Donald Trump Has the FBI in His Sights

Published in Epmundo
(Venezuela) on 02 February 2018
by (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Megan Smith. Edited by Helaine Schweitzer.
The confrontation between Donald Trump and the FBI, the federal investigative body looking into possible Russian influence in the U.S. presidential election, appears to be resolving itself in Trump’s favor. If so, it will reinforce the image that Trump created last Tuesday during his first State of the Union address. It was during that speech that the current occupant of the White House appeared to have the full support of a Republican Party that has apparently surrendered itself to the arms of populist discourse.

FBI Director Christopher Wray has faced direct pressure from Trump since Trump discovered that the FBI tried to publicize a Republican Party report condemning the president’s attitude, during the investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 election. Wray is the second FBI director to serve during Trump’s short time in office. Former FBI Director James Comey was fired by the president barely a month after his arrival at the White House while investigating Russian connections to the presidential election.*

This confirms that Trump’s surprising and sometimes public lack of trust in his intelligence services is not a rookie political error, but a matter of pure personal survival strategy. A year later, the FBI continues to be in the line of fire, and its agents are being forced to choose between loyalty to the country and personal loyalty to Trump. Hesitation about loyalty to Trump is a decision that the president has shown will absolutely not be tolerated.

Trump is creating a divide within society and among the American political class that will now be extremely difficult to close. The enthusiasm with which half of Congress listened to his words on economic success and heightened nationalism contrasted with the tense silence of the other half. His friend-or-foe dialectics have no limits. And now the FBI is in his sights.

*Editor’s note: President Trump fired James Comey on May 9, 2017. Trump took office on January 20, 2017.



El enfrentamiento entre Donald Trump y el FBI —el cuerpo de policía federal que investiga la posible influencia rusa en la elección del magnate como presidente de EE UU— parece estar resolviéndose a favor del primero. De confirmarse, este resultado reforzará la imagen que ofreció Trump el pasado martes durante su primer discurso del Estado de la Unión. Allí, el actual inquilino de la Casa Blanca mostró contar con el completo respaldo de un Partido Republicano que parece haberse entregado definitivamente en brazos del discurso populista.

El director del FBI, Christopher Wray, ha sido sometido a la presión directa de Trump al conocerse que la institución que dirige pretendía hacer público un informe del Partido Republicano en el que se condena la actitud del presidente durante la investigación sobre la posible injerencia rusa. Wray es el segundo director que tiene el FBI durante el corto mandato de Trump. El primero, James Comey, fue despedido por el mandatario a poco más de un mes de su llegada a la Casa Blanca, cuando estaba investigando la conexión rusa en la carrera presidencial.

Se verifica así que la sorprendente —y a veces pública— falta de confianza de Trump en sus servicios de inteligencia no era un error de neófito en la alta política estadounidense sino una estrategia de pura supervivencia personal. Un año después el FBI sigue en su punto de mira y sus responsables obligados a elegir entre la lealtad al país y la lealtad personal a Trump. Una duda que el presidente ha demostrado sin miramientos que no tolera.

Trump está creando una fisura que será muy difícil de cerrar tanto en la sociedad como en la clase política de EE UU. El entusiasmo con el que la mitad del Congreso recibió sus palabras sobre éxitos económicos y nacionalismo exacerbado contrasta con el tenso silencio de la otra mitad. Su dialéctica amigo-enemigo no conoce límites. Y ahora en la mira está el FBI.

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