EDITORIAL

Lying Don Gets Buggy

So Donald Trump’s annual performance review with Russian President Vladimir Putin, closing out his Chaos Tour of Europe, didn’t go as planned. Things appeared to go OK during their two-hour closed-door meeting in Helsinki. The two autocrats emerged smiling for a press conference in which Trump refused to condemn the Kremlin for meddling in the 2016 presidential election, as determined by US intelligence agencies. Instead, he said,“I think the United States has been foolish. I think we’ve all been foolish. I think we’re all to blame.”

Trump repeated a phrase he often uses — that there has been no collusion — and he said accusations of collusion continue to hurt relations between the two countries. Putin, who admitted that he wanted Trump to win the election, gave him a soccer ball from the 2018 World Cup finals, which Russia hosted.

The following day, after Trump returned to the White House, controversy mounted over his assertion that he believed Putin’s word over the findings of the US intelligence community. Trump tried to walk back his remarks, in part, by claiming that “other people” could have also meddled in the 2016 presidential election. Trump also claimed he had simply misspoken by one word during his press conference in Finland. The president explained that he had intended to say he did not see any reason why it “wouldn’t” be Russia.

“I thought that I made myself very clear, but having just reviewed the transcript, I realized that there is a need for some clarification,” Trump said. “The sentence should have been, ‘I don’t see any reason why I wouldn’t, or why it wouldn’t be Russia.’”

Trump also asserted on July 17 that he had “full faith” in US intelligence agencies and also supported their conclusion that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election.

Two days later, Putin apparently put Trump on probation and gave him 90 days to restore his pro-Russia attitude, as the White House announced the Russian tyrant was invited to visit the D.C. branch in the fall, possibly to clarify some of the secret agreements they reached in Helsinki, as some of Trump’s Cabinet members had no idea what was up and Trump wasn’t telling.

[After this was written, the White House backtracked and pushed the potential second meeting until next year, possibly at the urging of Republican congressional leaders who weren't looking forward to the visuals of Putin visiting Washington and advertising Russian ties with the Grand Oligarch Party shortly before the mid-term elections. However, Putin on July 27 said he has invited Trump to visit Moscow.]

Trump might get back in Putin’s good graces, but this is no time to despair about the prospects of restoring democracy in America. It should be enough to note that Trump is an habitual liar, as the Washington Post has recorded more than 3,300 false or misleading claims since Trump took office in January 2017, including 74 in one speech at July 5 campaign rally in Montana, which must be a record. Voters can direct a change of course back towards truth and democracy in the mid-term election coming up in November. Since it is clear Republicans won’t check Trump’s excesses it will be up to Americans to put Democrats back in control of Congress.

Keep hope alive in the face of Trump devotees who boast that he will win re-election. As of July 22, the Lying Don had an average of 43.8% approval vs. 52.7% disapproval, among 10 public opinion surveys monitored by Pollster.com. A 43.8% approval rate is not a strong base upon which to mount a re-election campaign. An Ipsos/Reuters poll of 2,357 registered voters on July 13-17 showed 85% of Republican approve of the president, while 86% of registered Democrats disapprove of the president, so the election likely will be decided by independent voters, who disapprove of the president by a more than a two-to-one margin — 63% to 27%. The only way Trump can win re-election is if Republicans prevent many of the 52.7% who oppose Trump from voting. And that is their plan, since it worked in 2016 with suspicious victories in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

The more immediate challenge is the mid-term election on Nov. 6, in which control of Congress will be at stake. The Ipsos/Reuters poll showed 44% would vote Democratic while 35% would vote Republican, while 5% would vote for another candidate.

The most important chamber to target is the Senate, where Democrats need a net gain of two seats to regain the majority. Trump won’t be able to offer much help for Republicans, as his popularity has fallen across the board. When he took office in January 2017, Trump had a net positive rating in 38 states, but that was down to 23 states July 11, according to the Morning Consult’s daily tracking poll.

Democrats have a good chance to pick up open seats from Republicans in Arizona and Tennessee, and Republican Sen. Dean Heller looks vulnerable in Nevada. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also faces a well-funded challenger in US Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-El Paso, but Democrats’ biggest problem is that only nine Republican seats are up for election this year, while 26 Democratic seats are up for grabs.

Republicans see the most vulnerable Democrats as Bill Nelson in Florida, Joe Donnelly in Indiana, Claire McKaskill in Missouri, Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota and Joe Manchin in West Virginia — all states Trump carried. Republilcans will have plenty of campaign funds to take on those and other Democrats, from the billionaires who got the bulk of $1.5 trillion in tax breaks.

Don’t bet on the elections to set up impeachment. It’s hard to tell what Robert Mueller will produce, of course, but it would need to be grim indeed to put the fear of voters in Republicans who, until now, have acted as Trump apologists and enablers.

Realistically, a Democratic House next year could start hearings, and vote out a bill of impeachment with a simple majority vote, but it takes a two-thirds majority in the Senate to remove the president from office. Even if Democrats won four of the nine Senate seats up for grabs in November, that would give them a 53-47 majority — enough to run the chamber, but where would Democrats gain 14 Republican votes to remove the president? And failing to remove the impeached president would result in Lying Don and his cult proclaiming that he had been acquitted of the “witch hunt.”

However, if Democrats regain control of the Senate, they can stop the approval of partisan Republican judges to federal courts, particularly on appeals courts, and they could reject other bad appointees. It would be sweet to see the Democrats impose the “McConnell rule” on Trump’s right-wing judicial nominees — which is why the Republicans will try to confirm as many judges as possible before the end of the year.

As Mueller closes in on Trump and his family, Lying Don likely will get more desperate. In the past week he finally took flak from Republicans and even from Fox News over his disastrous performance in Helsinki and his flip-flop the next day. So Trump tried to change the subject on July 22 with an all-caps message on Twitter, addressed to President Hassan Rouhani of Iran, warning that Iran would face “CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED” if Rouhani continued to threaten the United States.

Trump’s unhinged message was apparently in response to a speech by Rouhani, who warned the US that any conflict with Iran would be the “mother of all wars.”

Rouhani, who has long been considered a more pragmatic leader who was seen as tolerable to moderates, had earlier threatened the possible disruption of regional oil shipments if its own exports were blocked by US sanctions.

Of course, Trump has been spoiling for a fight with Iran, unilaterally withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in May, and announcing that the US would re-impose sanctions on Iran, in violation of the UN-sponsored deal. US trade partners in Europe will have to decide whether to abide with their deal with Iran or submit to Trump’s demands that they also violate the deal.

If “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel,” as Samuel Johnson said, Trump will become the Scoundrel in Chief in pursuit of “better ratings.” Don’t let him fool you, America. — JMC

From The Progressive Populist, August 15, 2018

Populist.com