I am sure those who know my feelings about Trump will be surprised, if not shocked and confused, by the “headline.”
Let me explain.
There is nothing I would like to see more than the present occupant of the White House vacate that almost-sacred mansion tomorrow, if not today.
But behind such a yearning lurks the nightmarish specter of the person who would then become the 46th president, Vice President Michael Pence — if he can “run far enough or fast enough to not get hit by the falling [Trump] tree.”
The fact that right-wing pundit Ann Coulter has expressed a preference for Pence over Trump “[i]f we’re not getting a wall,” should be enough to scare the bejesus out of every most Americans.
Even more surprising, Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, in what may have been chimera, pronounced a couple of months before Coulter’s epiphany, “The contrast between the reckless president and his responsible understudy has me thinking, not for the first time, how much better things would be if Pence were president.”
But, should the “falling tree” miss, an exhaustive October 2017 article in The New Yorker by Jane Mayer describes in harrowing detail “The Danger of President Pence” — a must-read.
The vision of a President Pence, for the many reasons discussed above and elsewhere, might be sufficient motivation for some to want to “keep Trump,” fiascoes and all.
However, there is another angst-provoking scenario, implausible as some may think or controversial as it might appear.
Trump, who continues to be mired in scandals and who has already been callously negligent — treasonous some may say — about protecting our national security and our secrets, may be even more dangerous if and when kicked out of office, or even at his term’s end.
Allen Clinton at Forward Progressives sees the dangers of an emotional and mentally unstable, unethical and corrupt man who has been privy to the most highly sensitive information, intelligence and military secrets our country has, when he is a “civilian” again, away from his protective and moderating surroundings, out of the public limelight and scrutiny…
Because of his weaknesses and past shady — perhaps criminal — personal, business and political dealings, Trump could be highly vulnerable to blackmail and other criminal and unsavory pressures.
This is how Allan Clinton sees it:
What if there comes a time where he’s set up through some shadowy business dealing in the future by someone who wants some sort of information they’re sure he has. They threaten to go public with whatever they have on him… unless he gives them what they want. Is there a soul reading this who doesn’t believe that Trump would say or do anything to save his own ass? Is there a person reading this who doesn’t think Trump’s a crooked enough businessman to use whatever influence he has, as well as information, from his time as “president” for his own financial benefit or to keep details about his personal or financial affairs from going public?
What if his good pal Vladimir Putin comes calling the day after he’s no longer leading this country, offering him a sweetheart of a deal to be involved in some mega hotel in Moscow with the clear implication that he expects some sort of “cooperation” (aka information) from Trump. Are there people out there so gullible that they don’t believe that if Trump felt he could leverage that information for his own benefit without getting caught, he would do exactly that?
Mr. Clinton’s concerns may or may not be valid.
On the other hand, many believe that we may not have to wait until Trump leaves office — one way or another — to face the dangers Clinton describes.
For example, in a very recent article in the New Yorker, Jonathan Chait claims, “There’s a Pretty Good Chance President Trump Is [already]Being Blackmailed.”
Chait writes that, because of alleged past sexual escapades, including possibly in Russia and because of shady financial dealings (“Some of that information is in the hands of his business partners, many of whom are associated with Russia or are unsavory in some other way”), “the odds are disconcertingly high that Russia, or somebody, has blackmail leverage over the president of the United States.”
What a miserable conundrum we find ourselves in.
Lead image: Donkeyhotey.com
