American security experts are concerned that Donald Trump will be unable to keep state secrets when he leaves the White House, and should be barred from receiving future intelligence briefings, according to reports.
Former security officials warn Donald Trump won’t keep state secrets | The Independent
What to do about Trump’s crimes
The only Perfect Call was Mary Trump’s and nobody seemed to meaningfully listen (ODT)
Donald Trump is personally liable for over $400 million in loans, much of it coming due within a year of leaving office. When combined with debts held by the Trump Organisation, he may be over a billion dollars in the red. Trump faces State-level prosecution and the likely exposure of many more federal crimes when he no longer controls America’s government. This may explain Trump’s refusal to concede the result of the Election and puts Trump on a collision course with the democratic reality of peacefully leaving office. The lame duck period of presidential transition, finally now in motion, is normally an uneventful period of political stagnation. Not with this president. Trump has decapitated the civilian leadership of the Pentagon, withdrawn America from the Open Skies Treaty (designed to avoid accidental military escalation) and appears to be deliberately sabotaging Joe Biden’s ability to manage the economy. Perhaps Trump’s ultimate crime will be to burn it all down as he heads for the door. With two months until inauguration, this story may be far from over.
What to do about Trump’s crimes
When he lost the recent election, yet insisted that he had won it, his followers came out on the streets in droves echoing his accusation that the election had been ‘stolen’ from him. The thieves were not identified. How they could mastermind such a complex coup involving thousands of players scattered across a vast nation of over 330 million was never explained. Yet that did not concern Trump’s followers;
Trump is a cult leader – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The reality is that the Trump obsession isn’t really about Trump himself anyway. It’s about his followers. Advertisement:
Trump isn’t the reason we can’t quit Trump — the obsession is really about his followers | Salon.com
The incoming administration has its job cut out restoring faith in the process and in the nation`s leader to repair the damage reaped by four years of inglorious damnable conduct. The Republican Party also has some fence-building to do. The lights in the party room need to be burning late into many nights analysing the last four years; what worked, what didn’t and what needs to happen to ensure the Democrats only get one term (when Biden is likely to hand the baton on to his Vice President for 2024). Should their outgoing fellow decide he wants another tilt, do they support him or send him on gardening leave, or do they quietly hope that the agony of loss will fry his addled brain completely? Time will tell. Maybe he will retire to his golf courses, sorry, country clubs. Memo to anyone competing with the club owner; let him win, he doesn’t like losing … in case that fact eluded you.
Opportunity lost: Trump’s presidency – » The Australian Independent Media Network
On top of failing to mention that broader and more instructive economic context, Trump—who repeatedly claimed prior to the November election that the stock market would crash if Joe Biden won—also omitted the fact that the market soared in part because of news that the General Services Administration allowed the transition to the Biden administration to begin after weeks of delay. “Investors are cheering signs that a protracted fight over control of the White House is potentially drawing to a close, reducing political risks over the winter months,” the Wall Street Journal reported. Following his attempt to take credit for the stock market surge, Trump left the briefing room without taking any questions from reporters:
‘Well That Was Weird as Sh*t’: As More States Certify His Defeat, Trump Holds 60-Second Briefing to Brag About Stock Market | Common Dreams News
Is Trump’s truculence an attempted coup or the last-ditch efforts of a man whose star is fading?
Is Trump’s truculence an attempted coup or the last-ditch efforts of a man whose star is fading?
Bolton noted that the Trump campaign has so far lost all but two of more than 30 legal challenges in various states. “Right now Trump is throwing rocks through windows, he is the political equivalent of a street rioter,” Bolton said.
Trump faces pressure from Republicans to drop ‘corrosive’ fight to overturn election | US news | The Guardian
Joe Biden is wary of a legal reckoning against his predecessor, but to let Trump go would be to sanction future corruption.
The Perils of Not Prosecuting Trump | The Nation
President Trump gained a number of loyal followers during his time in the Oval Office, but there are reasons why his popularity may wane, writes Paul Begley.
