Donald Trump’s Bin Laden moment
At this point Donald Trump’s speeches increasingly resemble the videos that Osama Bin Laden would periodically release after 9/11, in which he kept vowing to carry out bigger and bigger attacks, even as it became more obvious that he couldn’t pull off any such thing.
9/11 was Bin Laden’s one big shot. It cost him his home base, his ability to freely communicate, and so on. January 6th was Trump’s one big shot, and it cost him in roughly the same way. All Bin Laden had left after 9/11 was the ability to keep periodically scaring us with increasingly empty threats, just for kicks. Same as Trump now.
The parallels are remarkable – right down to Bin Laden’s visibly declining health in his post 9/11 videos, and Trump’s visibly declining health in his rare public appearances.
Trump is dangerous post-1/6 in much the same way Bin Laden was dangerous post 9/11. In spite of having little remaining actual power or muscle, his increasingly histrionic empty threats and calls for violence can have unpredictable dangerous fallout – but with no chance of benefiting him.
Bin Laden’s insistence on continuing to make such videos, rather than simply disappearing, may have ultimately contributed to the United States government’s decision to bring him to justice. Similarly, Donald Trump’s insistence on giving speeches full of threats and criminal confessions, rather than disappearing from public life, is surely increasing his odds of ending up in prison.
