The demolition of American democracy

Trump is always on the campaign trail. Not a judicial one, but an electoral one. For the Republican primaries that begin in February, where he has an overwhelming lead in the polls over all other candidates, and for the November 2024 presidential election, in which he is closely tied with Biden. No one can deny his skills as a fighter who is always willing to double any bet and turn the most unfortunate episodes of his abundant run-ins with justice into an opportunity. Each new accusation serves to inflame his supporters, raise funds and attack his enemies with new and increasingly insulting and fallacious arguments.

The federal charges he is facing in the second case — after being indicted by the New York state jurisdiction for bribing a porn actress — are serious and well-founded. The documents that Trump brought and stored in his Mar-a-Lago club, in the ballrooms and in the bathrooms, and then refused to hand over when required by the law, contain nuclear secrets, U.S. defense plans and plans for attacks on third countries, presumably Iran, which affect the country’s security and can only create deep discomfort within the U.S. government and among its closest allies. If there was any doubt about Trump’s extreme irresponsibility, this indictment clears it up. This vain and frivolous character, who whimsically collects secret official documents as if they were his own property and displays them before his acquaintances as valuable trophies, has been the commander-in-chief of the world’s first superpower and intends to be so again in 2024.

With the defense strategy that he has undertaken, one of revolutionary inspiration, Trump intends to become a judge of those who would judge him, an accuser who points the finger at the country’s presidency and the prosecutor’s office, and even a challenger of the democratic system that elevated him to the highest office. If he is now drawing electoral energy from his mishaps with the law, he would use an electoral victory to obtain the cancellation of all his crimes, grant himself amnesty and appoint a special prosecutor to try Joe Biden, whom he considers responsible for a persecution of which he claims to be a victim.

A president who considers himself above the law, who despises the electoral system and the peaceful transfer of power knows that he has the sympathies of all autocrats. Even more so if he ignores NATO and Ukraine, admires Putin and views the confrontation with China as a mere trade competition and for jobs.

If he was objectively a secret Kremlin agent during his presidency, on his eventual return to the White House he would become the unmasked saboteur of the federal government and of democracy. This is his platform, which has already fully reached the Republican Party, the glorious formation founded by Abraham Lincoln and now engulfed by Trumpism.

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