Trumpism is unlikely to become a movement
Some of these issues were highlighted at a press conference on Thursday led by the president’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. We’ve looked at the main allegations of fraud and irregularities.
US election 2020: Fact-checking Trump team’s main fraud claims – BBC News
But there is one key similarity with those speaking out – they can’t be troubled by Mr Trump’s base, said US election analyst and ANU professor Wesley Widmaier. “Mitt Romney is a unique figure. He is a former presidential nominee, and he is incredibly respected in his state, he’s an elder finger in the Mormon church, he has no worry Trump could every threaten him,” Professor Widmaier said. “Lamar Alexander has been in power for 30 years and is retiring.” Many Republicans won’t publicly denounce Mr Trump’s behaviour because they don’t want to lose voters, Professor Widmaier said.
Key Republicans are speaking out against Donald Trump
“These claims were meritless from the start and for an audience of one,” Shapiro said in a statement. “The will of the people will prevail. These baseless lawsuits need to end.” Counties must certify their results to Boockvar by Monday, after which she will make her own certification. Democratic Governor Tom Wolf will notify the winning candidate’s electors they should appear to vote in the Capitol on December 14.
In blistering ruling, judge throws out Trump suit in Pennsylvania
Donald Trump has had a fresh setback in his bid to overturn his loss in the US election as Michigan lawmakers indicated they would not seek to undo Joe Biden’s projected win in the state. Two Republican legislators pledged to follow “normal process” in validating the vote after a White House meeting. Earlier on Friday, Georgia dealt the US president another blow by certifying Mr Biden’s razor-thin margin of victory. The Democrat is set to take office on 20 January as the 46th US president.
Trump options narrow as Michigan backs Biden win – BBC News
Why has the president been so quiet? He loves the spotlight. Yet this month he has been holed up for 14 days in the White House. Here is how he has been spending the final weeks of his term in office.
Attention-loving Trump disappears in final days of term – BBC News
Giuliani and Trump might think it’s about him staying in office, but this is all pure Bannon. And it’s very dangerous. “Anything that aids and abets doubts about an election that has been conducted with integrity makes the future of democracy darker,” William Galston, senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution told the Post. “To weaken a democratic people’s faith in its fundamental institutions of self-government is inexcusable.”
Trump’s Election Tactics Turn from Courts to a Bannon Strategy of Chaos | The Smirking Chimp
Karl Marx famously wrote that archetypal figures appear twice in history: first in the form of tragedy, and again as farce. In the period following the November 3 US presidential election, Donald Trump has managed to achieve both. Trump’s attempts to cling to power despite his clear loss to Joe Biden are growing increasingly farcical and have next to no realistic prospect of success. But he is a tragic figure too because of the damage he is inflicting on America’s democratic traditions as he heads out the door.
US election 2020 results: Donald Trump’s ignominious White House exit
One of his legal advisers, Jenna Ellis, claimed it paved the way for “Republican state legislator[s] [to] select the electors” — an open invitation for the Republican-led legislature to hand the state to Trump, not Biden, in defiance of the will of the people. This was a state that Biden won by almost 150,000 votes.
Donald Trump’s current strategy isn’t about winning in court. It’s about disrupting the process in the hope of winning the US election by default – ABC News
This is really enough to overturn any election,” said Giuliani, who laid out a litany of allegations – not evidence, but unproven allegations – sprinkled with a list of untruths or perhaps, misunderstandings about the vote counting and certification process. For all of the traditions and norms shattered by Trump during his presidency, publicly musing about and actively making an effort towards “overturning” the will of US voters based on allegations and conspiracy theories really takes the cake.
Trump’s fury grows as US election loss becomes unequivocal | US & Canada | Al Jazeera
The outgoing president’s campaign is filling the inboxes of supporters with messages that aim to incite fear and anger.
Trump Emails Supporters to Say, “The Left HATES YOU”
Donald Trump has fired the director of the federal agency that vouched for the reliability of the 2020 election and pushed back on the president’s baseless claims of voter fraud.
