One of the sillier pieces of apologia about candidate Donald Trump, which spread with calendar quote-like speed in 2016, was by right-wing commentator Salena Zito. “The press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally,” she hot-taked for The Atlantic.
Ostensibly a trenchant observation of why the media failed to “get” Trump’s appeal, in fact Zito was just offering another version of Trump’s core narrative — that there’s a liberal elite wholly out of touch with real Americans and diametrically opposed to their interests.
But taking Trump literally was very important indeed, as he proceeded to govern exactly as he campaigned: maximising division, stoking hatred, pursuing personal enrichment, incoherently and incompetently responding to events. His supporters — who apparently didn’t take him literally — revelled in him doing exactly what he said he would do.
And the longer the Trump disaster went on, with a body count in the hundreds of thousands and a bitterly divided America, the more literal he became. It culminated in Trump urging an armed mob (mob they were — sorry, ACMA) to go to Congress to prevent the process for confirming the election of Joe Biden, the man who defeated him.
Contra Zito, the mob took him very literally. There’s a death toll to show for it.
Prosecutors, too, are taking Trump literally. The events of January 6 2021 are just one part of the broader conspiracy Trump engaged in to overturn the November 2020 election, for which he has now been indicted: trying to throw out legal votes; organising fraudulent groups of pro-Trump electors for January 6; pushing the Justice Department to undertake sham investigations; pressuring vice-president Mike Pence to overturn the election result — and storming the Capitol.
The conspiracy Trump engaged in — with the strong support of Fox News and other right-wing media, which persistently peddled what they knew were lies about a “stolen election” — was of a piece with Trump’s whole time as president: unlawful, deceitful, incompetent, bordering on farce until the deaths began mounting.
It was also the logical culmination of the entire Trump project.
That project was the elevation of Trump as the avatar of “ordinary Americans” to destroy an “elite” engaged in a conspiracy against America. That elite was initially liberals, Democrats, the media and moderate Republicans, but eventually expanded to become anyone who disagreed with Trump, from Pence down through the vast ranks of officials who had briefly worked for him and had been sacked or left in disgust.
The project was fundamentally anti-democratic, as it became clear through 2020 when Trump began insisting that there was no way he could lose the November election — a win for Biden would have to be the result of an elite conspiracy. Trump, in his own eyes and those of many of his followers, was organically connected to ordinary Americans, not so much l’état, c’est moi as le peuple, c’est moi, a heaven-sent leader who needed no democratic confirmation of his divinely ordained status. Elections were at best an unnecessary inconvenience, at worst a mechanism for the elite conspiracy to bring him down.
Trump calling for the US constitution to be “terminated”, as he did in 2022, was only confirmation that he views US democracy as an enemy in and of itself.
So we were always destined to end with Trump being prosecuted for attempting to overturn American democracy. If he’d won in 2020, he’d be planning to overturn the two-term limit, or suspend next year’s presidential election — backed by a Republican Party in thrall to him and media enablers like Fox News (which doesn’t make it into the list of unindicted co-conspirators in the Trump indictment).
Indeed, if there was anyone who was guilty of not taking Trump seriously, it was Murdoch and other American corporate heavyweights who saw in Trump the perfect vehicle for their own corporate interests. Trump complemented, like a hand in a snug-fitting glove, the Fox News business model of stoking division and white grievance. And he offered the chance for large US corporations to bend the federal government to their will on matters like corporate taxation. Trump’s racism, misogyny and commitment to dividing Americans, his railing at the media, his trashing of basic standards of discourse, his attacks on the rule of law, his lurid tales of conspiracy, were taken as mere campaign theatrics.
Even as the awful truth became clear to the executives and broadcasters of Fox News, who all knew perfectly well the “stolen election” claim was a lie and Trump’s supporters had attempted an insurrection, that network continued to support him because it was good for their business model. They continue to do so now.
After the latest indictment dropped, with whom did Trump dine? According to The New York Times, with Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott, who wants to make sure Trump attends the first Republican candidates’ debate later this month — because Fox is hosting it.
The business model is more important than anything else for Murdoch. And Trump’s business model is all about overturning democracy.
