Tuesday, September 6, 2022

Master of Deception

Donald Trump is very good at getting people to pay attention to him.  He's also good at getting people to believe him.  He was just able to convince a federal judge - a judge who probably didn't need much convincing, since he appointed her himself - to grant a special master to look at the documents the FBI retrieved from Mar-a-Lago, slowing down the Justice Department's investigation of the matter and possibly stopping it altogether.   And at his first rally since his house-cum-resort was searched, he managed to convince his supporters of other insistences.

He convinced them that President Biden is the true enemy of the state, calling his September 1 address "vicious, hateful, and divisive," before saying vicious, hateful, and divisive things about the FBI and the Justice Department.  Trump has also called for his own reinstatement into the Presidency.

When President Biden called Trump supporters "semi-fascists," many mainstream Republicans and even some centrist Democrats thought he'd gone too far.  Then Trump, at his Pennsylvnaia rally, featured as a special guest a woman who runs a support group and raises legal-defense funds for January 6 insurrectionists.  She's trying to get "justice" for her nephew who took part in the insurrection and who dresses like Hitler to show his admiration for the Fuhrer.  He was convicted on his cations in May, and he'll be sentenced later this month.
U.S. Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-Ca), a member of the January 6 select committee, said it best.  "Being a supporter of Adolf Hitler does put you in the Fascist category; there is no semi about it. I do think this is troubling."
Some people think that Biden set a trap for Trump by goading the one-time New York real estate developer into proving Biden's point that MAGA Republicans are dangerously extreme and extremely dangerous.  I don't think Biden is that clever. But Trump has shown his eagerness to be part of the nation's current political debate, much to the chagrin of Republicans who wish in vain that he would go away.   

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