Trump fires head of US cybersecurity agency that refuted voter fraud claims | US news | The Guardian
We’ve got more deaths from this virus than the number of soldiers killed in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. The president of the United States we just voted out of office is sitting around watching Fox News, filing phony lawsuits, firing people he thinks are “disloyal,” and running a new scam on his way out the door to line his pockets with dollars from his adoring base. Donald Trump is living up to every expectation we ever had about him. He’s going out exactly the way he came in: lying, cheating and stealing.
Trump Is Going out the Way He Came In: A Loser, a Liar and a Cheat | The Smirking Chimp
THE STATES IN THE USA which have most avidly supported soon-to-be-ex-President Donald Trump have paid a heavy price for their fealty. Deaths from suicide, gun violence and the COVID-19 pandemic have been much higher there than where Trump’s toxic authority has been rejected.
Trump’s Republican death cult soon to lose office
Despite his authoritarian tendencies, Donald Trump never came close to dragging us into fascism. But he did drag us further toward a xenophobic, anti–working-class, right-wing-populist abyss. Those forces will continue to destroy American and global politics — if we don’t take them on and defeat them.
Here’s What We Learned About the Far Right From Donald Trump’s Presidency
Claiming that the election was a Democratic “power grab” financed by (of course) George Soros, Gingrich threw a bone to anti-Semites in the Republican base. He concluded that “it is very hard for me to understand how we [Democrats and Republicans] are going to work together,” which is really his point. This is all pretext for massive resistance to anything President Biden tries to do. The plan is to deny Biden legitimacy. Right-wing media will give Republicans cover to maintain the lie by obsessing about “investigations” and “reports” of a “stolen election.” Meanwhile, GOP voters will encourage them while failing to hold their leaders accountable for refusing to govern. That strategy worked pretty well for Republicans during the Obama presidency. With a few tweaks, they’re teeing it up once again.
“Stolen Election” is the New “Birtherism” | Washington Monthly
“He plans to wreck Fox. No doubt about it,” a source with detailed knowledge of Trump’s intentions told Axois.
Could Donald Trump build a media empire to rival Fox News?
It’s no secret that the president cares a lot about size. Nearly four years ago, in his debut as White House press secretary, Sean Spicer falsely claimed crowd sizes at Donald Trump’s inauguration were bigger than pictures suggested, saying images were “intentionally framed” to minimize the “enormous support” for the president. He said that the event drew the “largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, period,” a lie which Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway infamously referred to as “alternative facts.” Not much has changed over the past several years. Spicer may have long since resigned, but he’s been channeled by current press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who said Saturday that pro-Trump crowd sizes at DC’s Million MAGA March surpassed 1 million attendees. “More than one MILLION marchers for President @realDonaldTrump descend on the swamp in support,” McEnany tweeted. “Best base in political history — we LOVE you guys!!!”
Trump Is Going Out Like He Came In: With His Press Secretary Lying About Crowd Size – Mother Jones
I
Proud Boys’ Post-Election Crackup Offers Revealing Glimpse Of Their Deep White Nationalist Nature | Crooks and Liars
nternecine warfare is a natural state for right-wing extremists; they are, after all, uniformly paranoid, suspicious, confrontational, and narcissistic (not to mention deeply unpleasant) people. The proto-fascist street-brawling Proud Boys have never been an exception, as observers in Portland well know from the days when they and members of their far-right colleagues in Patriot Prayer were threatening to kill each other. Their latest internal dustup, however—in which an early cofounder of the group dubiously claims to have fired their current national leader while embracing an explicitly racist approach—is more revealing than most. Although the claims are mostly toothless grandstanding, the episode lays bare how the Proud Boys’ disavowals of white nationalism are really just a risible burlesque.
