Editor’s note: This editorial was originally published in 2020…but somehow still perfectly fits the moment.
If you don’t get it by now, then you never will.
Donald Trump is a traitor and should be prosecuted for crimes against the United States, as well as for crimes against humanity.
To the growing number of people who finally understand this, welcome to the party. Whatever party this turns out to be, we hope it is loud, boisterous and full of fun and love—and while it may get contentious, let’s at least resolve not to kill each other. The only price of admission to the party? You must not have aided the insurrection, and you must denounce the Big Lie.
Trump did not win the election.
A majority of Americans know this, with more and more coming to the same realization as the Trump administration disintegrates. Here’s to hoping, again, that President-elect Joe Biden’s bid for unity is sincere.
Trump has always been as unstable as uranium-235, but millions of Americans continued to cling to him, until last Wednesday, when he, Rudy Giuliani and one of Trump’s interchangeable sons incited insurrection before an assembled crowd outside the White House. Five people, including a police officer, died. Many others were injured, some seriously. The insurrectionists looted the Capitol and in one instance smeared feces in the building—the calling card of a toddler-level intellect.
Trump must have been involved in planning the putsch—after all, like everything else he tries, it failed, the result of bad fiction in dangerous Donald’s head. He keeps telling the Big Lie, and his loyalists keep believing it. It took a mob riot at the Capitol, but some Republicans are now loudly breaking ranks with Trump. On Tuesday, Republican Representative Liz Cheney, who voted to impeach, said “the president of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack.”
The attempted coup may represent the high-water mark of Trump’s influence on America, his Pickett’s Charge—or it may mark the beginning of more violence. This horror show has but one conclusion—the swearing in of President Biden—so I advise everyone to back away from the Kool-Aid.
Trump will go down in history as the first (and hopefully last) president to be impeached not once but twice. Thanks to his congressional sycophants, he probably won’t be removed from office early, despite Democrats’ obvious efforts.
“I firmly believe impeachment would further destroy our ability to heal and start over,” tweeted Senator Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said another impeachment of Trump “will only divide our country more.”
We should not fear prosecuting those who broke the law. The lawbreakers should fear justice. The U.S. does not negotiate with terrorists. And as Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland put it on the floor of the House on Wednesday morning, Trump “is a clear and present danger to the people.”
As for the president, impeachment could be far more damaging than getting fired. Impeachment in the House and conviction in the Senate could leave Trump without his pension (and Melania’s), his travel budget, his taxpayer subsidies to finance his office and staff, and (pending a subsequent Senate vote) the ability to run for president ever again. The Senate—on recess until January 19, with no indication it will return early—could receive the impeachment from the House and sit on it until Trump is well out of office, and then slap him in the face with the sanctions that will really hurt him.
As Congress considered next steps, Chad Wolf, the acting head of the Department of Homeland Security, quit—with the inauguration (an event now requiring even more massive security than usual) just around the corner. Now there’s courage. He made his departure as talk surfaced about stationing 20,000 armed National Guardsmen in D.C. for Biden’s swearing in, with additional troops in all 50 state capitols, because the FBI says more of Trump’s delusional supporters are planning violence on Inauguration Day. Arrest them all. Charge them. Put them on public trial. These people are not patriots or revolutionaries. I spoke with dozens of them. Many told me they never voted because they believe elections to be rigged. Those I asked said they’d never been a precinct captain, election judge or a poll watcher. Trump’s insurrectionists are ignorant anarchists who’ve chosen to believe the lies and live in the darkness he promotes. Trump ushered them out of the shadows and into the Capitol, where we witnessed their full-blown craziness. Facts be damned. They are juiced up on the Donald’s liquor of access, entitlement and anger, and they’re ready to rumble.
It isn’t accurate to say the insurrectionists were all white racists, as has been claimed. People of color and different ethnicities did indeed participate—but the vast majority of the mob appeared to be pudgy white men and women between the ages of 45 and 65. They had a fondness for the Confederate flag, camo prints and denim, and an apparent horror for face masks. Chewbacca costumes, horns and face paint were optional.
