrum as the loser was unprecedented and contemptible. Enough already!
