Fatal Distraction

What does Donald Trump have in common with Alex Forrest, Glenn Close's character in Fatal Attraction?

Right, you're probably thinking that one of Donald Trump's mistresses or one of his recipients of unwanted attention would have something in common with Alex Forrest.  But he has this much in common with her - he will not be ignored.

Trump proved that in spades when his Mar-a-Lago estate was searched by the FBI last week.  Although the agents went there quietly, at a late hour, in plain clothes, while Trump was in New York City, all to avoid calling attention to themselves and give Trump some privacy, Trump used his own social media Web site to announced that his estate had been "raided" by the FBI and calling it an "assault." This led to a fresh round of right-wing media propaganda defending Trump (forget for a moment the classified documents involved) and assailing President Biden and Attorney General Garland for their recklessness.  Once again, Trump is the odds-on favorite to be the 2024 Republican presidential nominee and he's successfully gotten everyone to pay attention to him - and not on Ukraine, monkeypox, abortion, the just-passed Inflation Reduction Act, and lower gasoline prices.   

Some people cling to the hope that Trump will eventually run out of steam and people won't care about his antics anymore.  That may be true, but even if we stop paying attention to Trump now, that's hardly relevant.  I wrote back in 2015 about the similarities between Trump and Madonna (who turns 64 tomorrow, by the way, and so is a year and a day away from officially becoming a dirty old lady), explaining that they were both eighties phenomena whose only talent was shameless self-promotion and who both produced nothing of any value, and that they escaped accountability for all of their misdeeds and prospered mainly due to the support of their followers.  (MAGA fans and Madge fans have a powerful intolerance that scares away detractors that would make the Islamic State jealous.)   These days no one talks about Madonna anymore, but she's long since done permanent damage to popular music, which is now all synthesized garbage performed by people who can't sing.  Just as the Soviet purges couldn't have taken place without Joseph Stalin, Cardi B couldn't prosper with Madge paving the way for her.  Similarly, Trump could disappear tomorrow, but, just as there wouldn't have been a Third Reich without Adolf Hitler, the permanent damage Trump has left behind in the form of the MAGA movement, right-wing paramilitary groups, and white Christian nationalism will continue to make a far-right autocracy (the new nice word for "dictatorship") a distinct possibility long after the Donald leaves the scene.  

In short, even if Trump disappeared tomorrow, it's already too late.  The damage is done.