Everyone I interviewed sincerely believed in their cause, or at least claimed to. They called it a revolution, a noble cause—and some threatened to kill me for asking questions. These are the people who confuse reality TV for documentaries.
Donald Trump’s arrival on the political scene ushered in an era of unprecedented love for fiction over fact, fomenting a lack of faith in our democratic institutions. Despite this, Republicans and Democrats worked hard together across the country to guarantee the security of the 2020 election. Yet devious Donny convinced millions they were cheated, the election stolen. The only fraud—the fiction that he won—was perpetrated by Trump.
Trump has a withered heart, blood on his hands, little empathy and a head full of bad wiring. He came dangerously close to getting lawmakers killed on January 6, including the vice president; the mob was screaming, “Hang Mike Pence.” I have a question for Trump’s congressional supporters and White House staffers: Do you really think Trump cares about you? Please. You’re grist for the mill, fodder for the front lines.
Trump can be charming. But that charm hides a con man who will take whatever you give him—including your heart and soul—and convert it into cash, energy, attention, legal advice, food, shelter or any other kind of advantage. Those closest to him often say the last guy to grab his ear will be heard. But don’t worry. That guy will soon be gone. Who’s next? Step up.
On Tuesday, Trump spoke for the first time in weeks to the White House press corps before boarding Marine One for his trip to Texas. He lied about finishing his border wall, said he opposed violence and took no responsibility for the insurrection he caused. “We want absolutely no violence,” he said. “This impeachment is causing tremendous anger,” he added, calling it “a continuation of the greatest witch hunt in the history of politics.”
Trump’s weaknesses have always been out in the open. He takes no responsibility and continues to encourage violence while at the same time claiming he’s a victim. It’s standard Trump. His M.O. has not changed.
Trump exposes the weakest members of Congress, those with little to no personal integrity. These supporters helped him attract a crowd and riled them into a killing frenzy last week. They threaten to do so again ahead of the inauguration. In a House leadership meeting Tuesday, Republican Representative Jim Jordan still wouldn’t even publicly admit Trump lost the election. He is still defending Trump’s behavior. He and any other lawmakers who promote Trump’s Big Lie should be expelled and prosecuted for sedition.
As for the rest of us, if you feel you really must fight or kill for America, then please join Trump’s Space Force. Save planet Earth from aliens (and maybe even lizard people)—only you can do it. The job is waiting for you. Apply now to be part of a real-life version of Starship Troopers (in which the future is pansexual and everyone showers together).
Trump smiled about the insurrection up until the moment he understood he might be held accountable for it. He loves the idea of Americans killing each other for his benefit. But if you favor a future in which we kill one another, maybe go listen to the antiwar song “One Tin Soldier,” Cher’s version. “Go ahead and hate your neighbor / Go ahead and cheat a friend / Do it in the name of heaven / You can justify it in the end.” (Don’t even play. You know who Cher is.)
Donald Trump is a dangerous fool. I take no joy in saying that. Who wants to admit that about the leader of their country? He could make decisions in the last week of his term that lead to the global extinction of the human race.
To those who are still actively working with Donald Trump: I pray you’re doing something to ensure the rest of the world knows our government is still operating. Trump is not. He is a sad man in great emotional pain. He’s got a big hole in him that he can’t fill, but because he has power and money the rest of us have to suffer with him. To put an entire world in peril because he lost is the stuff of Greek tragedy—though I’d give less than even odds Trump’s ever read one.
The president is also a very lonely man. His loneliness propels him to seek a crowd, as does his narcissism. (His awkward public dancing is perhaps the only time he feels good about himself—or that may be a con too.) His need to surround himself with people who stroke his ego is one of Trump’s more obvious weaknesses. To find a punishment that Donald Trump will not only understand but that would also sting, maybe we should go for a Twilight Zone–like twist: solitary confinement. Maybe in a physical jail cell, which is where he belongs anyway.
He’s already trapped inside the prison of his own falsehood-filled head. The rest of us should move on—together—and leave Donald Trump…
Alone.