Is this the end of Donald Trump’s demolition derby on American democracy? Let us know by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
Great analysis as always, Bernard. Particularly the killer line at the end which totally nails the toxic codependence between Trump and News Corp:
‘The business model is more important than anything else at News Corp. And Trump’s business model is all about overturning democracy.’
Cocking a snoot at Lachlan.
My take is that damage to the democratic system is collateral to Trump’s determination to preserve and foster himself. That the GOP is so enthusiastic in aiding his project seems myopic on epic scale, and begs the question (when he dies/goes to prison/exile)…what next?
The question for Australia, if Trump is even half a potential POTUS again, do we really want to be tied so closely to a government led by a megalomaniac?
Given our current govt the answer from them would be yes but the rest of us would say no.
A half POTUS eh? How about we sew half of Trump to the half of his favourite media mogul? The very sight of it would be enough to destroy the earth.
My thoughts exactly. I hope our Australian ‘elites’ are prepared to grasp this nettle. Perhaps there should be some serious analysis of how the dysfunction of the US as a State and as a society, of which the Trump phenomenon is merely a symptom, might relate to AUKUS. I for one, am beginning to feel nervous.
So am I. And Paul Keating said it all at his National Press Club address several weeks ago. Demolished the journalists who tried to get one up on him. You either love him, or hate him. I love him. Told Laura Tingle he was putting the country first before the Labor Party on this Aukus fiasco. Riveting viewing if you’ve got time. But hey, that’s just my opinion!
If Trump gets elected again it’s goodbye to any chance of keeping Climate Change warming below 4 degrees so really no other plans for the future will matter.
The USA is led by a cabal of megalomaniacs, the POTUS is pretty much a puppet, no matter which of the awful contenders eventually triumphs.
There is no way we should continue to align ourselves militarily with that lawless country.
The latter is also supported, very seriously, by The Bulwark in US which is claiming that a media group may have more legal issues related to January 6 etc., not just stories about voting machines…..
and there’s still the Georgia indictment to come!
Trump likes to maintain that each new indictment is a badge of honour, and will only bolster his appeal, but I have my doubts.
Perhaps to begin with, but there may well be an exponential effect that will start being felt – not among the rusted-ons, but with the lesser-Trumps. Whatever is appealing in the man, to them, might finally get outweighed by the sheer amount of criminality and drama. “This is just too much, isn’t there someone else we can support who is less high-maintenance?”
I think Trump will feel the weight exponentially too…he acts tough, but i have my doubts he’ll be able to handle it, when it all becomes real.
Yep, agree. Everyone looks to the fanaticism of the MAGA’s, but elections are usually won by disenchanted or cautious middle-class voters.
Trump has never won popular vote and the various election deniers didn’t get elected in the 2022
In 2016 many more people voted for a candidate other than Trump, in fact close to 9 million.
Results of the U.S. presidential election, 2016
Party. Votes. Electoral College
Democratic 65, 844,969 227
Republican 62, 979,984 304
Libertarian 4,492,919 0
Green 449,3700 0
Other 1,684,9087 7
In 2020 again many more people voted for a candidate other than Trump, in fact c.12 million
Results of the U.S. presidential election, 2020
Party. Votes. Electoral College
Democratic 81,282,632 306
Republican 74,223,234 232
Libertarian 1,864,873 0
Green 402,795. 0
Other 4,386,380 0
The 2020 election when Trump lost both the Electoral College and the Popular Vote.
The Electoral College by almost the same number as Trump won in 2016…304 to 227…which Trump had claimed was a “landslide” in 2016
Ballotopedia
The Georgia matter has to be the ticking time bomb – directing a public official to ‘find me some votes’ is textbook banana republic stuff.
Yes, and both the Georgia indictment-to-come, and the DC indictment that’s just happened, have a more personal feel to them.
Where as the Stormy Daniels case can be dismissed by some as a bit of slippery political accounting (“meh! they all do it”) and the Secret Docs case has the victim being the security of the USA (a bit abstract, but definitely getting closer to home), the DC indictment actually says out loud, that Trump tried to defraud the american people, by robbing them of their fair election result.
Georgia will be the same.
The victims of Trump’s crimes are now they, the people. it’s now a personal assault.
That’s gotta make a few of them pause for thought, you reckon.
