Is Trump a President for All Americans?

Is Trump a President for All Americans?

“I’ll tell you something that’s going to get me in trouble, but I couldn’t care less… the radicals on the left are the problem… The radicals on the right, oftentimes, are radical because they don’t want to see crime… They don’t want to see crime. … They’re saying, ‘We don’t want these people coming in. We don’t want you burning our shopping centers. We don’t want you shooting our people in the middle of the street’… [T]he radicals on the left are the problem… they’re vicious, and they’re horrible, and they’re politically savvy.” 

Donald Trump, September 12th on Fox & Friends

“[Self-made US billionaire] George Soros, and his wonderful Radical Left son, should be charged with RICO because of their support of Violent Protests, and much more, all throughout the United States of America… We’re not going to allow these lunatics to rip apart America any more, never giving it so much as a chance to ‘BREATHE,’ and be FREE. Soros, and his group of psychopaths, have caused great damage to our Country! That includes his Crazy, West Coast friends.” 

Trump, NBC News, September 13th

“One thing I say is we have to have quick trials. I call it quick trials. Because in China, they do have quick trials, you know?... [We] should have a trial the following day, as far as I’m concerned.” 

Trump said on “Fox & Friends.”

“You probe with bayonets: if you find mush, you push. If you find steel, you withdraw.” 

Vladimir Ilich Lenin

Even as Trump tries to explain his logic, there are way too many flies in that ointment. Once you get into the verbiage of Trump’s patterns of expression, the meanings become clear. “Radicals on the left” generally means anyone who disagrees with his position, which includes Democratic members of Congress, governors, state legislators, candidates, major creative artists and media professionals, company CEOs and investors, and even some of his own followers if they are stupid enough to disagree with him. “Woke” is any belief or practice Trump or MAGA does not like.

He governs with a commitment to vengeance and retaliation against anyone who opposes anything he embraces. Even his own followers, who often are required to do penance at any missteps they have taken. Since so many economic advantages, government contracts and exemptions from his new tariffs (if sustained) are determined personally by Trump, the President has used this neo-American kleptocracy to make him vastly richer and clearly a man who cannot see the constitutional limits around him. How do Americans feel about all this? A September 11th summary of a recent Reuters/Ipsos Poll is presented in the Palm Beach Post:

The Reuters/Ipsos poll found just 16% of Americans overall - including 2% of Democrats and 34% of Republicans - thought it would be good for the president to have power to set interest rates and tell companies where to manufacture products.

Trump’s overall approval rating remains stable at 42%, according to the poll, with nine in 10 Republicans supporting him…. “Even if citizens have concerns about urban crime or economic performance, they don’t view either issue as currently in a state of unprecedented crisis requiring unprecedented measures to resolve,” Boston College's Hopkins said.

“And while Trump certainly has a set of personal admirers who would happily grant him whatever powers he might seek, there are also many Republican voters who supported Trump in the last three elections but who don’t agree that he should be allowed to operate without limits.”

U.S. voters overwhelmingly want their president to respect the authority of federal courts, with nine in 10 Democrats and seven in 10 Republicans saying the president should abide by judicial rulings even if he disagrees with them.

Still, Republicans are more inclined to give Trump a free hand… Asked if they were willing to give up some checks and balances in the U.S. democratic system to have a government that can take action faster, 39% of Republicans said they would take that offer, compared to 45% who rejected it. Only 17% of independents - and the same share of Democrats - liked the idea.

At the same time, voters of both parties are increasingly less likely to view the U.S. as exceptional… Some 29% of people in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll agreed with a statement that "America is the greatest country in the world," down from 38% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in November 2017, during Trump's first term in office… The share of Democrats who agreed fell to 12% from 26% and among Republicans the share dropped to 55% from 59%.

The poll, which was conducted online and nationwide, gathered responses from 1,084 U.S. adults. It had a margin of error of 3 percentage points for all respondents, and between 5 and 6 points for Republicans, Democrats and independents.

Trump invites foreign investment in the United States, but when they verifiably cannot find qualified workers here, you get this with one of our staunchest allies in Asia, S. Korea. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted a major raid on an on a Hyundai electric vehicle battery plant under construction in Ellabell, Georgia. Nearly 500 workers, including over 300 South Korean nationals, who were detained for visa and immigration violation, and then flown back to Seoul. Meanwhile, tariffs are sending prices here soaring and punishing businesses at all levels, but particularly small businesses and farmers who do not have huge capital reserves.

Through a combination of raw, unchecked force, applying bully tactics that have worked for autocrats forever, inflicting retribution powerfully and instantly against anyone who dares to oppose him, he has cowed the Republicans in Congress to do his bidding without deviation or hesitation, even when it seriously undermines their own constituents, threatening judges and dismissing administration executives at even the slightest hint of challenging him. All new federal appointees are vetted for loyalty to Trump above all else. Issuing executive orders at rate that is over eight times more than any recent president, Trump uses his not-so-secret weapon: speed.

He signs an executive order, one that causes massive disruption instantly, implements that order at warp speed as widely as he can, and when the US Supreme Court is asked to stop obviously very legitimate lower court determinations of Trump’s excess, his Kangaroo Kaptive Judges reverse the lower court ruling and issue a shadow docket Trump-favorable stay… leaving the damage and devastation of those executive orders to continue to wreak havoc pen, unless and until the Court hears the full case, potentially a year or more later. Trump’s ICE recruits are becoming his secret police, sending fear way beyond undocumented residents.

With the schism of the assassination of Charlie Kirk exploding into an open American wound, Trump used this as a deflection and distraction from his obvious Epstein cover-up, to incite, to raise the level of anger, and to demonize… in effect begging for the right to rise and extinguish the “radical left” once and for all… however much it takes. The Capitol insurrection times thousand. In Brazil, they arrest and try leaders willing to incite at this level, convict them with long looming prison sentences. In America, we reelect them and give them even more power.

I’m Peter Dekom, and if Trump succeeds in his quest for absolute and permanent power for himself and his cronies, what will you do… and how will you ever explain this to your children and grandchildren….?