Proud Boys’ Post-Election Crackup Offers Revealing Glimpse Of Their Deep White Nationalist Nature | Crooks and Liars
Trump has touted vaccines and therapeutics, including therapeutics that may have saved his own life when he was hospitalized with the infection. But there aren’t nearly enough therapeutics for all the patients in need — nor the top-notch care the president received — and the vaccines won’t be ready for full distribution into well into 2022. On Friday, Trump announced that the vaccines will be available in April, though he had previously said it could be distributed last month, in October, which never happened. And right now, the administration has no plan to stop surging virus. Most Republicans are following his lead, and even Democratic governors who might prefer to take a more aggressive approach are hamstrung by a lack of federal resources. There is no plan to stop the virus. The federal government just intends to let it spread through all of us. It’s a plan for mass death, because they don’t care enough to stop it.
The Trump Plan for Mass Death Is Unfolding Before Our Eyes | The Smirking Chimp
Like Freddy Krueger, the serial killer in A Nightmare on Elm Street, Donald Trump could still return to haunt us. It all depends on the Electoral College, a system unique to the U.S.
A nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue: Trump could retain the White House
“He knows it’s over,” one adviser said. But instead of conceding, they said, he is floating one improbable scenario after another for staying in office while he contemplates his uncertain post-presidency future. Advertisement
US election 2020: Donald Trump floats improbable survival scenarios as he ponders his future
A beaten, battered, and depressed Donald Trump who has been hiding from public view after his humiliating loss to Joe Biden… now tweets (yeah) that his administration gave America the most secure election security of all time.Twitter has taken to a red font to deny Trump’s claims.
Trump’s Upside-Down View On Election 2020 | Crooks and Liars
What’s going on? Stupid impetuous drama? Or a real coup? If it turns out to be a coup, it may well prove that teeing it up in plain sight improves its chances of success. Trump’s supporters, disproportionately prone to violence and more heavily armed, are watching and waiting. They can only pitch in as paramilitaries or freelance goons if, like the rest of us, they see the dark days ahead. Then Trump’s coup becomes a counterrevolution.
Trump Tees Up a New Type of Coup: In Plain Sight | The Smirking Chimp
“It’s pretty dangerous to our democracy to use attacking our elections as a fundraising tool.” —Larry Noble, former FEC attorney
As Trump’s Election Lies Continue, So Does His “Extremely Misleading” Fundraising Grift | Common Dreams News
The National Review, a conservative publication, noted that Trump campaign lawsuits like the one in Montgomery County have been ending “not with a bang, but a whimper.” “It is one thing to fume on Twitter that there is a sinister effort to steal an election; it is another thing to assert that sweeping claim in a court of law, before a judge, under penalty of perjury and/or disbarment,” National Review correspondent Jim Geraghty wrote.
Trump Attorney Admits To Judge Under Penalty Of Perjury That There’s No Election Fraud | Crooks and Liars
Atlas is a physician with no expertise in infectious diseases or epidemiology. Fauci, an immunologist, has led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for more than three decades. MOST READ GA Secretary of State: There will be a ‘full, by hand recount in each county’ Georgia’s chief election official announces hand recount of presidential results The GOP’s Georgia boogeyman: Chuck Schumer Biden announces Ron Klain will be White House chief of staff Two Ideas for Trump’s Exit Strategy Trump’s new Pentagon sets up clash over Afghanistan pullout
‘A political animal’: Atlas attacks Fauci, escalating feud between Trump’s pandemic advisers – POLITICO
And on this point, there’s much reason for hope that, whatever chaos Trump tries to stir up, democracy will prevail. The House is expected to continue to have its majority of Democrats. While the Senate should still have a Republican majority by January — with two runoff races outstanding in Georgia — when it meets to accept the slates of electors, at least four Republicans have already congratulated Biden and referred to him as president-elect: Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Ben Sasse of Nebraska. That means that there should be a majority of both the House and the Senate who, at the time when it’s crucial, acknowledge that Biden is the rightful president.
Trump’s Coup Attempt Is Very Real — but There Are Several Gaping Holes in the Plan | The Smirking Chimp
Is Trump planning to send in the army to arrest Biden or simply disappear him? (ODT)
“Mark Esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service.”
