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The FBI’s Search of Mar-A-Lago Sends the Right Into Orbit
By Reed Galen
Yesterday, the FBI conducted a search of Donald Trump’s home, Mar-A-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida. According to reports, they were searching for classified documents that Trump and his entourage had taken from the White House rather than send them to the National Archives, as required by law.
Trump’s reaction was swift, and a recitation of his long-standing description of the United States as a fiery hellscape. Yesterday, he added “third world country” and “corrupt at a level not seen before,” to his descriptors. More on him later.
Like clockwork, the right-wing media constellation went into overdrive. “Unprecedented!” “Never before in American history!” “Nixonian!” Even Fox News, who reportedly has written Trump off, was in full hysterics. Laura Ingraham warned that “when we retake power…” that everyone would be held accountable.
Reporters that cover the QAnon/Trump underworld beat reported on social media that threats of violence were flowing in a torrent not seen since January 5th, 2021, the day before Donald Trump completed another potential criminal act, when he sent thousands of his supporters to storm the United States Capitol and stop his fall from power.
Soon, Republican and MAGA candidates alike got in on the act, all trying to outdo each other with their denunciations of President Joe Biden, the Justice Department and the FBI. Many of them used similar language, excoriating the Biden “Regime” and noting that 87,000 newly hired IRS agents were coming for us all (they aren’t, at least not yet.)
Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, after moisturizing the calluses on his hands from all the high-fives in Tallahassee, got Regime, IRS agents and Hunter Biden in one tweet, covering his bases while he covered his ass. Ted Cruz warned of the Sheriffs of Nottingham roaming the countryside in search of your purse.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, though, took the cake for the Fascist Statement of the Day tweeting:
“I’ve seen enough. The Department of Justice has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization. When Republicans take back the House, we will conduct immediate oversight of this department, follow the facts, and leave no stone unturned. Attorney General Garland, preserve your documents and clear your calendar.”
MAGA leadership – official, political and media are threatening their political opponents with retribution – again. Trump did it daily while running for office in 2016 and for four years in the White House. He sat by and waited for news that he’d consigned his own Vice President to the gallows. Many even went back to attacking Hillary Clinton and asking where Benghazi had gone.
Sidenote: Going after Secretary Clinton is liking hitting the reset button for MAGA. When they don’t know what to do, they go back to first principles.
What we see is the Strong Man protection strategy in full swing. Trump as leader. Trump as victim. Trump as wronged by powers of the deep state, the Democrats and the forces of George Soros (read: the Jews.) It’s been rehashed so many times I could’ve typed these words anytime in the last seven years.
Now, though, Donald Trump is in real trouble, and he knows it. For Trump, his lifelong sense of invulnerability (and Karma’s weird acceptance of it) has been his superpower. As Mary Trump noted in her first book, Trump’s been doing the unthinkable since kindergarten and for 70 years, the world stood back and gaped.
Sitting inside the White House, Trump knew Congressional Republicans and Bill Barr’s DOJ would keep him safe from any real legal threats. The Secret Service would protect him physically (and politically, as it turns out.) Even sitting in Bedminster, he’s physically invulnerable (except to his diet.)
This vulnerability will eat at him as he sits in one bridal suite or another. It will consume his thoughts as roams around his golf course with one lackey or another. He will text about it. Call about it. “Truth” about it as he attempts to come to grips with a mental state for which he’s not wired.
An FBI search, in conjunction with the January 6th Committee hearings and evidence, is starting to build a wall around Trump that even he may not be able to break down. He’s already looking for someone within his circle to solve this problem for him. But who? Jared and Ivanka are gone. Don Jr? It’s…Don Jr. Many of his own lawyers have their own alleged crimes to worry about. That will leave only one group: The political people.
In this moment, he’ll look to them for the one thing he believes can save him: Running for president again. Right now, there is a tug of war going on for Trump’s phone. He desperately wants to announce. His team, such as they are, are begging him to wait until after the November election.
Yesterday’s raid speeds up the timetable, and gives Trump something else he wants: To be back in the middle of the action, to watch Republican candidates bend-the-knee at rallies across the country, and to reclaim his rightful place as Victim-in-Chief.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]