The Darkest Trump

Published in El Pais
(Spain) on 30 July 2022
by Editorial (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Patricia Simoni. Edited by Helaine Schweitzer.
The former U.S. president is painting an apocalyptic scenario in an appeal for the return of a savior.

Nothing manages to discourage Donald Trump, who is determined — even now and against all evidence — to claim victory in the 2020 presidential election that Joe Biden won by 7 million popular votes and 74 Electoral College votes. He has disparaged the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol as being partisan. Despite the presentation of considerable evidence that he planned to prevent the transition of power — essentially an insurrectionary coup d’état — the committee has not managed to discourage him. Neither have the more moderate Republicans who are clearly a minority within the conservative electorate that faithfully clings to the stolen election hoax and, what is worse, continues to support Trump as their presidential candidate in 2024.

Few presidents could have managed to maintain such overwhelming influence in the Republican Party after a chaotic administration and an undisputed election defeat. Trump has not yet announced that he is running for reelection, but the possibility that he will weighs heavily on candidates campaigning for the midterm elections.

Trump was instrumental in appointing three Supreme Court justices who have ruled against abortion rights, in favor of gun ownership as a constitutional right, and against regulation of polluting emissions by public regulatory agencies. The candidates who will challenge his candidacy in the primaries are not moderate Republicans but quite the opposite: Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence.

The Republican Party thus faces the challenge of disrupting the dynamic that Trump set in motion, one that could fatally erode democracy. The international war in Ukraine has reinforced autocratic values like those of Vladimir Putin himself in the worst of all possible ways.

Extremism is the greatest and most seductive threat for Republicans; thus, it is not surprising that an increasing number of radical candidates are entering the November midterm race. Many belong to violent conspiracy and anti-vaccine groups like those who stormed the Capitol.

Nor is the radical, apocalyptic tone of Trump himself surprising.

This week, he described the landscape of a country with overflowing borders invaded by immigrants, attacked by drug addicts and vagrants, in which Satanist child abusers are being released from prisons — in short, a county on the brink of civil war. Everything is in place for making an appeal to the strong hand and the strong man, to a savior and a dictator: The worst of all is on the horizon.


Nada consigue desalentar a Donald Trump, empeñado todavía ahora y contra todas las evidencias en reivindicarse como vencedor en las elecciones presidenciales de 2022 en las que Joe Biden le superó en siete millones de votos y en 74 votos del Colegio Electoral. No lo ha conseguido la comisión de investigación del Congreso sobre el asalto al Capitolio del 6 de enero de 2021, a la que ha descalificado por partidista, a pesar de que ha ofrecido suficientes pruebas sobre la existencia de un plan organizado por el entonces todavía presidente para evitar el relevo en la Casa Blanca, propiamente un golpe de Estado insurreccional. Tampoco lo han conseguido los republicanos más moderados, en abierta minoría entre el electorado conservador, que todavía compra crédulamente la patraña del robo electoral y, lo que es peor, mantiene su preferencia por Trump como candidato para la elección presidencial de 2024.

Pocos presidentes han conseguido mantener una influencia tan abrumadora en el Partido Republicano tras un gobierno caótico y una derrota electoral indiscutible. Trump todavía no ha anunciado su candidatura presidencial, pero la posibilidad de que se presente gravita muy seriamente sobre los candidatos y la campaña para las elecciones de mitad de mandato.
Trump ha sido decisivo en los nombramientos de los tres jueces del Tribunal Supremo que han sentenciado contra el derecho al aborto, el favor de la posesión de armas de fuego como derecho constitucional y contra la regulación de las emisiones contaminadoras por parte de agencias reguladoras públicas. Y no son republicanos moderados, sino todo lo contrario, los candidatos a disputarle la candidatura en las primarias, el gobernador de Florida, Ron de Sanctis, y el exvicepresidente Mike Pence. El Partido Republicano se enfrenta, en este sentido, al reto de romper la dinámica que ha impuesto Trump y que erosiona fatalmente la democracia. Son momentos en que el contexto internacional de la guerra en Ucrania obliga a reforzar los valores que autocracias como la de Putin pretenden imponer por los peores caminos.

El problema más grave es el extremismo que ha seducido a los republicanos y por eso no resulta extraño que aparezcan candidatos cada vez más radicales para las elecciones de noviembre, muchos pertenecientes a grupos conspiranoicos, antivacunas y violentos como los que asaltaron el Congreso. Ni tampoco la radicalización con tintes apocalípticos del propio Trump, que ha dibujado esta semana el paisaje de un país de fronteras desbordadas, invadido por inmigrantes, atacado por drogadictos y vagabundos, en el que satanistas abusadores infantiles son liberados de las cárceles y en definitiva se halla al borde la guerra civil. Todo preparado para la apelación a la mano dura y al hombre fuerte, a la dictadura salvadora. El peor de los horizontes.
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