Trump’s tantrums could inadvertently bring us together

 

Bill Knight column for 12-3, 4 or 5, 2020

As 2020 winds down, the world seems tired; America is exhausted after a year of pandemic, unrest about police violence, and an election that exploited our divisions. Common interests remain, of course, from patriotism and charity to optimism and the recognition of good neighbors of all political preferences.

The bull in the china shop is Donald Trump, and even his most devoted followers must be as weary as Joe Biden’s backers of countless tweets, unproven accusations and exaggerations that continue.

The Electoral College votes next week; Biden will be inaugurated next month. But recently Trump has implied the Justice Department and FBI were involved in election fraud, said he’ll leave the White House but won’t concede losing, and is reportedly considering holding a rally announcing his 2024 campaign DURING Biden’s inauguration.

With about 45 days until then, many anxious Americans wonder what else Trump will do.

Trump’s attorneys filed and lost lawsuits in several states, sought recounts and threatened not just challenges in the courts but disorder in the streets (despite Biden getting 6 million more votes).

Trump seems to be trying make Biden’s start difficult, and arguably risks long-lasting harm. Leaving behind environmental threats, an unchecked North Korea, and a flood of falsehoods, he delayed the transition, is purging government of “disloyal” people including Defense Secretary Mark Esper and cybersecurity agency head Chris Krebs, and is damaging the structure of the federal government.

He could fire more high-profile and lesser-known officials.

People Trump regards as insufficiently devoted to him include FBI Director Christopher Wray, CIA Director Gina Haspel, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, our top infectious-disease expert for decades. (Technically, Fauci can’t be fired without the OK of National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, who said he won’t, so Collins may be out, too.)

Politically motivated purges could affect more than 100,000 federal workers, too, as Trump paved the way to eliminate tens of thousands of government employees. Two weeks before Election Day, Trump issued an executive order creating a new classification within the Civil Service giving him the power to fire anyone: scientists and economists, medical experts and lawyers, policymakers and regulators working in all areas of government, from foreign policy to infrastructure.

Since 1883, the Civil Service has been a buffer to patronage. Trump’s directive unilaterally opens the possibility of firings without cause. Of course, the real cause would be resentment of competent, independent professionals who report that climate change is real, that mask-wearing helps against the pandemic, and that some White House claims are hogwash, whether it’s Trump taking credit for an economy that he inherited or his insistence that hurricane Dorian threatened Alabama.

Besides abusing power to purge (or PARDON, in the case of Michael Flynn and who knows who else), recent weeks have seen:

* the administration issuing a rule freezing wages of some 250,000 farmworkers for years;

* Trump asking advisers if there were options for a military strike against Iran;

* the administration announcing rules to make it harder for disabled people to get Social Security and to jeopardize those already receiving SS Disability benefits;

* the feds reviving executions, with Orlando Hall’s killing the eighth federal execution since 2003 (actually, the eighth THIS YEAR), with five more scheduled before Inauguration Day, and suggesting a bringing back firing squads and electrocutions;

* the federal Comptroller of the Currency announcing a rule forcing banks to lend to oil companies despite risks;

* the administration withdrawing from the Open Skies treaty, a decades-old pact between 34 nations to cut the chance of accidental war by permitting aerial reconnaissance of those countries;

* the administration shutting down the Federal Reserve’s $650 billion emergency-loan program for medium-sized businesses and local governments;

* the White House limiting pension managers from considering social and environmental impacts in investments; and

* Trump seeking to weaken the Migratory Bird Treaty and rushing plans to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

 

Meanwhile, also next week, the White House must agree with Congress on spending, or another government shutdown could occur.

If all that takes your breath away, his conduct could have an unintended effect.

True, a YouGov poll of voters says 88% of Republicans think Trump won. But as National Audubon Society vice president Brian Rutledge told the Associated Press. “We’re going to see a real scorched-earth effort here at the tail end of the administration,” and Trump is boldly endangering public health, the planet, peace and the Constitution.

If Trump is really the Grifter-in-Chief, it may be a case of a con man who takes the scam too far.

Americans’ outrage could create an ironic twist: Maybe Trump, not Biden, will bring the nation together.