So much for the stampede
When Donald Trump lost the election and then quickly fired his Secretary of Defense in frustration, a lot of observers took it as a sign that Trump was about to go on a big firing spree. Funny thing, though. Apart from the ridiculous firing of Chris Krebs from DHS, Trump just kind of stopped firing people. There never was a stampede. Now it’s happening again, or rather not happening.
When Trump pardoned Michael Flynn the other day, a lot of observers took it as a sign that Trump’s pardon spree was fully underway, and that he’d be dropping pardons by the hour. But as of now, that simply hasn’t materialized. Will Trump end up pardoning more people before he leaves? Surely. But the stampede didn’t happen when it looked like it was going to happen.
That’s because Trump isn’t really a man of action. He’s someone who likes to create the appearance of strength while playing it safe. He takes the minimum action necessary to create the appearance that he’s doing something, and then he starts pulling his punches rather than sticking his neck out even further – and he hopes no one notices that he’s being as tepid as ever.
More pardons will come. More firings may come. But it’s worth keeping in mind that in both these instances, Trump may have simply been trying to create the appearance of a stampede, so he could look strong, and so he could distract us from his other petty con games that he’s carrying out behind the scenes.
As Trump’s final days play out, whenever he does something new and ugly, let’s not assume it’s the start of another stampede. Instead let’s call it out for the ugliness that it is, but then turn our attention to figuring out whatever it is that Trump might be trying to distract us from instead.
