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"Either this nation shall kill racism, or racism shall kill this nation." (S. Jonas, August, 2018)
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In this column, I am first considering a number of Trump/P2025 policies and procedures which provide the heavy-weight thought-and-directions-for-the-destruction of U.S. Constitutional Democracy (not necessarily in order of importance). P2025 provides the content: Trump provides the flourishes and the rhetoric. On this matter, oh boy, is he moving everso quickly (in contrast with his phenomenal success in slowing WAY down the progress through the Courts of criminal matters against him). You have to give the man credit: sloooow when he needs to be; faaast when he wants to be.
As I said in a comment published last August, "Beyond its Horrific Content: P2025 Would Destroy U.S. Constitutional Democracy by Decree." As Kevin Roberts, head of the Heritage Foundation and a principal force behind the creation of P2025, has said: "We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be." Note that that is the president of the Heritage Foundation speaking, not the President of the United States.
As for Trump, with Musk as his front man, as every reader of this column already knows, he is plowing ahead, full-steam. It is very important, as we confront an ever-growing number of damn-the-Constitution-full-speed-ahead Trump-torpedoes (yes, I know, mixing metaphors), to know what the ultimate goal is here. It's just as Roberts has said it is, right there, out-in-the-open.
And so, on to some particulars, not necessarily in order of importance.
I. On the Domestic Policy Front, the most important issue is Trump Himself as he moves forward with the Program to Destroy U.S. Constitutional Democracy
First, one must say (as, of course, many others have said), Trump obviously does not believe in U.S. Constitutional Democracy. (Actually, I think that one can say with some degree of confidence that the man has never read the document all the way through. Much less is he capable of understanding what its provisions and meanings are.) It is a sort of chicken-egg thing as to which/who came first, P2025 or Trump. My guess is that he did, for before him the P2025 forces never had a mark in U.S. politics upon whom they could count to lead the way for them.
Trump and the people behind P2025 with hammer and tongs are going after the Constitutional principles, politics, and rules which, with the exception of the period of the First Civil War, have guided this nation since its founding. The goal is to create a unitary state apparatus, which is central to the creation of a fascist state, which stands entirely in opposition to the separation of powers, which governmental principle is central to the creation of a liberal-democratic state.
It should be noted here that up until now, at least until Trump's State of the Union message (alternatively titled "Let me tell you who and what my enemies are"), Musk has been, intentionally, the focus both for the Trumpites and the Trump-opponents. But it must be recognized that Musk is nothing more than a Front Man. A) Trump is periodically making sure to take full credit and act as the originator of all the Constitutional/Government-functions-destruction that is going on. And B) of course, Musk is the someone who Trump can blame if somehow the unconstitutional DOGE project goes off the rails.
Oh yes, is [the] DOGE (with the Bridge of Sighs [see the history of Venice, Italy] likely to come along sooner rather than later) unconstitutional? Well indeed it is. It's a government department (well I guess it must be: is has that word in its name) that was created (and somehow budgeted for) without the benefit of legislation. Of course, as provided for by Article I Sect. 8 of the Constitution, departments can be created only by the Congress, with the head of each requiring confirmation by the Senate before assuming the job (,Article II, Section 2). But what the hey, when you are running a Second American Revolution, why bother with provisions of the current constitution?
Pursuant to the National-Government-Destruction function of DOGE, the lawsuits are of course piling up (summarized as of March 7, 2025). But very significant damage has already been done, from having the termination of USAID literally responsible for deaths in certain countries to having the Federal Civil Service destroyed piece-by-piece, by removing, arbitrarily and in large numbers, junior staffers (who can be arbitrarily dismissed).
The latter would of course provide the future well-trained-and-experienced staff to run a wide number of complex government agencies, serving many well-established public needs like, just to pick a couple arbitrarily (ho, ho, ho), safety in the air, timely knowledge about the weather, and the monitoring of global warming. And now on to the second issue, foreign policy.
II. On the Foreign Policy Front, the Most important Issues are that a) Trump is Putin's Lap-Dog (and Why), and b) why Trump has turned against Ukraine. (That is, briefly, what does Putin have on Trump?)
Trump has made it quite clear that he has switched sides on the "Ukraine Conflict," and has made no bones about it. He has become an open supporter of Putin, and of the reasons that Putin has given for his intervention in Ukraine. Whether one wants to call it an "invasion," or as Putin and his supporters in the West [both, interestingly enough, on the Left and the Right] call it a "Special Military Operation." For example, Trump has taken that position more and more openly, as at the UN.
Not in order of importance, the list includes the following matters.
*Undocumented but strongly suspected in certain quarters are the "Pee-tapes," which may, or may not, exist. But if they do exist, one can be sure that Putin's people have a copy.
