by Melvin A. Goodman, 
Donald Trump’s prior statements foreshadowed the war he is waging on our democracy.
“I’ve had a lot of wars of my own. I’m really good at war. I love war….” (Donald Trump, Campaign Rally in Iowa, 2015)
“When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it. Then they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength. That shows you the power of strength. Our country is right now perceived as weak.” (Donald Trump, Interview with Playboy magazine, 1990)
Donald Trump has been at war for the past three and a half years as President of the United States. The verbal assaults on American governance began in his inauguration speech (“American Carnage”) in January 2017, and ever since there has been a political assault on the Department of Justice and the justice system itself; the intelligence community; the departments and agencies of government that deal with science and reason; and the international world order that Democratic and Republican administrations have supported since the Second World War. His recent attacks on the nation’s Inspector Generals has compromised the government’s ability to conduct oversight and accountability; Trump’s attacks on the treaties and accords of arms control and disarmament have weakened our national security; his pardon of a war criminal who was convicted by the U.S. military undermined the Pentagon’s command and control for unconscionable conduct.
Trump’s War on Democracy Escalates
But Trump’s statements and actions in the wake of the killing of George Floyd have raised Trump’s war on democracy and governance to a new and dangerous level that could create greater violence in the United States.
Spoiling for a Fight
Trump told the governors they should make no concessions to the protesters. He encouraged them to throw caution to the winds. “You’re allowed to fight back,” he said.
“When someone is throwing a rock, that’s like shooting a gun. You have to do retribution in my opinion.”
Several days earlier, he repeated the warning of a white segregationist police chief, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” In the Rose Garden of the White House on Monday, June 1, he gratuitously invoked the importance of the Second Amendment. Trump’s framed all of his comments for his base, particularly the white supremacists who favor use of force. His blasphemous pose holding a bible in front of the St. John’s Episcopal Church had fascist imagery. The fact that excessive military force involving tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash-bangs was used against a peaceful demonstration in front of the church in order to allow Trump’s photo-op marked a display of fascism and not mere imagery. The video of this force has created an apocalyptic horror that has gone viral throughout the world.
As Benjamin Franklin left the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, an anxious citizen asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.” We are about to find out in the next several months whether Donald Trump is a comet across the sky or someone who changed this nation forever.
The opinions expressed by Mel are wholly his own and do not imply in any way Florida Veterans For Common Sense, Inc. endorsement or agreement.