What we will Miss with the End of the Trump Presidency
By Stansfield Smith – Jan 18, 2020
On January 6, President Trump and his “deplorables” made the US Empire look dysfunctional to the whole world by overtaking the Capitol, causing those corporate tools, our “elected representatives,” to run and hide. Does that set a bar for what is needed to bring health care for all, to end what Martin Luther King called the three evils of society: poverty, war and racism?
Trump has antagonized the US ruling class by placing his own interests above the interests of their class as a whole. As Democratic Senator Schumer righteously waxed, “This will be a stain on our country not so easily washed away.” Indeed, thanks to these Trumpers, politicians’ future talk of “American exceptionalism,” about the US as the world champion of “freedom and democracy,” will now bring snickers around the globe.
Whether one was horrified, pleased, or indifferent to the takeover of the Capitol, we will be the targets of more repressive legislation superseding our “God-given” rights. Already, Schumer is setting a precedent by demanding those who went into the Capitol to be classified as “domestic terrorists” and placed on a national no-fly list.
Soon we will no longer have a president who, despite his endless rightwing pronouncements, did speak truthfully on some issues any progressive would support. Critics of Trump, especially those who attempt to brand him a fascist, often overlook or discount statements Trump made as the official voice of the US government: the waste and killing of US wars and the government deceit that led to them. He made clear the US was after Middle East oil, condemned the US for being the world’s cop, attacked the power of the unelected deep state, exposed Russiagate McCarthyism, and the lack of democracy in the US political system. This has riled the national security establishment, instrumental in concocting the Russia collusion story to smear Trump, block his 2016 presidential bid, and the 2019 effort to impeach him.
The President of the United States condemns US Middle East wars
President Trump not just condemned the obscene waste of money on the Middle East wars and the waste of US soldiers’ lives. Probably a first in presidential history, the president lamented the millions killed by the US invasions and the US government’s fake news fed to the US people to justify invasion.
President Trump wrote (October 9, 2019):
“The United States has spent EIGHT TRILLION DOLLARS fighting and policing in the Middle East. Thousands of our Great Soldiers have died or been badly wounded. Millions of people have died on the other side. GOING INTO THE MIDDLE EAST IS THE WORST DECISION EVER MADE IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY! We went to war under a false & now disproven premise, WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. There were NONE!”
President Trump (April 3, 2018):
“Seven trillion dollars over 17 year period, we have nothing — nothing except death and destruction. It’s a horrible thing.”
Trump at a press conference (October 21, 2019):
“I got elected on bringing our soldiers back home. Now, it’s not very popular within the Beltway, because, you know, Lockheed doesn’t like it, and these great military companies don’t like it. It’s not very popular.”
Trump outraged the Washington foreign-policy establishment — even attacked by previously anti-war figures, such as Noam Chomsky — when he withdrew troops from Syria:
“I want to bring our troops back from the endless war. They’ve been going on for 19 years in the area. But I’m going to bring them home from Syria.” (Watch How Progressives Respond When Trump Isn’t Wrong)
RELATED CONTENT: Capitol Riot Brings US Foreign Policy Home
The president on stopping the US mass killing in Afghanistan (February 28, 2019):
“As we defend American lives, we are working to end American wars in the Middle East …. I am not looking to kill hundreds of thousands of people in Afghanistan, many of them totally innocent…. It is also not our function to serve other nations as law enforcement agencies.”
President Trump spoke against the US as world cop and its endless wars (October 17, 2019):
“The plan is to get out of endless wars to bring our soldiers back home, not be policing agents all over the world. If you looked at other countries, Russia, China, they don’t have countries to take care of. We have close to 90 countries in one form or another all over the world policing, and frankly many of those countries don’t respect what we’re doing, they don’t even like what we’re doing and they don’t like us.”
President Trump confessed the open secret that the US wants the oil in Iraq and Syria (October 21, 2019):
“Same thing here [Syria as in Iraq]: Keep the oil. We want to keep the oil…. I don’t think it [keeping troops in Syria] is necessary other than that we secured the oil in a little different section, but we did secure the oil.”
