“I love you, Christians. I’m a Christian. I love you, you got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not going to have to vote.”
Donald J. Trump at the Turning Point USA Believers Summit in West Palm Beach, Fla., June 21st.
“The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous and grave than the threat from within… the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.”
Trump speech in Claremont, NH on November 11, 2023
“Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s gonna be a bloodbath. That’s going to be the least of it… It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.”
Donald Trump during a rally near Dayton, Ohio, March 11th
Architected and vetted by Donald “dictator for a day” Trump and a significant body of his former White House staffers, despite Trump’s efforts at distancing himself, the 900+ page rightwing Project 2025 remains the manifesto for Trump’s purported second term. For those who remotely cherish freedom, it’s a hard, even terrifying, read. His staffers tell him to go “mum” on the “a” word (“abortion,” reflecting an exceptionally unpopular ruling from the Supreme Court by his appointees), yet when he is with his evangelical peeps, he just cannot stop himself from taking credit for that decision.
But the Harris/Walz “Mind your own damned business” ticket is beginning to make serious inroads, even in the swing states that Trump was certain were in his MAGA bag. While in private Trump is fuming, even the best laid insults and threats of mice and MAGAns are not producing the numbers he wants (even crowd density comparisons). Still, he has a magnificent fallback in his own “deep state,” particularly among recently elected or appointed election officials, most notably in the “must win” swing states.
If anything, Trump has good reason to smile with Georgia on his mind. At a rally in that state on August 2nd, with a genuinely massive turnout, Trump delighted the MAGA masses by calling out three Georgia election officials in attendance, knowing that they would do their duty. Why were those who are supposed to remain neutral by reason of their sensitive jobs even at a Trump rally? Marc Elias, writing for the August 7th Democracy Docket, tells us: “Trump praised [those] three members of the Georgia State Election Board. Calling them ‘pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency, and victory,’ Trump lavished praise and attention on these members of the obscure state agency — by name.
“The odd exchange raised more than a few eyebrows. When I wrote about it earlier this week, I suggested that the least damning explanation was that the ‘three who Trump mentioned from the stage: Janice Johnston, Rick Jeffares and Janelle King have refused to acknowledge that Joe Biden won Georgia in 2020.’ We now know that the real reason for Trump’s support for the election officials was far more sinister.
“Late yesterday [8/6], the [Georgia state election] board approved a new rule that seeks to expand the role and authority of county boards of election in the certification process. This new rule redefines the certification process to include ‘reasonable inquiry’ into whether the results are ‘complete and accurate.’” Indeed, the above iteration of facts and quotes suggest that there is a determined effort to ensure that, where possible especially in the election critical swing states (and that includes Georgia where Trump and the GOP are feuding over the latter’s insistence in the 2020 election of certifying accurately), Trump won’t lose. It is all part of a greater MAGA commitment to marginalize Democrats and foist MAGA voters to the fore… even if that requires a little rigging along the way.
Anna Kutz, writing for the August 11th NewsNation Prime, explains: “Dozens of local election officials in America’s key battleground states believe former President Donald Trump ‘s stolen election conspiracies and could threaten democracy this November, independent journalist Justin Glawe told ‘NewsNation Prime.’ … Glawe, creator of the American Doom newsletter, penned his findings in a recent Rolling Stone exclusive titled: ‘These Swing State Election Officials Are Pro-Trump Election Deniers.’
“The piece rounded up almost 70 pro-Trump authorities across the U.S., including county election board officials from Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Nevada… The entire list is composed of officials who have either already refused to certify results or have expressed belief in election conspiracy theories on social media… ‘I should note that this isn’t really coming directly from the Trump campaign, Glawe clarified. ‘This is what I kind of think of as a decentralized network of pro-Trump Republicans who are also local election officials.’” I have to admit that I am a little skeptical over Glawe’s statements about the direct non-involvement by the Trump campaign in light of Trump’s highlighting of those biased election officials who attended his rally as noted above.
Kutz continues: “Glawe explained that the election certification process is ‘ministerial,’ meaning it’s ‘not really up to the discretion of these election officials.’ But that won’t stop them from trying… ‘I think that if there are mass refusals to certify, they’ll sort of get struck down in court relatively quickly,’ Glawe said. ‘But I think the larger point is that those refusals to certify could really do some pretty significant damage to the public’s trust in elections, and that, I think, is the larger danger.’
“Most of the believers are in appointed, not elected, positions, a fact Glawe hopes America’s voters can monitor in the future… ‘I think the best thing that people can do is pay attention to what their county election boards are doing, and who is staffing those boards, and whether or not some of these election deniers are on their boards,’ he said.” I am not nearly as sanguine about probable fairness in judicial challenges to such refusals to certify actual election results. Trump’s legal team are experts in delaying, and if the “get out of jail free” presidential immunity card from the Supreme Court (if there is any color of an “official act”) is any evidence, Trump just might trump the Court’s 2000 “hanging chad” ruling in the Bush vs Gore, which made GW Bush the winner… and ignore the actual numbers to win by… “a rigged election.” Are we about to witness a magnified repeat? We’re almost there. Each party is putting phalanxes of lawyers on red (and blue?) alert.
I’m Peter Dekom, and the “deep state” Trump wants to appoint if elected will indeed vitiate the need for any further elections… as we listen to his own words!
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