Donald Trump is currently sitting in a New York courtroom, sleeping and farting through the proceedings as his lawyers employ various delay tactics. Yesterday, the judge in the hush-money trial fined Trump $9,000, $1K each for nine contempt of court violations of his gag order. The judge said that if Trump continued to violate the gag order and threaten/harass witnesses in the case, Trump could face “an incarceratory punishment.” I’ll believe it when I see it. Meanwhile, in his spare time, Trump sat down with Time Magazine for an exclusive, in-depth interview about what a “second Trump term” would look like. I’m only excerpting as far as I got in the story, but you can read the full piece here.
What emerged in two interviews with Trump, and conversations with more than a dozen of his closest advisers and confidants, were the outlines of an imperial presidency that would reshape America and its role in the world. To carry out a deportation operation designed to remove more than 11 million people from the country, Trump told me, he would be willing to build migrant detention camps and deploy the U.S. military, both at the border and inland. He would let red states monitor women’s pregnancies and prosecute those who violate abortion bans. He would, at his personal discretion, withhold funds appropriated by Congress, according to top advisers. He would be willing to fire a U.S. Attorney who doesn’t carry out his order to prosecute someone, breaking with a tradition of independent law enforcement that dates from America’s founding.
He is weighing pardons for every one of his supporters accused of attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, more than 800 of whom have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury. He might not come to the aid of an attacked ally in Europe or Asia if he felt that country wasn’t paying enough for its own defense. He would gut the U.S. civil service, deploy the National Guard to American cities as he sees fit, close the White House pandemic-preparedness office, and staff his Administration with acolytes who back his false assertion that the 2020 election was stolen.
…With an index finger, he swipes through an iPad on the table to curate the restaurant’s soundtrack. The playlist veers from Sinead O’Connor to James Brown to The Phantom of the Opera. And there’s a uniquely Trump choice: a rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” sung by a choir of defendants imprisoned for attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, interspersed with a recording of Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. This has become a staple of his rallies, converting the ultimate symbol of national unity into a weapon of factional devotion.
The spectacle picks up where his first term left off. The events of Jan. 6, during which a pro-Trump mob attacked the center of American democracy in an effort to subvert the peaceful transfer of power, was a profound stain on his legacy. Trump has sought to recast an insurrectionist riot as an act of patriotism. “I call them the J-6 patriots,” he says. When I ask whether he would consider pardoning every one of them, he says, “Yes, absolutely.” As Trump faces dozens of felony charges, including for election interference, conspiracy to defraud the United States, willful retention of national-security secrets, and falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments, he has tried to turn legal peril into a badge of honor.
If this doesn’t run a chill down your spine and make you feel like throwing up, please just find another blog. Seriously, I’m not going to argue with anyone defending this pants-sh-tting fascist. He is not hiding his priorities, he’s not hiding his agenda, his followers and fanatics are not being duped. Even low-information voters can understand this in plain terms: he will destroy the country. He will end democracy. He will allow the state to “monitor women’s pregnancies,” Gilead-style. He will allow his domestic terrorists free rein. Enough. And enough of the media hyping this motherf–ker just because they miss him.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, covers courtesy of Time.