President Trump exposed Obama’s murderous regime change destruction of Syria, a US intervention many liberal-leftists supported (October 23, 2019):
“Eight long years after President Obama’s ill-fated push at regime change, U.S. troops are still on the ground in Syria. More than half a million people are dead, hundreds of thousands are terribly injured, and millions more Syrians are displaced. It really is a nightmare of misery.”
The President of the United States’ opposition to Russiagate McCarthyism
Trump repeatedly stood up to the new Russiagate McCarthyism, in contrast to Presidents Truman and Eisenhower who long remained complicit with the 1950s McCarthyism. Trump called it the “Russia collusion hoax” concocted by the national security state (“the deep state”) with the Democratic Party and the corporate media (“fake news”) to undermine his presidential bid before the 2016 election. His continual rebuttals were often directed at “deep state” FBI’s Mueller, CIA’s Brennan (who authorized CIA torture), NSA’s Clapper (who denied NSA spying on the US people before Edward Snowden documented the exact opposite), the Democratic Party and their corporate media mouthpieces.
President Trump pointed out that Democrats used the concocted Russia collusion story to rationalize their embarrassing 2016 election defeat.
“There has been no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russians… I can only say this, there was absolutely no collusion. Everybody knows it. Every committee — I’ve been in office now for 11 months. For 11 months, they’ve had this phony cloud over this administration, over our government. And it has hurt our government. It does hurt our government. It’s a Democrat hoax that was brought up as an excuse for losing an election.” (to CNN in January 2018)
Trump objected to this McCarthyism being used against Tulsi Gabbard and Jill Stein (October 21, 2019):
“Hillary Clinton — you’ve heard of her; she’s the one that’s accusing everybody of being a Russian agent. Anybody that is opposed to her is a Russian agent. So that’s a scam that was pretty much put down. Tulsi — I don’t know Tulsi, but she’s not a Russian agent. I don’t know Jill Stein. I know she likes environment. I don’t think she likes Russians. If she does like them, I know she’s not an asset. She [Clinton] called her an “asset” of Russia. These people are sick. There’s something wrong with them.”
President Trump condemned the Russiagate witch hunt (February 28, 2019):
“But the fact is, there is no collusion. And I call it the ‘witch hunt.’ This should never happen to another President. This is so bad for our country. So bad. You look at this whole hoax — I call it the Russian witch hunt. I now add the word ‘hoax.’ It’s a very, very bad thing for our country.”
US electoral system is rigged
The President of the United States declares to the world ‘The US electoral system is rigged,” which is true, just not rigged the way he claims. Trump’s conduct has since discredited that statement, but it bears remarkable similarity to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s tweet after 2016, “Our election was hijacked. There is no question. Congress has a duty to #ProtectOurDemocracy & #FollowTheFacts.”
US President Trump publicly recognizes Russian President Putin as more credible than the US “intelligence” agencies
Igniting another furor among defenders of the national security state, the president stood next to Russia’s Putin and recognized him as more credible than the US spy agencies on “Russian meddling” in the 2016 US election. In fact, no evidence exists that the Russian government manipulated the election. When asked whether he would publicly condemn Putin for Russia’s interference, Trump instead criticized the Democratic National Committee, the FBI, and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers attacked Trump’s statements. Ex-CIA head John Brennan topped them all: “Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to and exceeds the threshold of ‘high crimes & misdemeanors. It was nothing short of treasonous.”
At that July 16, 2018 press conference with President Putin, a reporter questioned President Trump: “President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every U.S. intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did… who do you believe?”
President Trump replied, hinting at a FBI coverup of what actually occurred:
“You have groups that are wondering why the FBI never took the server. Why haven’t they taken the server? Why was the FBI told to leave the office of the Democratic National Committee?… I’ve been wondering that. I’ve been asking that for months and months, and I’ve been tweeting it out and calling it out on social media. Where is the server? … And what is the server saying?”
“[President Putin] just said it’s not Russia [that hacked the DNC web server, as US intelligence agencies claim]….I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be, but I really do want to see the server. Where are those servers? … What happened to Hillary Clinton’s emails? Thirty-three thousand emails gone — just gone.”
The President condemned Obama’s spying on his 2016 presidential campaign
The pro-Democratic Party, anti-Trump media have covered up this national security state operation (and here). The crime, concocted stories of Trump-Russia collusion to derail a presidential bid, recalls Nixon’s Watergate.
