DThe most dangerous race for Donald Trump is not against other Republican candidates, but against the law. In his political game, he faces no serious conflict. His victory in the Iowa caucus results was shocking. But he is at large in court. For Trump, the legal is political.
The calendars overlap. His overarching strategy is calculated not so much to defeat a weak Republican opponent as to delay his trial by any means necessary. This delay gave him the space to portray himself as a martyr, taking up slings and arrows for his followers who hoped to rescue him.
As long as the band plays, he doesn't have to face the music. When that stops, his primary electorate will be replaced by jurors. He can rant all he wants on his Truth Social account, but ultimately the evidence will speak for itself. President Trump is desperate to use his political campaign as a shield to avoid Judgment Day. Plus, it's a cash cow.
For President Trump and his supporters, January 6th is more than just the most important election issue. It's his passionate play. His rivals served as a Greek choir. They are shouting from the wings to amplify his conspiracy theories rather than, say, develop alternative strategies to draw college-educated Republicans away from Trump. “Why are you so passionate about pursuing Trump, but so reluctant about Hillary and Hunter?” Ron DeSantis tweeted Last June. Nikki Haley also criticized the justice system for “prosecutorial overreach, double standards, and revenge politics.” President Trump couldn't have paid for a better ringtone.
Only Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor and once-repentant booster, was willing to do so. Jeez Forbidden: “I'm afraid you should go to jail.” The rest waved at the August debate like eager students seeking their teacher's attention to forgive Trump. Five days before the Iowa caucuses, Christie dropped out due to poor polling. declare: “I intend to never allow Donald Trump to become president of the United States again.” He refused to endorse anyone. “No one will tell the truth about him.'' He was caught on a hot mic saying About Hailey: “She's going to smoke,” “She's not going to do that.” Stating the obvious was more like a shrug than a prophecy. However, she couldn't even crack into second place.
The outcome of the Iowa caucuses was easily predicted. But it was important in revealing the extent to which Trump has tightened his grip on the Republican Party's shell. At the end of his relentless nominating process, the remnants of the Republican Party will be incorporated into his cult.
His success in profligate public opinion among Republicans is evident in the Iowa Republican's answer to the exit poll question: “Do you think Joe Biden legitimately won the presidency in 2020?” Sixty-five percent of respondents answered negatively, and of those, 69% voted for Trump. For them, the January 6th riot is the highlight of this election. They told President Trump that the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers imprisoned for the violence at the Capitol were “hostages” who deserved a pardon, and they believed Trump should be exonerated. ing. In their eyes, Trump is being persecuted rather than being prosecuted, as his main opponents have expressed similar sentiments.
Iowa was more than just a political event. For most of the caucus participants, it was a religious experience, slightly more than half of whom were evangelical Christian nationalists. Voting for Trump was not a civic movement, but a spiritual crusade to make America a Christian nation based on the divine mission that the Founding Fathers allegedly intended based on its unjust history. President Trump's first term was just beginning. The next one will be like the Second Coming. Iowa is Trump's anointing, the first step toward his apotheosis of crusade.
In Mr. Trump's first campaign in 2016, he was an outsider, a brash New Yorker from the Church of the Trade Arts. Iowa Republicans have consistently voted for candidates who are most devoutly evangelical Christians with ties to the religious right. In 2000, a new George W. Bush won with a walk. It was preacher and Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee who defeated John McCain in 2008. In 2012, Catholic right-winger Rick Santorum defeated Mitt Romney. And in 2016, Ted Cruz defeated Trump in Texas, but Trump had only 21% of evangelical support at the time.
In the new administration, Trump has been elevated to a dual presence. He is the American incarnation of the ancient Persian King Cyrus, who conquered Babylon, and is also his deity himself. Before January 6, Christian nationalists saw him as a flawed vessel sent by God to restore the Old Kingdom. Many of the January 6th protesters flaunted Christian nationalist signs, flags, and slogans. Now they see President Trump as a Christ-like figure crucified for them. As Cyrus, Trump was pardoned. His crimes as Christ are a sign of his divinity.
During the 2016 Iowa caucuses, Bob Vander Plaats, the state's most prominent evangelical leader on the Christian right, endorsed Ted Cruz. This time, he supported DeSantis. Trump was so confident in his evangelical support that two days before his caucuses they told him: Tweet: “Bob Vander Plaats, a former high school accountant from Iowa, is willing to do anything to win, something he hasn't done in years. He's more interested in deceiving candidates than winning. is known for its art, but now relies on disinformation from champions of the art. Democratic Party”
In Iowa, President Trump conflated pressing legal issues with hypothetical persecution of Christians. “Under crooked Joe Biden, Christians and Americans of faith are being persecuted, and the government is weaponized against religion like never before. And a president like no other before.” President Trump said on December 19th. “I always say Al Capone was treated better than me,” he added, referring to the Mafia kingpin who was eventually arrested for income tax evasion. Vander Plaats' grip broke.
Of all the strange things that have happened in this campaign so far, the strangest was Ron DeSantis' telling statement. He was so relentlessly ignorant that after his final debate with Nikki Haley, he approached the audience from the stage and tried to sway his opinion. his wife's hand. In trying to explain the reason for the failure, he remained loud and consistent without mentioning that he spent more on private jets than on advertising. “It's all a racket. They're trying to get clicks and they're trying to do all these things,” he said. Said. “Great causes start out as movements, end up becoming businesses, and degenerate into rackets. That's just human nature.”
Not exactly. DeSantis was paraphrasing social philosophers based on the psychological underpinnings of authoritarian movements. Eric Hoffer was an itinerant longshoreman whose 1951 book True Believer, about the spirituality of Nazism and communism, earned him praise from President Dwight Eisenhower at his first press conference. collected. Hoffer explained how individuals erased their will and critical thinking by immersing themselves in demagogue-led movements.
“The fanatic is forever incomplete and insecure. He cannot generate confidence from his personal resources, that is, from his rejected self, but by clinging passionately to the support he happens to accept. The agitators are calling for a return to the good old days. “Glorifying the past can be a way to downplay the present.” Through propaganda, “people can be made to believe only what they already 'know.'” The enemy must be identified as the root of corruption. “It looks like the ideal devil is finally foreign. To qualify as a devil, a domestic enemy must be endowed with foreign ancestry.” He writes that it is a mistake to trust too much. “It seems to me that the quality of ideas does not play an important role in the leadership of mass movements. What matters is the arrogant attitude, the complete disregard for the opinions of others, going it alone against the world.”
Eisenhower, who led the army that overthrew Hitler, wrote: letter In 1958 he warned against authoritarianism. Quoting Hoffer, he said, “Authoritarian regimes do a certain service to the people, and as a result the people tend to support such regimes. “Freedom from the need to inform oneself and make one's own decisions.”
DeSantis, who has tried and failed to supplant Trump by whipping up hysteria over the threat of “wokeness,” more or less nailed one of Hoffer’s memorable lines. “Every cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a commotion.”
On August 14, 2023, in Georgia, Mr. Trump was charged with conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results under the state's RICO Act, in which 18 people were charged with conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election. He and the defendant were charged with 41 felonies.
The problem with applying Hoffer's maxim to Trump is that it has always been a nuisance to him.
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Sidney Blumenthal is a U.S. columnist for The Guardian. He is a former senior adviser to Presidents Bill and Hillary Clinton, and has published three volumes of the forthcoming five-volume political life of Abraham Lincoln. “A self-made man wrestles with the forces of angels and earth.”
