Liberty Expose: Trump's Greatest Enemy
When I initially started writing this column, the working title was “James Comey and Doublethink.” It was going to be about how the firing of a FBI director whom was bathed in bi-partisan resentment caused another cycle of mind-numbing outrage that symbolized the apex of hypocrisy. It would have been about how many on the left (and a few on the right) whom called for Comey’s expulsion from the FBI after he supposedly lost the election for Hillary Clinton were making fools of themselves by now comparing Trump to Nixon, and preparing to manufacture a new scandal with the suffix “gate.”
Then the leaks came. What followed should not surprise anyone; President Trump dug himself a hole that is too deep to get out of with his already worn out rhetorical shovel. We have now entered the realm of anther avoidable scandal. This is exhausting.
Initially, a letter came out which showed the President terminating FBI director James Comey on recommendation by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. This did not come as a surprise, Director Comey had been sinking in the political quicksand for some time now. There were the email scandals, in which Comey gave Hillary Clinton a rhetorical slap on the wrist for having classified information on her server. An act that resulted in Comey being propped up as the personification of Justice by many in the pro-Hillary camp, and utter contempt by many Republicans.
Then, before the election, Comey announced that Secretary Clinton was still being looked at in the email scandal, which many in the pro-Hillary crowd pointed to as the reason Clinton lost the election – with Secretary Clinton recently reiterating those claims (she also blamed sexism of course.) Ostensibly, the notion that she was corrupt, incompetent, and lacked hubris did not occur to her. As one can imagine, at this point Republicans forgave Director Comey – at least temporarily. Then the frenzy of post-election America ensued, and in the haze that followed the election, James Comey lost favor with the Republicans and began sinking in the quicksand at a quicker pace. That is, until he came to be at odds with The Donald.
The initially story of President Trump firing Comey from his directorship due to his unfavorable past – which is a defensible position – was annihilated with the release of leaks into the media. Now there are multiple narratives. One revolves around throwing an Assistant Attorney General under the bus (or Trump Train). Another accuses the President of firing Comey due to his investigation into President Trumps ties to the Russian Federation. Democrats have pushed this narrative, and if true, are grounds for impeachment.
Another is predicated on Director Comey not swearing his loyalty enough for Donald Trump’s satisfaction. Now apparently, it has been reported that President Trump requested that Director Comey stopped looking into former National Security Advisor Michel Flynn’s relationship with Russia. There will undoubtedly be more in the days to come. Of course, all of this could have been avoided, had it not been for the President’s inability to close his mouth or stay away from Twitter – but that is too much to ask.
And herein lies the Irony of the 45th President; the greatest enemy of Donald Trump is not the Democrats, nor is it Conservative politicians, commentators, or writers whom are dismayed by the President’s lack of any understanding of Conservatism as a philosophy.
The great enemy of the President is not the “fake news” media, however ruthlessly they attack Trump. Nor is the enemy the cemented career bureaucrats or judges, however likely that many oppose and seek to undermine him. The true enemy of President Donald Trump is President Donald Trump. If the President had a Nixonian enemies list, enemy number one of President Donald Trump would be President Donald Trump.
For the benefit of saving time, lets disregard the statement then-candidate Trump has said during the horror that was election 2016. Let us not be reminded of candidate Trump threatening to throw his opponent in jail as if he was a third-world despot, and lest us forget how he looked favorably upon sexual assault in a stomach-turning Access Hollywood tape. Of course, throw the statement Trump made which insinuated Ted Cruz’s father of being involved in the JFK assassination down the memory hole. Those obviously didn’t affect the outcome of the election.
Instead, focus on how the President absolutely insisted that he won the popular vote, had it not been for the nefarious forces surrounding illegal voting – which undercuts the importance of an issue Republicans otherwise feel strongly about. Focus on how President Trump repeatedly stated that he won the election in a historical landslide, despite the fact that reality provides a different narrative. A lie that forced the newly elected administration into a battle immediately after its birth. One should take note of when the President repeatedly advanced the narrative of his “yuge” crowd size at his inauguration when the media began stating that it was smaller than President Obama’s inauguration crowd.
The President, aided by the worst press secretary in history, charged into the narrow path of a media Thermopile purely because he felt his ego had been challenged. There are also the trivial examples of absurdity, such as Trump’s remarks regarding Andrew Jackson and how it is apparently never asked why the Civil War happened. I could go on, but no one has time for that. I recommend following the President’s Twitter feed for a more concise history of the President’s oratory. And now, we have the Comey debacle.
What is to come is unknown – but it will undoubtable agitated by incoherent nature of the President. President Trump has now come to resemble a character in a Christopher Marlowe play: his invaluable ego has lead to his ascendance to fame and the most powerful political post in the world, but it is also his puerile ego that will spell disaster form him and his administration. We can watch and hope that Trump improves or changes his ways along the journey, as we do when following the exploits of Doctor Faustus – but like doomed Doctor, President Trump’s great sin is unconquerable – and will always come back to doom him too.