Donald Trump’s spygate scandal has finally blown up in his face
Maya Angelou once said “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Trump always showed us who he was. He showed us through his accusations of others. For example, Trump called Mexicans “drug dealers, criminals and rapists,” because that’s what he is. He’s a criminal and a rapist who uses drugs. Everyone pretty much knew that already, right? Ask E. Jean Carroll about Trump the rapist. Ask all the people whose businesses he ripped off over the years about Trump the criminal. Ask all the people who saw Trump snorting cocaine or adderall over the years about Trump the druggy.
So when Trump accused President Obama of spying on him, why is anyone surprised that it has come out that Trump used the FBI to spy on others? In a May 24th, 2018 tweet Trump said, “[Former Director of National Intelligence James] Clapper has now admitted that there was Spying in my campaign. Large dollars were paid to the Spy, far beyond normal. Starting to look like one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history. SPYGATE – a terrible thing!”
Every slander Trump has hurled at someone else over the years is almost always a criminal or immoral or dishonest thing that he himself is guilty of. It’s what’s known in the world of psychology as projection, one of the ten or so Defense Mechanisms classified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). And usually in the commission of his moral and statutory crimes Trump outdoes everyone else. And he reveals his hypocrisy through projection. He gives us a view of his own festering, despicable corruption in the insults and lies and calumnies he hurls at others.
We now know that Trump’s Department of Justice secretly obtained records about the communications of members of the press, his political enemies in Congress and his own White House counsel Don McGahn. But we knew this already because that’s what Trump accused President Obama of over and over. And he even dared to call it “one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history.” So why is anyone surprised?
And what does that tell us about Trump’s insistence that the 2020 election was stolen? It tells us that he actively and deliberately participated in stealing the 2016 election, and he tried to steal the 2020 election and he failed, of course. Again, why is anyone surprised?
On October 8th 2019, Trump tweeted, “So why is someone a good or great President if they needed to Spy on someone else’s Campaign in order to win?” In so doing Trump is admitting another thing that we already knew. Despite his constant boasting that he was the “greatest president since Lincoln,” Trump knows perfectly well that he was positively the worst president in American history, out for nobody else but himself, a complete and utter failure, number zero with a bullet, and he told us as much. Because Trump had to spy on others in order to win. Because Trump is a loser.
And now Trump has been caught yet again, caught using the DOJ as his personal Nixon-variety Plumber’s Squad spying on every member of his Nixon-variety Enemies List. Once again, not only was Trump corrupt, not only was Trump criminal, not only was Trump treasonous, Trump was also stupid. How do we know this? Again, listen to Maya Angelou and believe him the first time, because Trump already told us. Way back in 2013 Trump tweeted this: “Fact – all the countries complaining about us spying on them spy on us. They just don’t get caught — stupid!” And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.