I might have voted for Trump if he had done anything to bring down the Deep State, but he’s supported it for four years!

"I might have voted for Trump if he had done anything to bring down the Deep State, but he’s supported it for four years!"
by David Haggith
RT.com (November 10, 2020)
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/506334-trump-deep-state-swamp/

The Donald may like to style himself as an anti-establishment crusader, but actions speak louder than words, and his actions have simply drained the DC swamp right into the West Wing.

Back in September, 2016, before Trump became president, I wrote an article titled, “Trump: Trojan Horse for the Establishment or Mighty Mouth for Mankind?” in which I gave the following observations and warning:

“I crave the opportunity to see an anti-establishment candidate win the election….My desire to see the economy righted and the establishment overturned (peacefully), however, is exactly what makes me cautious about any gold-plated politician who has lived all of his life in the realm of the one percenters…. While I have never liked Trump, I’d put up with his relentless boasting and forgive his audacious past if it takes that kind of brassy, risk-taking adventurer … to stand up to the intimidations of congress…. Unfortunately, I have seen often in life that bellicose people are usually nowhere near as brave as they sound….”

Then I asked “Is Donald Trump a Trojan horse? Is he as hollow as his mouth is big?... Trump knows he can tap into a huge vault of anger; and, as a media mogul himself, he knows better than anyone how to play the media for free publicity by being outrageous…. From Trump’s choice of a 180-proof neocon vice-presidential candidate to an embedded Goldman-Sachs campaign financial manager to the Heritage Foundation’s dream team of budget advisors he assembled, Trump has selected people who wholly embody the establishment. Everything these people have ever done or said has been in support of the Wall Street one-percenters…. So, if you think Trump is any threat to the establishment, you may be riding a Trojan horse.”

The article went on to describe just how pro-establishment, pro-Wall Street, pro-war and pro-military-industrial-complex (MIC) Trump’s assembled team was based on their histories. So, here we are full circle – at what looks like the end of his time in office – and I ask has Trump really done anything to take down the deep state or the MIC that he personally put in charge of everything?

Given how Trump was persecuted by the FBI, CIA and others due to Hillary Clinton’s fake Steele Dossier, Trump should have declassified all relevant information four years ago. Instead, he chose not to lock up Hillary or anyone. Before he was even in office, after winning the election, he said on 60 Minutes Hillary had “suffered enough” because of her defeat and that “the Clintons are good people,” so he wouldn’t be going after them. Not until about two months before this year’s election did he uncover some of her corruption and start down the path toward some vague form of prosecution.

One of many reasons I voted against him was that he did nothing during his four years in office to take the corrupt parties who had worked against him to court. After priming his supporters at every rally into chants of “Lock ’er up,” he chose to disappoint all of them by doing what every presidential winner seems to do as soon as he has secured victory: he chose not to prosecute anyone in the deep state. In fact, he immediately put the deep state characters in charge of everything.

He did not declassify any deep-state action of significance until this year, by which time he hoped the evidence would derail Biden. Trump waited too long for it to do him any good, and that says to me there might not even be much meat on that bone, or why wait so long to release so little? That was Trump’s choice. Many pleaded with him to declassify for years. He chose to do nothing but talk.

Trump had years to get on top of this, and he utterly failed because he didn't dog it every day and didn't publicly release information that would have implicated Clinton and Comey and Brannen and Clapper and others. He let the deep state get off Scott free by his choice. I chose not to vote for him because I got sick of his cheap talk.

Donald Trump chose to put Goldman Sachs in charge of all the financial departments of government, except for the one department he put Bear Stearns alum, and noted cocaine addict, Larry Kudlow in charge of. Trump CHOSE to put military deep-state stooges in charge of everything having anything to do with intelligence. Trump drained the entire swamp straight into the White House.

Seeing all of this, his supporters claimed (because they wanted to believe they finally had a champion and to believe their votes were well placed) that Trump was playing 4-D chess! Some 4-D chess! The game is over, and he’s clearly lost.

So, I'm more than glad to give him the boot. Trojan Trump was an abject failure at his biggest promise. The deep state remains entrenched, and Trump exposed almost nothing but his own back side. He didn't end any of the MICs military endeavors. He repeatedly made the MIC’s top brass his many chiefs of staff. There was no 4-D chess here, people! There was two-dimensional stupidity. Trump got played or never intended to do anything he said.

