Donald Trump addresses a press conference, the day after a guilty verdict in his criminal trial. Photo: REUTERS
Can an entire country disappear through the looking glass? Come November, we shall know.
Convicted felon Donald Trump is running for president of the United States. One of the grave responsibilities of the job is to be commander in chief of the country’s armed forces.
Enter the looking glass. A convicted felon is barred from enlisting in any military service. It would follow, if logic were to be followed, that the leader of all men and women in the armed services would also be held to the same standard. Otherwise, what madness is it that a criminal can lead a nation’s armed forces, who adhere to a standard the felon does not have to follow?
Trump was convicted on all 34 charges that he was facing. A jury found it so. He thus became the first former president to be convicted of a felony which was strictly falsification of business records, but which played out into basically hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election campaign.
He will be sentenced on July 11. Jail is a possibility, but probably unlikely, given his lack of a criminal record (though there is a civil fraud finding that he lied about his wealth, and the proceeding he lost against E Jean Carroll over sexual assault and defamation.)
And there are the other cases: charged with others in a scheme in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential result in the state of Georgia; charged with conspiracy to overturn the result; charged with keeping classified documents at his Florida home after he left office, and with conspiring with a staff member to erase surveillance video.
Still, there is a provision that a person with a felony conviction can seek a waiver and enlist in the armed services. And to go truly through the looking glass and into another surreal world, it seems none of this matters if you are running for president.
PLEASE HELP US CONTINUE TO THRIVE BY BECOMING AN OFFICIAL FOOTYOLOGY PATRON. JUST CLICK THIS LINK.
But for Ordinary Joe in the street there are crimes that cannot be waived, such as aggravated assault and statutory rape or other sexual crimes and financial misconduct. And this, if a person is on parole or facing criminal proceedings, they cannot enlist.
Yet, come November, Trump might assume the mantle of Commander in Chief, presiding over the military and the National Guard. Of course, to him, none of this matters. His will to power, in his mind, is manifestly superior to what others have to subscribe to, hence his sneering contempt for anything or anyone he perceives to be his enemy.
The Economist in its May 18 issue led with the question: Is America Dictator-Proof? In its main article, it stated that Trump “has ignored election results he does not like, encouraged mob violence and mused about using the National Guard to deport millions of migrants who are in the country illegally. His disciples are better prepared for office than before. There is no clear limit to what his party will accept from him”.
A recent US study of Trump’s social media rants for the past year found that a major strain of them was revenge, basically against everyone who has crossed him. Revenge, of itself, is useless without a means to carry out retribution. As president, he would have the power to exact revenge. How this makes the country a better place is difficult to see.
Which goes to the hollowness of his motto “Make America Great Again”. Trump sees greatness in division. He labels people as vermin, rages against science, tells the nation to inject bleach to fight COVID, calls the judge in his trial a devil.
If Trump wins the November election, one can ask, as does the Hatter in “Through the Looking Glass”: “Why is a raven like a writing desk?”
There is no answer. Common sense is dead.
But here is the depressing thing: common sense and election results are not natural bedfellows.