Trump sacks defence chief as Biden pushes ahead with presidency
Losing is “like psychic death for Trump”: Psychologists warn Trump may provoke violence after loss | Salon.com
Yesterday, the Associated Press and other major media outlets confirmed it: President Donald Trump lost his reelection bid. But unlike previous incumbent presidents who sought an additional term and were denied it by voters, Trump has made it clear that he is unwilling to accept the voters’ will.
Losing is “like psychic death for Trump”: Psychologists warn Trump may provoke violence after loss | Salon.com
Biden is right to recognize that we cannot see our political opponents as enemies. Republicans like Romney understand this truth — a truth that is a necessary pre-condition for a constitutional republic. What happens next will depend in large part on whether Romney stands virtually alone or if more Republicans join him to remake the Republican Party as one committed to constitutional democracy, rather than the personal desires of a single man.
Republicans must break with Trump and reach out to Biden so that Americans can heal and democracy can thrive – MarketWatch
The president will be having ‘meltdowns upon meltdowns’, according to his niece, who sees poetic justice in the lies and cheating now coming back to bite him
Mary Trump on the end of Uncle Donald: all he has now is breaking things | US news | The Guardian
Donald Trump’s decision to launch of a full-throated declaration of war on the US electoral process this morning paves the way for what may well be a chaotic three months of legal and extra-legal efforts to thwart the result.
Donald Trump declares war on the electoral process
Donald Trump will likely be a prisoner of the U.S. legal system for the foreseeable future, and he has clearly decided he’d rather be wrapped up in electoral proceedings than criminal ones.
Trump, Facing Prison And Financial Ruin, Clings To Hopes Of Stealing The Election | Crooks and Liars
Donald Trump’s move to call into question the legitimacy of the election result has shades of Donald Trump, experts have pointed out. “This reminds me a lot of what happened in America during the years 2016-2020,” one historian said.
Donald Trump’s Election Response Starting To Look More And More Like The Actions Of Donald Trump | The Shovel
Democrat candidate Joe Biden edges closer to the U.S. presidency. Dr Martin Hirst has ridden the rollercoaster for nearly a day to provide this update.
Biden edges closer – Trump looks weak – after closer than predicted U.S. Election
With only Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania yet to be called among the swing states, Biden is in striking distance of the 270 electoral votes he needs to win the election.
Trump’s Reelection Chances Are Shrinking Quickly In 2020 Election Nail-Biter | HuffPost Australia
On November 2, Trump signed an executive order that aims to manipulate the minds of young children. “We will state the truth in full, without apology (sic),” he said, adding: “We declare that the United States of America is the most just and exceptional nation ever to exist on earth (sic).” If bipartisan US hardliners get their way, education at all levels may resemble Nazi Germany and Israeli indoctrination of children. After Nazis gained control in 1933, the infamous Nuremberg Laws followed. Education featured indoctrination and loyalty to the Reich. It laid the groundwork for wars to come. Scholar Louis L. Snyder witnessed Nazi rallies and practices firsthand. He explained that “(t)here were to be two basic educational ideas…” “First, there must be burnt into the heart and brains of youth the sense of race.” “Second, German youth must be made ready for war, educated for victory or death.” “The ultimate purpose of education was to fashion citizens conscious of the glory of country and filled with fanatical devotion to the national cause.” As one of the world’s most militarized societies, Israel resembles Nazi German.
Trump’s Executive Order to Manipulate the Minds of US School Children – Stephen Lendman
Mike Pence certainly didn’t agree with Trump
Few Republican Party leaders or right-wing media stars backed Trump’s claims on illegitimate votes, and many repudiated it. Jon Schwarz
Trump Says Election Is Being Stolen. The GOP Isn’t So Sure.
U.S. President Donald Trump has exhibited many signs of a dangerous mental condition during his time in the White House, writes Lyn Bender.
Inside the ‘dangerous’ mind of President Donald Trump