I saw a focus group of Trump supporters (? PBS) which disheartened me greatly about the prospect of the facts of his actions becoming public making a difference. Some contended Jan 6 was a friendly visit likely due to Tucker’s edited version, others said they didn’t care due to his being their Pres, and even one who said he had read the Indictment re: classified docs and agree Trump was guilty said they would still vote for him.
Facts alone can’t compete with emotional investments and social rewards. Sometimes I wonder if one of Putin’s objectives in invading Ukraine is to create economic turmoil in order to increase the numbers of disenfranchised Americans who would fall for Trump’s schtick and vote him in . . .
We are on the same dangerous road here. ‘Labor’ is acting like the Sheriff of Nottingham taking from the poor (no free RATS which means none for many, no stay at home payments, no petrol excise which would also serve to reduce inflation on transported goods (a Lib MP said when they were in that was 0.25 so would spare a rate hike), most remarkably removal of low and middle income tax offset, etc etc ) and when they hand it to the rich the numbers of Aussies who will conclude the far right is correct that govs work for the rich and not us cannot help but increase. We have the Libs going more Trump than their already disturbing usual (their walk of shame to pat Morrison on the back instead of censure him haunts my soul), Trump Jr planning a rally in Aus (Can we disallow his visa given he comes to incite division and hate? – as good at projection as his Dad as topic is the left sews division and hate), massive economic stressors inc a generator locked out of owning a house and that it is a Labor gov makes it the worse as the hope that things would be better once we got rid of the big money pawns is crushed and contributes to the feeling of disenfranchisement.
Sorry to be despressing. Perhaps Bernard can lend his dog out.
It’s not ‘the end’, except perhaps the end of an act in a play with more acts to come. Trump and the Republicans have learned the lessons from their failed coup. In recent decades they have usually succeeded in winning elections by voter suppression, gerrymandering and related methods, including their successful coup in 2000 when the Supreme Court stopped the vote counting and so in effect appointed the Republican candidate. These methods failed them in 2020 and they are working to ensure that voting cannot stop them in 2024. In 2020 the coup conspiracy was obstructed by officials and judges who did their jobs according to the rules and the law. Many of these people have been intimidated, forced out or sacked and replaced by creatures whose loyalty is to the Republicans, not the US Constitution or the rule of law. The Republicans are going to win in 2024, whatever it takes. If they simply win the vote, of course they will accept that, but if the voting goes wrong they have other methods, much better developed than they were last time.
If history tells us anything it’s that jailing demagogues is rarely a complete solution and is often counterproductive. The only real solution to the failing democracy that is the US is organised campaigning around strong counter narratives. The price of liberty is, as ever, eternal vigilance.
Looks like the (trump appointed) judge will delay the court case til after the election anyway. He might be easier to put in jail after he’s been rejected in the coming landslide against him.
Not the one in Washington DC, an Obama appointee, who has imposed some serious sentences on many of those who have appeared before her on indictments concerning the 06 January Capitol Attack.
Jailing, perhaps not. What about killing (I’m not suggesting anything here, mind you)?
Such a result is already doing the rounds of the conspiracy-verse in the USA, where it is being seriously mooted as a potential penalty………………
(Despite NOT being an alternative under the legislation…….. but hey, if it gets the loonies pumped, who’s counting?)
Yep.
At the end of the day, Trump just took established GOP rhetoric and kicked it up a notch.
The only real concern they had was ‘too much, too quickly’.
There is a name for what you have described, ‘Project 2024’ for any potential Trump reelection, supported by Heritage Foundation, which is the Koch’s flagship think tank that promotes culturally divisive issues, yet on the other hand apparently Koch related are supporting efforts to ensure Trump cannot run; modus operandi of a ‘bob each way’?
NYT (April ’23): ‘Heritage Foundation Makes Plans to Staff Next G.O.P. Administration. No matter the Republican, the effort has set a goal of up to 20,000 potential officials in a database akin to a right-wing LinkedIn.’
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/20/us/politics/republican-president-2024-heritage-foundation.html
Terrifying stuff sigh.
It’s not over til the fat bastard is behind bars.
A nation of unimaginable wealth and potential, eaten alive by its devotion to faith and its distaste for facts. Believe whatever you like. Condemn those who have, or seek, knowledge.
Trump and religion go hand in hand = The Big Lie