Trumpwatch 2 -- Strong and Wrong Beats Weak and Right.

His tactics are working. Can the courts help stop Trump?

“2024 is our final battle. With you at my side we will demolish the Deep State, we will expel the warmongers from our government, we will drive out the globalists, we will cast out the Communists, and Fascists, we will throw off the sick political class that hates our country, we will rout the fake media, we will evict Joe Biden from the White House, and we will FINISH THE JOB ONCE AND FOR ALL!”

Consider Donald Trump’s latest social rant and tell me: What do you see?

I see yet another attempt to enrage his followers with a false sense of threat.  Just who are these communists? Can you name one? How about the political class “that hates our country?” I can’t identify it. As for the warmongers, well, America is supporting Israel’s campaign against the terror group Hamas and Ukraine in its defense against Russian invaders. But our aid takes the form of equipment and ammunition. We’ve put no boots on the ground in either conflict, and no one is pushing for anything different.

Add Trump’s rally speeches, which are full of paranoia --  “I’m the only one that will prevent World War III” – and you have a candidate setting up terrifying but false threats in order to energize his followers.  The problem? It’s working.   

As he presses his longstanding method, Trump is staying true to an adage attributed to Bill Clinton – “Strong and wrong beats weak and right.” Whether he’s posing, chin jutted like Mussolini or telling his followers “I am your retribution,” the man who would be dictator has turned his false alarms into a significant lead in polls comparing him to President Biden.     

Throughout his life, Trump has used lies, false claims, and inflammatory speech to get what he wants. For evidence see how he inflated his wealth by many billions, tried to publicly humiliate famous women, and declared that he’s quite comfortable with all sorts of violence “even physical.”    

Although he gained the White House despite a 3 million deficit in the popular vote (thank the Electoral College), Trump’s 2016 election did prove that his method works. And right now, Biden and his team seem unable to devise a strategy that will block him come the fall of 2024.  Proof of their struggle can be seen in the polls. However, this time around Trump must confront new challenges to the techniques that come to him so naturally.  All of them have come from the judicial system where his lies, bullying, and violent rhetoric, are all under intense examination.

In a case already decided in a New York courtroom, Trump lost a civil claim filed by writer E. Jean Carroll who said Trump had sexually assaulted her. Carroll then won a second claim as Trump tried to humiliate her in social media. In a more recent case, a judge ruled that Trump had lied in financial statements. He still faces federal charges related to his followers’ violent attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and in Georgia he stands charged with participating in a “criminal enterprise” to overturn the 2020 election.

Watching Trump’s business-as-usual behavior in recent months, and Biden’s struggle to respond, it’s easy to feel discouraged about the upcoming election. But we’ve got a year to go, which will be marked by Trump’s struggles in courtrooms where bullying, threats, and lies won’t work. Some Trumpists may be radicalized in Trump’s favor as he presents himself as a valiant fighter in an evil arena. The outcome cannot be predicted. What’s certain, however, is that the cases will give Biden a chance to gain some political traction. Here’s hoping he seizes it.