Trump, who outwardly still shows no willingness to give up power, is turning to “a fringe group of advisers peddling increasingly dubious tactics” to thwart Biden’s election victory, “creating a dire situation” making senior officials and people close to him nervous. “No one is sure where this is heading,” a source told CNN on Monday, December 21, 2020 (story here).
Seen in the Oval Office these days: Sidney Powell, a crazy lawyer peddling election conspiracy theories; Michael Flynn, who’s openly advocating martial law; and Rudy Giuliani, architect of Trump’s failed election lawsuits, along with Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, for what appear to be strategy sessions. Navarro was heavily involved in Trump’s efforts to persuade GOP legislators to hijack electoral votes Biden won.
There’s nothing to strategize. The election is over. All 50 states and D.C. have certified, the Electoral College has voted, all their legal efforts have dead ended, all doors to legitimate challenges are shut. They’re sitting in the seat of government talking about overthrowing the government. Meanwhile, Trump is shirking official duties and shunning government officials, “leading to growing fears of how he may lash out” or resist leaving office, CNN reported, adding that there’s “particular worry among his advisers over what Powell … may convince him to do …. There’s high levels of concern with anything involving Sidney Powell …. The lawyers are very worried.”
The two key players in this — Flynn and Powell — are pushing Trump to, respectively, use the military to seize power (Flynn) or appoint special counsels to investigate the election and Hunter Biden (Powell). Trump was impeached for his attempts to coerce Ukraine into investigating Hunter Biden, and appears to remain obsessed with the president-elect’s son.
Although Trump’s election fraud claims have gone nowhere — because Biden’s victory wasn’t fraudulent — he continues to play that harp, there’s at least a pragmatic reason — a mercenary one, and nobody loves money more than Trump — for doing so: He’s raised over $200 million for his PAC that way. And knowing Trump, he’ll dip into that slush fund for his coming legal expenses and personal junkets disguised as public speaking engagements. Nobody except the IRS cares if he steals from his faithful supporters; they were warned and volunteer to be taken advantage of. But these meetings suggest more than grifting those gullible donors is oozing forth in the dark recesses of his malevolent mind.
Trump likely will head for Mar-a-Lago (now being dubbed “MAGAstan” by wags) this week, and when he does, “officials say it’s likely he will take meetings, in person and via phone, that his official advisers aren’t aware of. In other words, off-the-record, non-official business. ‘It’s scary,’ said another administration official, who added that Trump appears ‘obsessed’ with far-flung scenarios to overturn the election results that are seemingly untenable, both feasibly and politically.”
“In his moments of deepest denial,” CNN says, “Trump has told some advisers that he will refuse to leave the White House on Inauguration Day …. The possibility has alarmed some aides, though few believe Trump will actually follow through. How such an episode might unfold isn’t clear, and federal law enforcement agencies have been loath to discuss the possibility.”
I think that’s the least concern. That can be dealt with. Trump isn’t your normal departing president using his final days in office to get in a few last partisan licks, like appointing judges, issuing pardons, and signing executive orders. He’s vindictive and given to retaliation, doesn’t care about the country, and may use what remains of his power to sabotage the incoming Biden administration and make life as difficult as possible for the new president — such as by starting a war with Iran.
It wouldn’t be the first time people worried about the mental stability of a deposed president. In the twilight of Nixon’s presidency, he was “under close watch by advisers concerned that he ‘seemed to be losing control over his own mind’ [and] defense secretary James Schlesinger issued a quiet decree that he be consulted if Nixon gave any ‘unusual orders.'” (Read story here.) One wonders if a similar watch is now being maintained over Trump.