Now, I have mentioned many times over my own skepticism regarding any real possibility that Trump will be impeached, or will get seriously in trouble in any other way, for all of his myriad wrongdoings in the past few years, to say nothing of his long laundry list of wrongdoings before he actually ran for the White House. It sounds absurd that a President would pardon himself, but trust me, this man of pure vanity, this MAGAlomaniac is capable of it! If he could get away with possibly getting into serious legal trouble by doing so, he would not hesitate for a second, no matter how ridiculous it might look. Besides, after the last two years, does the thought of looking even more ridiculous or moronic really scare him? It would just be another such episode for the man who was literally laughed at for all the world to see while giving a speech at the United Nations.
Even if that did not happen, Republicans simply will not hold him accountable, and that will end any and all serious talk of Trump actually being removed from office before the 2020 election.
Still, a lot of people believe that this will indeed happen, or that Trump will be forced out. Personally, I do not see it, and trust me, I would love to see it! This is one area where I would definitely love to be wrong, because Trump has been nothing but a disaster for this country, and indeed for the entire world, frankly.
But when New Year's Day 2020 rolls around, my expectation is that Trump will still be in office, still ranting and raving, still sending idiotic, mind-numbingly stupid tweets that show his pettiness and vindictiveness, and that he will continue to show astonishing levels of immaturity and complete lack of professionalism and dignity throughout the coming year. Frankly, he is a sign of where the nation is at right now, whether or not people like to hear it. There is a reason that he was elected, after all, and tens of millions of people remain very faithful in their support of this president.
Yes, Trump has finally been singled out as having done wrong, personally. But it will likely come to naught. Sorry, but I just do not have faith in what so many others seem to have faith in, that Trump will be forced from office. Again, my hope is to be wrong on this, and I would be pleasantly surprised if Trump finally feels that his feet are to the fire, and he is being held accountable for his countless acts of wrongdoing. But I just am not banking on it.
Let's face it: Trump could and should have been behind bars for many things, and for a long time now, since well before he ever even thought about running for the White House, like he did (and failed) back in 2012. There is a reason why this man is seen by many who know about him, regardless of their political persuasion, as a shallow narcissist and scam artist. He conned people out of their money with several blatant scams, such as "Trump University." He refused to pay some workers their wages, and he had to settle out of court when faced with allegations of fraud.
Then, he ran for President, because with credentials like those, he apparently feels qualified. These days, it seems that anyone who is famous, anyone who has a large public profile, feels entitled to at least seriously contemplate running for high office. And nobody has ever felt as entitled as Trump does, and no one is even in his league when it comes to narcissism.
The problem, of course, was that he received support because he appealed to people's prejudices. Why even pretend that there is any significant other reason why this man emerged immediately as the leader in the Republican field. He was not politically correct, and spoke what passes for his mind about many things, including racist rants. And yes, this appealed to more and more people, as they viewed this known and proven liar as somehow essentially truthful in some key way. Other Republicans were too scared to attack him until it was too late, and one by one, they all fell, until Trump became the nominee. Then, he beat Hillary in the general election, and the rest is history.
Since then, we have learned about his wrongdoings, which are predictably considerable in length, since running in 2016. We learned that he lied, time and time again. We learned that he had much more involvement and ties with Russia than he had let on earlier, sure (although I personally am still very skeptical that this was the reason that he won). We learned that he never meant what he said about divorcing himself from his business interests while president, and that he now faces serious charges of violations of the emoluments clause, as it seems he and his family and business interests are personally profiting. And just the thousands of times that he has lied and/or given misleading statements, which he seems to get away with like no one we have ever seen before.
Yes, all of these are major issues, and Trump should be held accountable.
But let's also be real for a second. We Americans are living in the world's wealthiest nation (yes, it remains the nation with this distinction for the time being), yet there are growing numbers of poor and homeless people, and people looking for food in trash bins, and we seem to accept this, by and large. We Americans have long claimed that this is the "land of the free," yet we have more people in prison than any other nation in the world, by far. We claim to welcome immigrants, and have the Statue of Liberty as a symbol of this welcome from the tyranny of other lands, but we now support a tyrant who is threatening our civil liberties and who has pulled the welcome mats from immigrants. We claim to be the "leaders of the free world," but it is clear that the rest of the world is beginning to make a point of moving on without the United States in a growing number of areas, from action to fight climate change to trade deals and nuclear deals. We claim to be a nation where all citizens are seen and treated equally under the law, yet we see countless episodes or racism and sexism and overall prejudice tolerated time and time again. We claim to believe in progress, yet we keep electing climate change deniers and people who clearly do not believe in science, time and time and time again.
We have problems as a nation, and Trump is simply the most blatant face and voice of all of this hypocrisy. But until we actually resolve these issues that we as a nation are collectively guilty as, why should we expect the elected leader of this nation to be held accountable to higher standards, when we exempt ourselves from basic standards of national decency, ourselves? I believe we should work on fixing those issues as a nation first and foremost, because my own sneaking suspicion is that, given the short attention span that Americans are currently known for, many will simply believe that Trump, and only Trump, is the evil that needs to be gotten rid of, and that once he is gone, everything will be right with the world and with this country. And that clearly is not, nor will not, be the case.
It's time that we woke up as a nation! Yes, let's hold Trump accountable, by all means! But let us hold ourselves collectively accountable and try to fix these problems first, and not again get lulled into a false sense of security, which strongly contributed to Trump's rise to power in the first place. Because believe it or not, I think someone even worse than Trump - and possibly far worse - is still a very distinct possibility, and right now, we are not even all that far from it.
Predictions: Trump goes, unexpected candidate emerges in 2019 BY JOHN LEBOUTILLIER, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 01/01/19
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/423132-predictions-trump-goes-unexpected-candidate-emerges-in-2019?fbclid=IwAR32tF-yTvdP-yvl07CmX_x5uFJZ2Bca8Iky7APNTf_SetExlFiDqs1i5vE
DONALD TRUMP WILL RESIGN THE PRESIDENCY IN 2019 IN EXCHANGE FOR IMMUNITY FOR HIM AND HIS FAMILY, FORMER BUSH ADVISER SAYS BY TIM MARCIN ON 1/2/19
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-resign-2019-family-immunity-1276990?fbclid=IwAR1yAqHLnc8PWqCm2qo0qnpiJhXsNrgiWvCkOEneJOnOIDdGH6jmBsooqb8
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