Analysis: Trump’s grievances leave Americans in need in limbo
Insistent his own government is working against him by ignoring false claims of voter fraud, he’s dangling the prospect of shutting it down as he enjoys a winter holiday in South Florida.
And eager to help discredit investigations into his own behavior and that of his allies, he’s using his wide-reaching clemency powers to wipe away convictions brought by special counsel Robert Mueller, undermining a system of law and order in the process.
Long driven by grievance, Trump seems to be ensuring no grudge goes unpunished before he leaves office. He is using his remaining days as President to settle scores, even if those left to suffer have nothing to do with his baroque conspiracies or his wounded ego.
“It wasn’t clear that the President really was paying attention because he had a lot of other things going on,” Rep. Don Beyer, a Virginia Democrat, said on CNN’s “Newsroom” Saturday.
Those other things have primarily focused on his unsuccessful attempts to overturn the election, which have gained little traction. Initially supportive of Trump’s efforts to challenge the results in court, Senate Republican leaders have mostly moved on to congratulate Biden on his win, enraging Trump and sending him looking for ways to exact revenge.
His refusal thus far to sign the stimulus package has been viewed by at least some Republican officials as doing just that, jabbing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as stingy for not providing adequate checks to Americans, even though Trump’s own negotiators initially proposed the $600 checks during talks.
On Saturday, Trump lashed out at McConnell, writing on Twitter that Senate Republicans “do NOTHING” to help bolster his baseless fraud allegations. He referred to the Senate majority leader simply as “Mitch” and did little to counteract the impression his fixation on the election is clouding any real attempt at governing. In another tweet, he made a reference to large protests expected in Washington on January 6 surrounding formal ratification in Congress of Biden’s electoral victory, an event Trump is convinced can be stopped with help from conservatives and his own vice president.
Even Republicans were growing frustrated.
“The reason it blindsided everybody is because they thought the President was involved when it was obvious he was sleeping on the job when it came to these negotiations,” Rep. Denver Riggleman, a Virginia Republican not returning to Congress, said on CNN’s “Newsroom.”
“That’s what happens when you get too wrapped up in an election you already lost,” he said.
Trump spreads blame
But he spent the morning issuing complaints about the entities refusing to entertain his efforts to overturn the election results — a list that now encompasses all three branches of government.
The Supreme Court, which earlier this month refused to hear Trump’s case, “has been totally incompetent and weak,” the President declared on Twitter. He complained his own administration’s law enforcement agencies “should be ashamed” for not taking up his demands to investigate nonexistent widespread voter fraud, warning them that “History will remember.”
And he continued lambasting Senate Republicans for failing to “step up and fight for the Presidency, like the Democrats would do if they had actually won.”
Nowhere has Trump mentioned the prospect of a government shutdown, which now hangs unexpectedly over the holiday period after he refused to sign the funding bill that was attached to the coronavirus relief package.
It’s the “deep state” Trump has also blamed for investigations into himself and his associates — efforts he is now trying to undermine using his all-encompassing powers of clemency.
Pardon power
“It’s crushing. There’s no other way to describe it,” said Andrew McCabe, the former deputy FBI director who has been attacked by Trump and is now a CNN contributor, on Saturday, singling out the Blackwater case in particular.
“It’s such an unbelievably huge endeavor to convince all of these Iraqi civilians, who are putting themselves in great danger coming to the United States and testifying, to come over here, to take care of them while they’re here,” he said. “To take all of that work, as significant as it was, and just erase it with the stroke of the pen for men who had been convicted essentially of war crimes, it’s just incredibly dispiriting. It’s crushing. That’s the only way to describe it.”
Yet in Trump’s view, it is he who’s been victimized by widespread corruption and criminality, a stance that is now driving much of his actions as his term wanes.
During a round of golf with Sen. Lindsey Graham on Christmas Day, Trump continued to voice his insistence that Section 230 be repealed.
Yet if the NDAA fails to become law, those feeling the effects would not be disloyal Republicans. Instead it would be American troops and their families who are denied the pay raises, hazard pay and parental leave that are included in the bill, as well as new benefits for Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange and construction projects on military bases.
Like his rejection of the stimulus, the move sets up a loyalty test for Republicans, who for four years have mostly been unwilling to break with their party’s leader.
“A lot of us are being called traitors, whether we will override the veto on the NDAA or we want to get a Covid bill through, or get appropriations through, or want to stop this ridiculous Stop the Steal nonsense,” Riggleman said.
“A lot of this is based on the crazy of conspiracy theories and the crazy of disinformation, and I think we need to stand up and stop this nonsense as quickly as possible. It’s just out of control right now.”
