DICTATOR WATCH
(www.dictatorwatch.org)

Contact: Roland Watson, roland@dictatorwatch.org

THE SIMPLICITY OF TRUMP

February 8, 2018

Last week it got to be too much for me, with the Republicans Nunes, Ryan, McConnell and Trump. I normally don't write about U.S. politics, although I certainly think about it a lot. But what has been happening has been straight out of the dictator playbook, so I am going to change my policy. From now on, for anyone who wants to get original perspectives on the decline but hopefully not the fall of American democracy, I will try to fit the bill.

We have just learned that Trump wants a military parade in Washington, like those held in North Korea, China, and the former Soviet Union (and now Putin's Russia). The common view is that this is just to satisfy the enormous vanity of an egomaniac, and to distract from the stock market plunge. However, something else is at work. It is really all about the Mueller investigation.

Robert Mueller is going to find criminal liability for Trump on conspiracy with the Russians, to rig the election; obstruction of justice, for attempting to block the FBI investigation; and money laundering, again with Putin's billionaire friends. Trump knows this. He knows what he has done; that he is guilty; and that an investigator of Mueller's skill will prove it. Literally everything he is doing now is to try to prevent criminal charges, or somehow get people to believe, once they are filed, that it is all an anti-Trump conspiracy.

Indeed, the severity of the first charge is astounding. Russia under Putin is the Soviet Union - historically America's greatest enemy, partially rebuilt. From the Constitution, "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort." Trump and his Republican allies are giving Russia and its dictator aid and comfort - against the U.S. They are all guilty of treason. It is impossible to be more un-American.

The parade is a propaganda show designed to present Trump as a patriotic American. It is the same with his and Ryan and McConnell's huge military budget, which is a travesty on its own when the deficit is so high and when the country itself needs so much financial help, starting with on infrastructure. Trump is trying to create a pattern of superficial pro-America actions, to offset the fact that he may soon be charged with the worst crime against the country of all

People read so much into Trump, but he is really very simple. His motivators are money and ego (and sex - most pointedly satisfied through sexual abuse, when he was young). He ran in the election to further a reputation that he could exploit through more Trump-branded buildings. As the book Fire and Fury revealed, though, and which sharp analysts already understood, he did not want to win. But, because of the Russians, and Comey, whom he later fired, he did. Having the job boosted his ego, but then there was the question of money. Ryan and McConnell's Republican tax bill solved that concern (to hell with the deficit!), through which Trump will gain as much as fifty million dollars a year in income tax relief and over a billion dollars in estate tax relief. He is truly a world leader in corruption, and this is in addition to all the other ways he and his family are exploiting America's highest office. However, with money and ego satisfied, another motivator was revealed: Not to get caught! Hence we had the ridiculous Nunes memo, a major step to try to give him cover, and through which the Republican House Intelligence Committee abandoned the Constitution's check and balance of Separation of Powers. Now we get the parade.

Again, it's simple. Money, ego, and not to get caught - that's what Trump cares about. When he does anything outlandish, look at it through this lens and his strategy will soon be clear.