The president tweeted (March 5, 2018):
“Why did the Obama Administration start an investigation into the Trump Campaign (with zero proof of wrongdoing) long before the Election in November? Wanted to discredit so Crooked H would win. Unprecedented. Bigger than Watergate!”
“The Obama people did something that’s never been done…They spied on a rival presidential campaign. Would it be OK if Trump did it next? I am losing faith that our system is on the level.” (August 29, 2018)
“You have a Fake Dossier, gathered by Steele, paid by the Clinton team to get information on Trump. The Dossier is Fake, nothing in it has been verified. It then filters into our American court system in order to spy on Barrack[sic] Obama and Hillary Clinton’s political opponent.” (September 1, 2018)
President Trump wrote (Mar 15, 2019):
“New evidence that the Obama era team of the FBI, DOJ & CIA were working together to Spy on (and take out) President Trump, all the way back in 2015.”
The Grayzone did corroborate this timeline. This was indeed a “deep state” effort to smear and derail a presidential bid.
The President of the United States warns of the threat the deep state and corporate media pose to democracy
Trump declared:
“Unelected deep state operatives who defy the voters to push their own secret agendas are truly a threat to democracy itself” (September 6, 2018).
“Look how things have turned around on the Criminal Deep State. They go after Phony Collusion with Russia, a made up Scam, and end up getting caught in a major SPY scandal the likes of which this country may never have seen before!” (May 23, 2018).
“Some of the best Economic Numbers our Country has ever experienced are happening right now. This is despite a Crooked and Demented Deep State, and a probably illegal Democrat/Fake News Media Partnership the likes of which the world has never seen.” (September 21, 2019)
In the middle of the Russiagate hoax, which led to the Democrats’ lawfare coup attempt at his impeachment in 2019, the President spoke out against widespread corporate media disinformation (Feb 17, 2017):
“The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!”
The United States president warned of the power this media has over the US political system:
“THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA IS THE REAL OPPOSITION PARTY!”
As if to prove his point, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have blocked the President of the United States.
Trump, the first US president to meet with a North Korean leader, the first to step inside North Korea
The president defused historic US government hostility with North Korea, although the US still refuses to sign a Korean War peace treaty. President Trump not only was the first US president to meet with a North Korean leader of state, but, unlike his predecessors, Trump displayed respect for its leader, Kim Jong Un. These sensible moves towards peace and understanding, unprecedented for a US president, caused much animosity among Democrats and Republicans alike.
In a presidential debate, Trump defended his actions:
“We have a good relationship with North Korea, we’re not in a war. Having a good relationship with leaders of other countries is a good thing.” (October 22, 2020)
“Just so you understand, [It’s been] almost four years we’re not in a war. Almost anybody else would have been in a war. I get along, we talk, and let’s see what happens. But we’ve done a great job and haven’t been given the credit we deserve.” (Trump interview).
Trump even praised North Korea in a press conference:
“I happen to believe that North Korea is calling its own shots. They’re not taking orders from anybody. He [Kim Jong Un] is a very strong guy. And they’re able to do things that are pretty amazing.”
With the exit of Trump, we can expect renewed threats against North Korea and increased military action in the Middle East. We will experience not just an end to presidential condemnations of the national security state, but its further unleashing on the US people and the world. We likely will not again experience a president repudiating the US’ self-appointed role as world cop, or the US Chief Executive blasting its Middle East wars. Jimmy Dore correctly noted the Washington establishment does not hate Trump so much when he lies as when he tells the truth. Russiaphobia, a staple of Democrats, never ended. Now Russiagaters are tying Putin to the storming of the Capitol, exemplified with “progressive” Robert Reich’s silly claim on January 6 “Putin won.” As the second House impeachment shows, Trump has been spurned by the ruling class. Today the US capitalist class still considers the national security state as a more effective tool for maintaining its rule.
Featured image: File photo. Courtesy of the New York Times.
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Stansfield Smith
Stansfield Smith is a Chicago-based anti-imperialist activist. He was active for over a decade in the Chicago Committee to Free the Cuban 5. His work is now on ChicagoALBASolidarity.wordpress.com. He has written on Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador for the Council on Hemispheric Affairs and on North Korea for Counterpunch and others.
