Trump and his cronies (House Speaker Johnson, Sens. Rubio and Cruz, and many others) are trying to destroy Americans’ faith in the basic principles of democracy, particularly the Judicial branch of government and the rule of law. Trump lies, over and over again. Lying is his modus operandi.
For example, Trump and his enthusiastic supporters lied about the 2020 presidential election being “stolen.” This big lie caused a group of low-information, Trump-supporting citizens to storm the US Capitol — breaking windows, committing physical violence against law enforcement officers, stealing and vandalizing government property, and defecating in the hallways.
Now, in the same way that Trump lied about the 2020 election, now he’s lying about a New York state criminal trial, attacking the US system of justice.
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Before November 2016, Trump claimed the election was “rigged.”
Then he appeared to win that election. Because he appeared to win the presidency, he never again claimed the election in 2016 was rigged.
We who didn’t vote for him accepted that he appeared to win.
We didn’t storm the Capitol.
We also didn’t think that he rigged the election in order to win.
Even his opponent Hillary Clinton graciously conceded.
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We then endured four awful years marked by his administration, which:
- Spent $7 trillion more than it took in in revenue (in just four years),
- Transferred a huge a tax burden from the wealthiest Americans to members of the middle class through a horrendous “tax cut,”
- Spent months ignoring a pandemic that Trump said would “go away like a miracle” and which instead left more than one million Americans dead and drove the US and global economy into a massive recession.
The recession, by definition, reduced demand so much that producers reduced prices for goods like food, manufactured goods, and gasoline in 2020-2021 to abnormally low levels in an effort to stimulate sales.
In November of 2020 Trump ran for reelection and although he clearly lost, he publicly refused to accept that he lost. Before the election results were certified, he tried to steal the election through a variety of methods — including a multi-state fake electors scheme designed to interfere with the Electoral College’s role in determining the winner of a presidential election.
He also claimed the election was stolen from him by the Biden campaign, and brought 60+ lawsuits, all of which he lost because of a lack of any credible evidence. As his lawyer Rudy Giuliani said, “We’ve got lots of theories, we just don’t have the evidence.”
On January 6, 2021, as part of his November 2020 election loss-denial effort, at his request and invitation, his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Many of them have gone to prison or paid other legitimate legal penalties for the crimes they committed on his behalf.
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Let’s return to his “rigging” claims about everything that may not turn out well for him. Trump claimed that the New York State trial for falsification of financial records — as part of a conspiracy to cover up infidelity that would harm his electability in 2016 — was “rigged.”
After a jury found him guilty of 34 felony counts on May 30, 2024, he continued to claim the trial was “rigged.”
He always has an excuse for any result that doesn’t go his way. So far, Trump lies and projects what he’s doing onto someone else.
Exactly as he refused to accept his loss in the November 2020 election, like a five-year-old child, he won’t accept the jury’s May 30 verdict.
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Those of us who never voted for him in 2016 accepted and endured him from January 2017-January 2021.
We don’t have to do it anymore.
We can hope that SCOTUS doesn’t grant him criminal immunity that no US President has ever had — not something I’m willing to put any money on, given Thomas, Alito and Roberts’ clear support for Trump.
And we can vote in November.