Donald Trump has spent the last seven years emotionally, physically, mentally, financially, and politically abusing the American people. The groups targeted as enemies by Trump and his movement have felt the abuse even more severely, where their literal safety is imperiled. For the LGBTQ community, these fears are especially acute because the forces on the right are publicly targeting them for eliminationism and other forms of mass violence. Abuse victims often share how the worst part of their experience is the feeling that one's sense of being grounded and certain in the world has been taken away. Normalcy is gone because life is shaped by the moods and whims of the abuser and what he or she may do next. Of all of the many horrible things that Donald Trump has done to the American people, that may be the worst of his crimes.
Now Trump may finally be facing some consequences for his political crime spree and years of abusing the American people. It is widely anticipated that a grand jury in Manhattan is going to indict Donald Trump for crimes connected to hush money payments that he made to his former mistress Stormy Daniels. It is the least serious of the many other charges that Trump may soon face for election fraud, concealing top secret documents, financial fraud, and other crimes connected to the Jan. 6 coup attempt and beyond.
This is a very dangerous moment in Donald Trump's abusive relationship with the American people.
When abusers are held accountable for their wrongdoing they often react with great violence. It is not uncommon for the victim to be killed when they tell finally tell their abusers "no!" and then try to leave the relationship.
Donald Trump is no different.
He attempted a lethal coup on Jan. 6 after the American people voted him out of office. He is now attempting to return to power with the stated goal of getting revenge and "retribution" on the enemies of his MAGA movement. These are not empty threats. Trump has shown himself to be a likely sociopath who possesses a deep attraction to and personal capacity for violence.
Like other abusers, Trump claims that he is really an "innocent" victim who is being unfairly persecuted. In keeping with that behavior, when Trump threatens and incites violence, he then claims that it is all a misunderstanding and he is actually peaceful and innocent.
This is a very dangerous moment in Donald Trump's abusive relationship with the American people.
When a person tries to escape there is a fear of not just what the abuser will do in retaliation but what his or her friends, family members and other enablers will do on their behalf. This is true of Trump as well. To that point, Trump is publicly inciting his followers to commit acts of violence to protect him from being indicted for his crimes. Law enforcement is preparing for protests and violence by Trump's followers when and if he is indicted. Republicans in Congress are now targeting Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for hearings and investigations in an effort to intimidate him. More importantly, the harassment is an attempt to squash the other far more serious investigations into Trump's obvious criminal wrongdoing. On Tuesday, for example, a bomb threat was made against the courthouse where New York Attorney General Letitia James is bringing a lawsuit against Trump, his family, and company for real estate fraud.
Ultimately, it is not sufficient to escape the abuser one must escape their agents as well.
During a recent interview on Mehdi Hasan's MSNBC show, Dr. Mary Trump, who is a psychologist and the niece of the former president, issued this warning about her uncle:
This is a person who does understand on some level that he's getting closer and closer to some sort of accountability. He probably doesn't believe it entirely because it's never happened. But he knows that if he makes his grievance the grievance of the mob, if he makes the rule of law, holding him accountable, a crime against real Americans, then we might be in for some trouble here…… he didn't stay at the Oval Office after he lost the election. He left. The only punishment was not to attend the inauguration….he knows when he needs to cede certain ground. But that's because he has millions of people who will do his bidding. And it is not an accident that he is already preempting reactions by calling for protest. We saw this happen before. We're gonna see it happen again, and it is cause for concern.
As we wait for Trump's supposedly imminent indictment in New York, I keep thinking about my conversation with legendary CIA profiler Dr. Jerrold Post.
In the last chapter of my new book I quote one of my favorite poems, which is, "Do not go gentle into that good night, but rage, rage at the dying of the light." I do not believe that Donald Trump will go gentle into that good night. In a close election, there is a very real hazard in terms of both potential outcomes. Should Trump win, as he did in 2016, he will make it a much bigger win and talking about the fraudulent election support on the Democratic side. But should Trump lose narrowly, I think we can be assured that he will not concede early. Trump may not even recognize the legitimacy of the election.
As for impeachment, should the Senate not vote to convict, Trump will take that as the indication that it was all somehow a "witch hunt" by the Democrats against him. Whatever happens, Trump will not go gentle into that good night.
Dr. Post was prophetic; his counsel that late night is one of the main reasons that there are few things that Donald Trump has done or is capable of doing that could ever surprise me. He is evil; unlike others with a public voice and platform, I do not run away from using the correct moral language to describe the forces that are working to end this country's multiracial democracy.
We often talk about "the soul of our Nation." Whatever one believes that civic soul to be, it has been gravely injured by Donald Trump and his acolytes. I include Trump's rank-and-file foot soldiers and cultists as well: they have been severely abused by Donald Trump but do not realize it yet. Alas, there are too many people who confuse abuse with love.
The political and pundit classes routinely describe American society in the Age of Trump as being extremely "polarized." That is distant and cold language. As a practical matter, the American people feel broken, possessed by a sense that something is very wrong. Public opinion polls and other research show that a plurality, if not the outright majority, of Americans feel the country is heading in the wrong direction and that the country's major social and political institutions are illegitimate.
Whatever may happen with Donald Trump and his indictment and trial the American people need to do what therapists and other counselors describe as "soul work." We need a reckoning, to confront the trauma and damage caused by the Age of Trump and this democracy crisis, and to ask ourselves about who we really are as a people. There is so much work to be done beyond one man named Donald Trump and what he has unleashed. Once again Donald Trump and Trumpism are a symptom of a very serious cultural and political disease and not the cause of the profound and perhaps lethal existential malady.
As journallst and author Steven Beschloss writes in a powerful new essay at his website:
But let's be clear: This is a story about serving justice and repairing our democracy. Either there's rule of law or there's not. Either we are defined by a system of justice that holds the guilty accountable or we aren't. Either we have a democracy that limits the use of violence to define our public life and the rights of our citizens or we have a country devolving into authoritarianism in which a strongman leader can employ fear and intimidation to get and keep power.
After the exhausting years of Trump—including over 30,000 documented lies, dozens of discernible criminal acts, and a near-daily effort to spur a climate of chaos and a growing appetite for hatred and carnage—this is a moment to declare: We will not be held hostage once again by a tyrannical minority or its leaders that are abusing their power to undermine democracy and democratic institutions, permanently break peoples' belief in justice and the rule of law, and drive a deeper wedge between Americans with grievance and outrage.
Many members of the so-called "Resistance" are hungry and eager with anticipation at the mere thought of seeing Donald Trump indicted and arrested and then "perp walked." (The latter almost certainly will not happen) Such celebrations are very premature.
Here is the question that must be confronted: What do we do if Donald Trump the abuser is not held accountable and vanquished?
Trump is one of the most successful criminals in American history. He hasn't gotten in real trouble before so why will this time be any different? This is the fear that abuse victims know all too well. You gather up the kids and pets and whatever else matters to you and you try to get away, and he or she finds you and brings you back. Or you finally call the police, and they take the abuser away and then that night or a few days later you come home, and they are waiting for you on the couch.
In the mind of the abuser, THEY get to decide when the relationship is over and not YOU.
Donald Trump's mind works the same way. What will the American people do then?
