As always, I recommend Heather Cox Richardson’s blog as I always find her daily take on the latest news storm interesting and enlightening. The link is at the bottom of today’s post. Today, Professor Richardson raised the question of why Trump seems so desperate to win reelection. She does an excellent job of outlining many of the steps that he is taking to sway this election in his favor. She doesn’t, however, provide any thoughts on the ‘why’ he is going to these extraordinary links. I fully understand that. She is a reputable professor and is more than likely not willing to offer such speculation. She provides facts, data and learned commentary. I, on the other hand, have no such professional constraints. I’m just a man living on my little acre outside of Bozeman and am free to speculate to my hearts content. Here goes.
Some people get into ‘public service’ because of a real desire to serve people and are actually motivated by altruistic reasons. I think we can take that off the table in Trump’s case. Remember, he was able to get deferments during the Vietnam War due to ‘bone spurs’ and the fact is, his own father belittled his brother, Robert, when he wanted to join the Air Force. Unlike a family like the Kennedys, there is no long line of ‘public service’ in the Trump family. In addition, Trump followed in his father’s footsteps in viewing the world as a zero-sum game – I win, you lose. His real estate career is littered with hundreds of lawsuits, stiffed contractors and 6 bankruptcies. And then there is the parade of people who have worked with Trump who sing the same song – Trump is out for himself, period! So much for altruistic reasons for his desperate attempt to stay in power.
We know that he craves adulation and absolutely relishes in having a stadium full of people worshipping him. That might be part of it but the fact is, he could retire to his mansion, Mar A Lago, in Florida and the elite members of his golf club would still fawn over him as would people whenever he showed up on a post presidential speaking tour. He could still get adulation even if he weren’t president and could do so without having to put up with a lot of the grief that now goes with his job. Consequently, I don’t think this is the real driver.
I think there are two potential and somewhat related reasons why Trump is so desperate to stay in the White House. Trump has already been named as an unindicted co-conspirator in criminal matter that sent his former attorney, Michael Cohen, to prison. His financial dealings are being investigated by the New York Attorney General’s office, partly as a result of allegations from Michael Cohen about how Trump inflated and deflated the value of his assets depending upon what he was trying to accomplish. The Trump Foundation was forced to liquidate due to inappropriate use of money that was supposed to be used for charitable purposes. The Trump University was forced to settle a lawsuit for duping students. And let’s not forget the 6 bankruptcies along the way.
Trump lives in an environment where shady financial dealings are the norm. Just look at the people around him. Paul Manafort, convicted and sentenced to prison for financial crimes. Multiple people in his administration have been found have ethics violations and financial conflicts of interest. Most recently, Elliot Broidy, who was in charge of the Trump inauguration festivities, will likely be charged by the DOJ for financial crimes.
The bottom line is there is a long history of questionable financial dealings by Trump, Trump businesses and Trump associates. I am sure that Trump is acutely aware that if he loses the election, he will be just an ordinary citizen and the DOJ policy of ‘you can’t indict a sitting president’ will no longer be applicable. I personally believe that Trump is so desperate to stay in office because he knows that is the only legal protection he has for he and his family.
The other, and perhaps more disturbing, reason that Trump is so desperate to stay in office, is that once he leaves office, investigations which he will no longer be able to stonewall by refusing to comply with lawful subpoenas issued to he, members of his family and his associates, will ultimately reveal the true extent of his connections to Russia.
One has to wonder why Trump has been essentially silent on the recent poisoning of a Russian dissident, one of Putin’s strongest critics, and the reports of bounties being paid to the Taliban to kill US soldiers. No president in modern history would have remained silent against such egregious behavior by one of our adversaries. The only thing that makes any sense whatsoever is that there is some connection between Russia and Trump that has yet to surface. Trump is acutely aware that if he is just ‘Joe Citizen’, it will be much more difficult to keep this under wraps.
The bottom line is that I believe Trump is so desperate to stay in office because it is highly likely that once out of office, he and his family will be indicted and prosecuted for financial crimes, some of which may well involve Russian money laundering. That’s my belief. Altruistic motives make zero sense in Trump’s case. Need of adulation doesn’t seem like a strong enough reason to do what Trump is doing. Desperate men do desperate things and we are witnessing that each and every day leading up to this election.
Excellent commentary! It boggles my mind why Trump supporters can’t see the truth about him.