It’s a new year. The Christmas bills are rolling in, the scales report it’s time for a diet, there are many cold, dark days ahead until the spring, and our POTUS is still Donald J. Trump. But cheer up, there’s hope.
Not because Bob Mueller is tenacious, or because an investigative press has scented prey, or because a GOP Congress is going to discover the error of its ways, repent, and put country above party. No, because of Trump himself. He is the embodiment of the folk tale of the scorpion and the toad.
Encountering a river to cross, the scorpion asks the toad to carry him to the other side. The toad declines, fearing the scorpion’s sting. The scorpion points out, logically, that by killing the toad he would drown himself. Persuaded, the toad agrees. Halfway across, the scorpion stings the toad. His last words are, “Why?” The scorpion’s last words are, “Because it’s my nature.”
Trump’s nature is to lie, cheat, defraud and betray. Those who put themselves at risk in his behalf have begun to turn on him. Swing voters who expected better have begun to abandon ship. Populists who thought he’d take care of the forgotten man have discovered Trump forgot them as soon as he got their vote in favor of policies that favor people in Trump’s tax bracket — tax cuts, regulatory reform, and attacks on the social safety net.
Those who were close to him, but were jettisoned when the going got tough or the mood struck him, have little reason to protect Trump by taking the fall and every reason to protect themselves. Flynn, Papadopoulos and others are talking already. Can Manafort, Gates, Spicer, Priebus and even Kushner be far behind? Risking a prison sentence out of loyalty to a man who doesn’t know the meaning of the word seems like an increasingly bad bet.
Did Trump collude with the Russians to steal an election? He says, “We did not collude, believe me.” This is an all but infallible “tell” that indicates he is lying. But it may be hard to prove. However, it is clearer every day that he welcomed help in smearing his opponent. A long list of those around him actively sought such aid, but who needs them. Trump’s own words praising Wikileaks, fawning over Putin, and asking Russian hackers to dig up dirt were delivered in public.
It is unlikely Trump will be found guilty of a criminal conspiracy, because that requires subterfuge and secrecy. Trump advertises his contempt for law, social norms, and morality, his willingness to make a deal with the devil if it benefits him. He is a non-stop tweeting admission of guilt.
Some argue that a conspiracy requires a quid pro quo. There’s no question Trump got something — the presidency. But what did he give in return? On the surface this appears to be a classic Trump deal in which there is a winner, him, and a loser, the idiot he cheated. But didn’t Putin and his merry band of hackers get something too? Trump! A passive, clueless, pliant president prepared to demolish the security arrangements that have protected us for seventy years.
And then there is the Nixon standard. In the throes of Watergate, he famously claimed, “I am not a crook.” By which he seemed to mean he did not break laws to profit by his misdeeds. By that standard, Trump may be the biggest crook to ever occupy the White House. His cupidity is bottomless. Books have been written about it. His administration will make Teapot Dome look like a tea party.
Now, not just Mueller and the FBI, several inspectors general, the government ethics office and the IRS, but the attorney general of New York and law enforcement officers from other jurisdictions are on the case. By failing to divest, Trump has turned the presidency into a profit center.
His Washington hotel appears to be violating the terms of its lease. His self-dealing runs the gamut from selling presidential souvenirs to soliciting business favors from foreign governments and businesses, to tax violations, corruptly using charitable contributions and on and on.
Following the money behind the Watergate cover-up helped bring Nixon down. Following the money in the case of Trump will reveal endless self-dealing, dishonesty, corrupt practices, cheated partners, customers and suppliers. Many of the legislative actions of the administration serve to profit the president. His tax cut to the tune of $1 billon or more tops the list. So far.
It is this scorpion’s nature to lie, cheat betray, defraud, gamble with other people’s money, and to boast about it. When caught in the act, it has been his practice to deny, fight back, delay, distract, litigate and, if cornered eventually, admit nothing and settle for pennies on the dollar. This has worked when those stung were in positions of weakness — sexual assault victims, tradesmen, unions, regulators, partners and even banks holding his worthless IOUs.
In this wicked old world, he may get away wth it again this time. Like the mad, old man in the Yeats poem, I have concluded that it is “a matter of course that chance/ Should starve good men and bad advance.” I am sufficiently jaded to doubt that there is justice in this world, or that the arc of history bends its way.
So, even though a president has made deals to steal the office, undermine democracy, lend aid and comfort to our enemies, and enrich himself, law and order, morality and patriotism may not be sufficient to bring this scorpion to heel. But this time, he has stung 320 million Americans. I am hoping the primitive impulse of self-preservation just might cause the country to sting back.