The death throes of the Trump presidency

Brooks Newmark | 10th January 2021 | Comment, Magazine, Politics, Washington

Donald Trump (Credit: Gage Skidmore) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)

The last days of Trump have seen the US descend into chaos amid riots and the invasion of the Capitol building in Washington, but it's not the last of the Donald, says Brooks Newmark

“They’ve realised that this country has gone so flabby that any gang daring enough and unscrupulous enough, and smart enough not to seem illegal, can grab hold of the entire Government and have all the power and applause.” Sinclair Lewis's prophetic observation in It Can Happen Here (1934) of a future America came closer to reality than ever with the invasion of the US Capitol building for the first time since the British Army took it over and set it on fire in 1814. The fact that this invasion was instigated by a sitting President only made matters worse. The President-elect Joe Biden said of the attack on the Capitol “They weren’t protestors…they were rioters, a mob. Insurrectionists. Domestic Terrorists.” He went on “I wish we could say we couldn’t see it coming. But that isn’t true. We could. For the past four years, we have had a President who has made his contempt for our democracy, our constitution and the rule of law clear in everything he has done.” It was only the threat of i...

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