All we got against the deep state was a lot of big talk. A lot of Trumpeting and conspiracy theories, but not a single step that yielded real results: No one went to prison. No one even went on trial. There is always just talk.

I voted him out because kicking him out of office was the only thing that might make him mad enough to get off of his fat rump and actually start bringing the deep state down!

With me, it became “No free ride. Do what you say, or hit the road.” I chose to hold his feet to the fire by giving him only two more months to make it real. Maybe he’ll finally get hot enough to start releasing the information he claims he has about the Deep State, but so far all he’s done is play golf and flap his big mouth. I want to see if he really does have the evidence.

He’s got two months left to come out with genuine evidence. If all he does is continue his usual amplification of conspiracy theories, I won’t listen to a word of it. Either bring out the evidence, create the subpoenas against deep-state players and file your allegations in court, or shut up.

While Trump is taunting his supporters with hopes of rallies to talk some more about all the cases of election fraud he is about to bring, one Republican commented: “No one seriously thinks the [election] results will change…. He went golfing this weekend. It’s not like he’s plotting how to prevent Joe Biden from taking power on Jan. 20. He’s tweeting about filing some lawsuits, those lawsuits will fail, then he’ll tweet some more about how the election was stolen, and then he’ll leave.”

Many of the elections Trump is contesting as fraudulent were run by Republican Secretaries of State or held in states with Republican governors, who all vouch for the election results, and most cases Trump has already tried to bring alleging election fraud have already been thrown out for lack of evidence. Even Fox News gets it.

Of course, it is never “show over” with Trump. He’s always got a sequel in store, so there is surely more drama ahead, but The White House Apprentice’s final season has come. I’m sure it will be a grand finale, but Trump is the one who assured its failure by making it all talk and no show.

* Notes from related news article dealing with how President Trump might use his remaining time in office: "Controversial official who pushed conspiracy theories taking top Pentagon policy role," by Ryan Browne, Barbara Starr and Zachary Cohen, CNN (November 10m 2020)
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/10/politics/pentagon-policy-official-resigns/index.html

. . . [snip] . . .

Growing uncertainty

Multiple civilian and military officials working inside the Pentagon also told CNN there is growing uncertainty at the Defense Department about what Trump may be planning to do next in the wake of firing Esper and replacing other key civilian leaders.

Knowledgeable sources told CNN's Jake Tapper that the White House now seems focused on going after Esper's undersecretaries at the Defense Department in the wake of his ouster on Monday.

The sources said the effort may be because Esper and his team were pushing back on a premature withdrawal from Afghanistan that would be carried out before the required conditions on the ground were met, and other pending security issues.

US military officials have long stressed that the US withdrawal from Afghanistan is conditions based, with those conditions including the Taliban's breaking its ties to al Qaeda and making progress in peace talks with the Afghan government, two conditions that have yet to be met.

But despite the lack of progress, the Trump administration has already substantially reduced US troops in Afghanistan to about 4,500, the lowest levels since the earliest days of the post 9/11 campaign.

Doubts over future of other senior national security officials

Esper's firing raised concerns that other top national security officials who have earned Trump's wrath may be vulnerable.

CNN reported Monday that Trump and some of his conservative allies have become increasingly frustrated with CIA Director Gina Haspel in recent weeks, accusing her of delaying the release of documents they believe would expose so-called "deep state" plots against Trump's campaign and transition during the Obama administration, according to multiple current and former officials.

FBI Director Christopher Wray has also provoked Trump's ire, fueling some uncertainty about his future, according to the same sources.

. . . [snip] . . .

Officials point out that by removing Esper and other top officials, the Biden transition team will lose the benefit of their expertise.

These officials are also raising the question of whether the departure of Esper and other officials will now clear the way for Trump in his final weeks in office to potentially again call for initiatives he wants to pursue that the Pentagon opposes. One of those would be again raising the specter of using active duty forces under the Insurrection Act against any future protests. Another potential raised by officials is he would override the military advice he has been given and bring troops home from Afghanistan by Christmas. [emphasis added]

. . . [snip] . . .

[end notes]