Before,
he was merely petty and vindictive. He’d tweet nasty things about people he
wanted to humiliate, like former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin
Kaepernick.
Now
his vindictiveness has turned cruel.
After smearing FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe with unfounded allegations that he lied to investigators, the new Trump made sure McCabe was fired just days before he would have been eligible for a pension after more than twenty-one years of service.
After smearing FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe with unfounded allegations that he lied to investigators, the new Trump made sure McCabe was fired just days before he would have been eligible for a pension after more than twenty-one years of service.
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| Even Chief of Staff John Kelly (end of the table) couldn't help but express his frustration with Trump - this photo was contained in a Trump tweet that was DELETED when someone noticed the shot |
Now his
xenophobia has turned belligerent. He’s sending thousands of National
Guard troops to the Mexican border, even though illegal border crossings are at
a record low.
And
he’s starting a trade war against China.
China
has been expropriating American intellectual property for years. But Trump
isn’t even trying to negotiate a way out of this jam or build a coalition of
other trading partners to pressure China. He’s just upping the ante – and, not
incidentally, causing the stock market to go nuts.
But
the most dangerous thing about the new Trump is his increased attacks on
American democracy itself.
Start with a free press. Before, he just threw rhetorical bombshells at the Washington Post, CNN, and other outlets that criticized him.
Now
he’s trying to penalize them financially, while bestowing benefits on outlets
that praise him.
Last
week he demanded that Amazon, the corporation headed by the man who owns the
Washington Post, pay higher postal rates and more taxes, and that the Post
should register as Amazon’s lobbyist. Amazon stock wilted under the attack.
They’re
absurd charges. Amazon collects and pays state sales taxes on its products, and the
Postal Service is losing money because of the decline in first-class mail, not
package deliveries.
Presumably
Amazon can take care of itself. Trump’s attack was intended as a warning to
other companies with media connections that they’d better not mess with him
Trump
is trying to hurt CNN, too. The day after the Justice Department moved to block
AT&T’s purchase of Time-Warner, parent of CNN, he said the deal wasn’t
“good for the country.” Few missed the connection.
Meanwhile,
he’s praising Trump-adoring Sinclair Broadcasting, signaling to the FCC it
should approve Sinclair’s pending $3.9 billion purchase of Tribune Media’s TV
stations.
We’re
entering a new and more dangerous phase of Trump’s “divide and conquer”
strategy, splitting the nation into warring camps – with him as the most
divisive issue.
Even
Trump’s tweets have become more brazenly divisive. Last week he called his
predecessor “Cheatin’ Obama.” When was the last time you heard a president
of the United States disparage another president?
He’s
more determined than ever to convince supporters that Special Counsel Robert
Mueller is in cahoots with Democrats and the FBI to unseat him.
This
might give him some protection if Trump decides to fire Mueller, or if
Mueller’s investigation turns up evidence that Trump collaborated with Russia
to win the election, and Congress moves to impeach him.
“Try
to impeach him, just try it,” warned Roger Stone, Trump’s former campaign
adviser, last summer. “You will have a spasm of violence in this country,
an insurrection like you’ve never seen.”
But
Trump’s strategy might just as easily extend beyond Mueller. What happens if in
2020 a rival candidate accumulates more electoral votes, but Trump accuses him
or her of cheating, and refuses to step down?
“He’s
now president for life,” Trump recently said of Xi Jinping, adding “maybe we’ll
have to give that a shot someday.” Some thought Trump was joking. I’m not so
sure.
Democracies
require leaders who understand that their primary responsibility is to protect
the institutions and processes democracy depends on. The new Trump seems intent
on maintaining his power, whatever it takes.
Democracies
also require enough social trust that citizens regard those they disagree with
as being worthy of an equal say, so they’ll accept political outcomes they
dislike. The new Trump is destroying that trust.
Trump
untethered isn’t just a more petty, vindictive, and belligerent version of his
former self. He’s also more willing to sacrifice American democracy to his own
ends. Which makes him more dangerous than ever.
Robert B. Reich is Chancellor's Professor of
Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at
the Blum Center for Developing Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in
the Clinton administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the ten
most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written
fifteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock", "The
Work of Nations," and "Beyond Outrage," and, his most recent,
"Saving Capitalism." He is also a founding editor of the American
Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary,
"Inequality For All." Reich's newest book is "The Common
Good." He's co-creator of the Netflix original documentary "Saving
Capitalism," which is streaming now.