You wanted Nancy Pelosi to goad Donald Trump into destroying himself. This is what it’s going to look like.
So you wanted Nancy Pelosi to goad Donald Trump into going all the way off the deep end and taking himself down? Well, this is what Trump taking himself down looks like. Firing off every deranged option he has left, like arbitrary declassification, insane indictments, vowing to put his enemies on trial… this is it.
These are not the kinds of tactics that will magically allow Trump to become emperor. No, these are the kinds of things that will convince the average nonpolitical American that, yeah, he has to go. This is how you graduate from impeachment without ouster, to impeachment with ouster. But Trump will do great harm to others while destroying himself with these antics. That’s just how it works.
Keep in mind that of all the things Trump is vowing to do right now, many or most of them won’t happen. We see this from him all the time. He loudly bluffs us on horrible things he’s never going to do, just to distract us from the other horrible things he’s quietly doing. And we’ve also seen plenty instances of Trump’s people merely pretending to do some of the self-harming things that he wants them to do, just to sate him.
But Trump will do some of the horrible things he’s suddenly vowing to do – and that’ll be nothing new either. He’s already improperly fired every FBI/DOJ person who exposed his crimes. Why not try to put them on trial on false charges too? Though again, this is the kind of thing the average nonpolitical American has no stomach for. It’s what creates broad support for his ouster. If he takes it that far, it won’t make him stronger, it’ll make him weaker.
So do you want to see Pelosi back Trump into such a corner that he’ll do the kind of truly grotesque damage that’ll allow her to prematurely oust him, or do you want to just ride out another 1.5 years of Trump’s usual level of evil? Neither of those is acceptable, but one of them will happen. Oh, and if you think his attempted/threatened/real/imaginary power grabs are deranged this week, imagine how he’ll respond when they actually open an impeachment inquiry into him. But then that’s partially the point: drive him so batty, he finishes himself off.