*There is Trump's very long, very secretive relationship with Deutsche Bank, which ended abruptly, and his personal banker there was fired by the Bank.
There are many public suspicions of, shall we say, impropriety, but apparently no full investigation of what Trump undertook over the years with the Bank has ever been done. But again, one can be sure that if there were "Improprieties," Putin has evidence of them.
*Then of course, there is the matter of Russian interference in the 2016 elections, details of which are spelled out in the "Mueller Report." Although the Mueller team was never able to get to Trump, they did get to numbers of his election-campaign-associates, some of whom went to prison for various offenses. Those materials are in the U.S. records, but surely Putin has copies.
*Next there is what happened, or not, at the famous 2018 "Helsinki meeting." Trump made no bones about having the notes of the interpreter for him at that meeting destroyed. But surely Putin had his own interpreter-made notes too, and he has those. (That's the meeting where, in answer to a question by MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire, Trump said that he trusted Russian Intelligence more than US.)
*Then there are Julian Assange, Roger Stone and the "DNC tapes" (which purported to show how the DNC at least attempted to rig the primaries in favor of Hillary Clinton).
*There is suspicion that as a young New York businessman Trump may (that's may, for sure) have been recruited by the Soviet KGB in the 1980s.
*Of the financial crimes for which Trump already has been convicted, Putin could have evidence of other similar events (and why should one think that Trump committed only the particular one for which he was convicted).
*Finally, the same could be said about the sex crime of which he was convicted, in the "E. Jean Carroll case." At least 26 other women have accused Trump of sex crime(s). They have not gone to trial. Putin could have evidence on some or all them as well.
III. I have dealt with what I call "Munich I and Munich II" in detail in a previous column (click here).
"Munich I" is of course the famous agreement under which the Western Powers, led by the UK Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain gave a piece of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany (without bothering to include the Czechs in the negotiations). "Munich II" is the ongoing attempt by the Russians, now aided by the Trump-US side, to come to a settlement of the Ukraine War in Russia's favor, without, if the U.S. has its way, involving Ukraine itself in the negotiations.
This new initiative by the U.S. to, if possible, exclude the current Ukrainian government from the negotiations, is indeed very similar to what happened to Czechoslovakia at Munich in 1938. Now this could be happening because Trump favors the Russian side in the Ukraine conflict for politico-economic reasons. Or it could be, legitimate issues aside, that Trump knows just what material in the list above Putin does have on him.
IV. Finally, there are matters of Trump's Personality and Ways of Thinking about which I have been writing for quite some time. In considering the Trump-switch-on-the-Ukraine-Russia-conflict specifically, there are the personal characteristics of Trump and how his mind works about which I have written previously. I call them "Trump's Seven Magic Tricks." Feeding into his use of the Tricks is the evidence that he is "History's Greatest Con Man" (see item no. 6 in the list just below).
Briefly, the "Seven Magic Tricks" are:
1. Trump has always had one or more protectors and enablers, either personal, or financial or both.
2. For decades he has had a standard operating procedure when he faces an adversary of any kind. He learned it from Roy Cohn (who learned it from Joseph McCarthy): "Always attack; Never defend." A variation on this Trick is to utter a falsehood, and then just say it over, and over, and over again.
3. Also learned from Roy Cohn is the mantra: "when you run into a problem, just sue." You may not win, and it may cost you some money. But a) you might win, and b) with the endlessness with which civil litigation can be drawn out in the U.S. legal system, that other side may just get worn out.
4. In the whole of his business life, Trump has never been responsible to anyone else, either above him (except for Dad, of course) or even alongside.
5. Trump has (for the most part happily) lived his life surrounded by enemies, whether in business, in his personal life, in his banking and financial life (except for a select few, like Deutsche Bank), certainly in politics, and not just at this time. In dealing with them, his "Art of the Deal" has not been deal-making, but rather attempted opponent-crushing. Negotiation is just not his thing. (See the book, "The Art of the Deal.")
6. Trump is history's greatest con man (a subject to which I have also devoted a previous column). And, it should be noted that the Con Man, or Woman, by definition, always knows that what they are selling is lie. (In late 2022, The New York Times' Maggie Haberman published a whole book on the subject: Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.)
7. And, one more trick, added more recently: "Oh woe is me; everyone's against me, and it's so unfair[!]"
In his current battle alongside the Heritage Foundation and P2025 to overthrow U.S. Constitutional Democracy, Trump's use of all of his "Seven Magic Tricks," which to date have worked so well for him, is very prominent.
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(Article changed on Mar 07, 2025 at 12:53 PM EST)
(Article changed on Mar 07, 2025 at 12:58 PM EST)
(Article changed on Mar 08, 2025 at 12:33 PM EST)
