Mounting Desperation
Desperate people do (and say) desperate things. And when a desperate person lacks common decency, an ingrained sense of right and wrong, and a respect for law and tradition, then all restraints are off. Donald Trump is one such desperate person. We must prepare for his desperation to take him to the darkest places and engender actions that threaten the stability of the United States and/or its national security.
How desperate is the former president? Well, Trump is certainly in need of a large infusion of cash. His lawyers have informed a New York court that Trump cannot come up with the $454 million plus interest he owes after he was found guilty in a civil fraud case for lying about his wealth for years. Trump boasted a year ago, under oath, that he had “substantially in excess of 400 million in cash,” a number “going up very substantially every month.” Either Trump has spent a lot of money lately or that statement was a lie. If the latter, the irony is rich (not to mention perjurious) considering that the reason he needs so much money is that he lied about his money.
Real estate developers often have cash-flow problems since so much of their wealth is illiquid. The alternatives for Trump to pay his huge fine are either to secure a bond, borrow the money, or sell properties. Bond companies have declined to come to Trump’s rescue because, well, $454 million — and going up — is a ton of money. Banks, including Deutsche Bank, his lender of “last resort,” probably will not lend him money since he is notorious for not paying his debts. That leaves selling properties, which Trump may not be able to do and probably does not want to do anyway. He may not be able to sell any of his holdings because he may not own them outright. And he may not want to sell because that would undermine his political appeal as a “successful businessman.”
But he still needs the money! He is desperate. And as a narcissist, he only cares about himself. That leaves him with little alternative but to do the unthinkable: Endanger the national security of the United Staters. As Bloomberg editor and longtime Trump watcher Tim O’Brien posted on X: “Trump’s financial trap — he can’t come up with the cash to appeal his $454 million civil fraud judgment — may ravage his business. More directly: It intensifies his threat to national security by making him an easy mark for overseas interests.” What American adversary — maybe even a few friends — would not like to have the possible future president of the United States on the payroll? Vladimir Putin, certainly, and Xi Jinping, most likely, to name two, but the list is long.
Trump’s financial and legal desperation feeds into his increasingly obvious political desperation. After all, there can be little doubt that one of the reasons Trump is running for reelection is his intention, if he wins, to squash as many of the legal cases against him as possible. For Trump, politics, money, and legal problems are all intertwined.
Trump is ahead of President Joe Biden in most polls and has leads in a good number of the battleground states that will decide the election. But some of that support may be soft. Candidates have two ways to broaden support: They can either moderate their appeals to attract uncommitted voters and voters who are not sure of their own candidate, or the candidates can double-down on their policies and rhetoric to drive their base to the polls.
Trump clearly has chosen the latter path. Incendiary language and extremist policies, after all, are in the former president’s comfort zone. He has long used Nazi tropes. Late last year, Trump referred to his opponents who “live like vermin within the confines of our country.” He has said that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” a choice of verbiage that echoes Adolf Hitler. And, now, adding to his burgeoning list of vile statements, this past weekend, in a speech in Dayton, Ohio, the former president declared that immigrants are “animals… not people, in my opinion.”
In that same speech, Trump said there would be a “bloodbath” if he loses in November. Trump supporters tried to portray the comment as a reference to economic competition in the auto industry. Here is the quotation in its entirety: “We’re going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those cars. If I get elected. Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath, for the whole — that’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That’ll be the least of it. But they’re not going to sell those cars.” Trump was using a common trick of his, which is to put some outrageous statement in the middle of normal discourse. It often makes his speeches read like word salad, but it serves the purpose of allowing for deniability. He can say, What I really meant…. In any event, Trump undermined his apologists when he subsequently said “bloodbath” is a common expression and meant to refer to “getting slaughtered economically, when you’re getting slaughtered socially, when you’re getting slaughtered.” In other words, a “bloodbath” awaits the nation.
Suggestion of a “bloodbath” is a desperate Trumpian threat. Elect me, he is saying, or the worst will happen. Even more desperate was Trump’s vow to pardon his supporters currently serving prison time for storming the Capitol on January 6, 2021. He called them “hostages” and “unbelievable patriots.” And on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “My first acts as your next President will be to Close the Border, DRILL, BABY, DRILL, and Free the January 6 Hostages being wrongfully imprisoned!”
Promising to pardon insurrectionists is one more indication of Trump’s contempt for the impartial rule of law. Trump believes that rules are only for chumps. They do not apply to him or to his supporters. As Tom Nichols points out in The Atlantic, Trump channels the infamous comment attributed to former Peruvian dictator Óscar Benavides: “For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law.”
Trump has floated the possibility of pardoning January 6 insurrectionists before. But a promise now is a sign of desperation. It proves once again, as if further proof were needed, that Trump puts his interests ahead of the nation’s. The rule of law would be incalculably damaged by issuing pardons to Enrique Tarrio, former leader of the Proud Boys, now serving a sentence of 22 years, and Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, sentenced to 18 years.
Trump being Trump, their pardons would not be free. He would expect something in return. And, so, a desperate Trump should make the rest of us very desperate.
Posted March 22, 2024