Don The Con

Mr. Donald J. Trump continues to press the lie that he won the presidential election. Only the massive fraud, he says, perpetrated across the country by Democrats and Republicans keeps the country from realizing that he won. In the process, he is succeeding only in cementing his place in history as the worst president ever. Since the election, Mr. Trump played golf more times than he addressed the nation even as hospitals across the country are filling up, record numbers of people are hospitalized daily, and the toll from the pandemic approaches 270,000 dead Americans.

Thank goodness he will serve only one term.

In the process, he is running the biggest scam of his life. Millions of dollars in donations to his “legal defense fund” continue to pour in as he continues to whine about how the election was stolen from him. That money is largely going into Mr. Trump’s pocket. While sending countless texts and emails to his followers asking them to support his “Official Legal Defense Fund,” the fine print of those messages says that there is really a 60-40 split of money contributed. 60% goes to Mr. Trump’s “Save America” political action committee (PAC) and 40% goes to the Republican National Committee (RNC). Only after a donor contributes $8,000 or more does any of the money go to the legal defense fund. The longer he keeps up the charade that he is fighting to make every vote count, the more money he rakes in. His PAC is basically a slush fund that Mr. Trump can use legally in just about any way that he wants. So while what he is doing may be legal, once again he is lying to his supporters, feeding a narrative that our democracy is a sham, and keeping only his personal interests in mind.

This should come as no surprise from a man that told over 22,000 documented lies since entering office, ran a fake university that required him to pay $25 million to settle a law suit, and a “charity” that was little more than an account for him to use on personal expenses and cost him $2 million to settle in yet another law suit. In the latter case, the Trump Foundation was required to permanently close down and Mr. Trump and his children are restricted under the New York courts as to how they can be involved in any other charitable foundation. This is the same man that is named as “Individual 1” — an unindicted co-conspirator — in violation of election laws by paying off two women to keep quiet about their affairs. He even wrote several of the checks in the Oval Office.

He never stopped scamming us his entire time in office.

Meanwhile an article in yesterday’s Washington Post outlines the truly distressing behavior of a loser that cannot accept the fact that he was beaten, and beaten badly, in a free and fair election. According to the article, he truly believed that he would win the election and was truly confounded as to how he could lose to the man he called the worst presidential candidate in history. Since then, he has turned over the efforts to invalidate the election to Mr. Rudy Giuliani who fills his head full of stories, lies, fantasies and bizarre conspiracy theories. Apparently, Mr. Trump believes Mr. Giuliani’s phantasmagorical concoctions based in other worldly delusions. One begins to become concerned about Mr. Trump’s mental health as he continues down this path. Especially since he is still the president until 20 January.

Scammer or crackpot? Which is the real Mr. Trump? It is possible to be both. The danger is that while he plays out this delusional dream he is doing real damage to the foundation of our republic. He seems determined to burn down the place as he leaves. Just as his guiding light over the last four years was to overturn and destroy everything that President Barak Obama did, he seems equally determined to undermine the President-elect by placing roadblocks, political cronies, and poor policies in every nook and cranny of the government. Sadly, he is receiving aid, comfort, and cover by his Senate Republican enablers. Most have yet to acknowledge that Mr. Joseph Biden is the President-elect, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. There is already speculation among them that maybe they will not confirm any of Mr. Biden’s Cabinet nominees. Talk about taking a sledge hammer to democracy.

As the pandemic rages and continues to grow and the American economy lies in shambles as a result, neither the president nor the Senate is taking any action in any form to alleviate the situation. There is help on the horizon in the form of promising vaccines. Unfortunately, the logistics behind the distribution of those vaccines is extremely difficult and thus costly. As they have with every other aspect of the pandemic, the Trump Administration plans to leave it up to the individual states as to how and when to distribute the vaccine. To date, the states have received no funding to do so, even as many states are cutting public services and scrounging for every dollar to keep up with their existing requirements.

Shame on all of them. Their behavior is un-American.

Repeat after me. They. Don’t. Care. They just don’t. The situation was dire before the election. Now that Mr. Trump lost, there is no incentive whatsoever for him or the Senate to take action in the coming months. If they don’t personally benefit from doing their job, they just don’t do it. They don’t care.

Don the Con runs his scam, plays golf, whines, and does nothing. He has abdicated any responsibility to do any part of his job. Let’s just hope that nothing else endangers our democracy over the next two months.