There is a saying, “To a carpenter with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail!” (All due respect to carpenters). That sums up Donald Trump perfectly. Every single problem or issue, real or perceived, that Trump encounters can, in his mind, only be resolved in one way – force! Now, in his second term, he has the United States military, the combination of CBP and ICE which are looking more and more like Hitler’s Brownshirts (Sturmabteilung), and a US Attorney General, Pam Bondi, who believes her job is to do whatever Trump wants rather than follow the law and the Constitution. And like a kid with a new toy, he believes he can wield all that power without any consultation with or coordination with Congress or the American people. This should come as a surprise to no one after the Department of Defense was renamed the Department of War.
I have difficulty thinking of any issue that has come up during Trump’s second term that he has not used or continues to use force to try to ‘resolve.’ He, through his supplicant AG, has used the force of lawsuits and criminal subpoenas to go after his perceived enemies, critics and those who will not bend to his will. Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, a supposedly ‘independent’ agency, is the latest to be on the receiving end of the Trump legal hammer. He will join James Comey, Letitia James, and a host of others. In all these cases, there is no legal justification for bringing these charges but that’s not the point. The point is to intimidate – period! He has used this tactic for years in his private businesses. He knows that it costs people and businesses a lot of money to defend themselves even if the charges are baseless. Now, he has an unlimited supply of taxpayer dollars and an entire Department of Justice who are acting like his personal attorneys to harass people. If you’re looking for waste, fraud and abuse, look no further than the current DOJ.
During Trump’s first term, there were people around him who were able to stifle some of his worst impulses. Now that he is surrounded by incompetent toadies who crave nothing more than his favor, he views the US military as his new plaything. He believes that he can intimidate everyone in the world because he wields the power of the military. He has already unleashed bombs on multiple countries. He most recently kidnapped the president of Venezuela and is in the process of stealing the oil reserves of that country.
He is threatening Cuba and it would not surprise me at all if we invade Cuba in the near term. No one should forget that Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is of Cuban descent and has been against the regime there for years. Trump will frame such an action as being done to help the Cuban people, but that fact is, Trump more than likely remembers when Cuba was a hopping place full of casinos and nightlife. I can see a Trump hotel and casino in Cuba at some time in the future. Maybe, instead of Canada, Cuba will become the 51st state!!
Trump is threatening to take military action in Iran due to the ongoing protests against the government there. He has said that he will not rule out military action to take possession of Greenland. It should be very clear to anyone paying attention that Trump, wearing his SCOTUS immunity jacket and having the US military at his disposal, will continue to use force to try to “resolve” every single issue both domestically and internationally until he is stopped. And there is no doubt in my mind that there will be a trail of death and destruction left in his wake.
Very few people would agree to have their house remodeled by a contractor whose only tool is a sledgehammer. That is essentially what everyone who voted for Trump and the Congressional Republicans who continue to support him have agreed to. Or maybe the more appropriate analogy is a chainsaw instead of a hammer. Pull up a seat and get your popcorn – the Trump Chainsaw Massacre is now showing!
