Who Is Going To Handle Trump?

Former U.S. President Donald Trump was back in Washington this week for the first time since the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He delivered a disjointed speech (nothing new under the sun), while coming within an orange hair of announcing his candidacy for president in 2024.

That such a scenario is even possible is beyond comprehension when the House Select Committee dedicated to the events of last year has shown him at his worst.

In his speech, Trump asserted that the U.S. should emulate repressive regimes like those in China and the Philippines to combat drug-trafficking, even suggesting the death penalty for those found guilty of it. He mentioned the possibility of sending the U.S. National Guard to Democratic-majority states to reestablish “law and order.” In parallel with this speech, the media reported on a return to the forefront of a Republican plan that aims to purge federal employees without constraints, and for frivolous reasons, with the goal of replacing them with party loyalists should they return to power.

Those who think these are merely trivial antics should think again. During the previous campaign, and his catastrophic term as president, Trump had promised to deliver a Republican majority to the Supreme Court to tilt the balance in favor of pro-lifers in the abortion debate.

The overturning of Roe v. Wade, on June 24, 2022, is a reminder that, when he speaks, this sinister figure must be taken seriously. The rights of women to exercise control over their bodies and enjoy full equality and respect for their autonomy has been turned back 50 years. In Republican-majority states, there is a race to rush through bills that will give rise to the surveillance, tracking and criminalization of women, doctors and individuals who dare participate, directly or indirectly, in an abortion.

The excitement around Trump 2024 has not yet overtaken all of the Republican Party. A few hours before Trump spoke, his former vice president quietly revealed his own presidential ambitions and called on voters to look toward the future. Mike Pence appears timid when the time comes to denounce the legacy of the Trump-Pence government, for obvious reasons. Up until the moment he stood up to Trump and took part in the certification of the election at the risk of his personal safety, Pence was an ardent defender of the “Donald.”

Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who sits on the congressional committee charged with shedding light on the insurrection of January 2021, has been much more vocal. During the hearings, she insisted that a nation that wishes to remain free cannot become trapped by the lies spouted by Trump, a man she deems unfit to hold elected office. She, too, has her eye on the 2024 presidential election.

The congressional investigation shows that Trump knowingly chose not to intervene for more than three hours on Jan. 6, 2021, as an unwieldy mob of his supporters invaded the Capitol to interrupt the certification process of the presidential election results and “stop the steal.” The inquiry revealed that the attack on the Capitol was the culmination of an attempted coup d’état of which he was the main instigator.

Still today, despite the mounting evidence, a majority of Republican voters believe the lies repeated by Trump, according to whom President Joe Biden won the election due to election fraud and cheating. They are stuffed with nonsense from the conservative media, Fox News in particular, which oscillates between the trivialization of the crimes committed at the Capitol and the amplification of the discourse on the stolen election.

The American political system is recognized for its model of checks and balances between the executive, legislative and judicial branches. The extreme polarization in Congress, and the limited margin of the Democrats, whose Senate majority hangs by only a thread, makes difficult any legislative achievement that would protect American democracy against populist revolt and authoritarianism, even more so as Republican states are leading the way in passing measures to regulate and suppress the vote. President Biden may denounce Trump’s lack of courage, but his voice fails to rise above the political divisions. As for the Supreme Court, it has become the bastion of social conservatism.

The Washington Post revealed this week that the U.S. Department of Justice is actively investigating efforts made by Trump to overturn the results of the 2020 election. One must hope that the judiciary will finally take up these antics with convincing results. It is the only hope of preventing his return.