Trump tells the MAGAts what he wants: Mass arrests and executions; concentration camps; cops on every corner with unlimited power

By now you probably know that Donald Trump came back to Washington, D.C., this week for the first time in more than a year, and, in a speech that clearly was intended to foretell his 2024 Presidential bid, offered a little taste of what he’d do with a second chance at power. (Hint: It seems pretty sinister!) But maybe just as important as what the former president said is where he said it.

Trump spoke at the first annual summit of the America First Policy Institute, an organization launched by former administration staffers and allies of his who are now working to translate Trump’s whole schtick into a policy framework. You can think of AFPI as a kind of MAGA think tank, or a grown-up Turning Point USA. And understanding this group matters, because if Trump—or, frankly, any other MAGA-style Republican—runs in 2024, he will have something that didn’t exist before: a bank of advisers prepared to back up his rants and grievances with actual legislative proposals. The institute “is going to do for the next few years what the Heritage Foundation did in 1979, 1980” for Republican politics, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told the audience: provide a set of rules and guidelines to help the party achieve electoral success. (Never mind that the magic of Trumpism has always seemed to be that it never adhered to rules at all.)

The two-day summit can best be described as an elevated Trump rally—a Trump rally for the swamp-dwelling elite, if you will. Instead of a fairgrounds or concert venue, it was held in the basement ballroom of a Washington, D.C., Marriott. Instead of burgers and fries sold from food trucks, mini croissants and bottles of Perrier were on offer. And where country music or classic rock might have been blasting over the sound system, the event hosts played soft and slightly grating Muzak between panelists.

The America First agenda was helpfully outlined on glossy paper and passed around to attendees, listing panels like: “Make the Greatest Economy in the World Work for All Americans”; “Give Parents More Control Over Their Children’s Education”; and “Finish the Wall, End Human Trafficking, and Defeat the Drug Cartels.” Speakers included state and local leaders, as well as Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senators Ted Cruz, Rick Scott, and Steve Daines. During panel discussions, I sat between reporters from The Epoch Times, Breitbart, and something called American Liberty News.

The AFPI isn’t the only organization formulating the intellectual underpinnings for Trumpism. The Claremont Institute has worked on this, and so has American Greatness magazine. But all of these “America First” efforts boil down to three broad pillars, William Galston, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan research group the Brookings Institution, told me. First is a reexamination of America’s international deals and commitments through a transactional, what’s-in-it-for-us lens. The second is the development of an economic agenda that appeals to working-class voters who’ve recently joined the party’s ranks—without necessarily resorting to big-government solutions. The third “is a vigorous, deep, no-holds-barred waging of the culture wars,” Galston said.

Still, despite the panel titles and a few strange guests (“Stop the Steal” candidates Mark Finchem and Kristina Karamo; hosts from the delusional Right Side Broadcasting Network), the event itself was stuffy and occasionally boring, like any other D.C. political conference. It failed to capture the freewheeling, wild energy of a Trump rally—the vibes that made Trump so successful. Even Trump sounded sleepy when he started to speak yesterday, reading his 2024 policy plans off a teleprompter. After all, policy specifics have never really been his thing.

It wasn’t until he went off script with a few jokes about transgender athletes that Trump really seemed to get animated. Then, toward the end, he repeated a familiar refrain to his biggest applause of the night—a refrain that apparently works at rural rallies and D.C.-swamp events alike. “I ran for president; I won. Then I won a second time,” he said. “Did much better the second time; did a lot better.”

Trump’s plan for our future: Mass executions; martial law; internment camps

Donald Trump appeared in Washington, D.C., for the first time on Tuesday night since he slunk off into the night, breaking with all tradition and common decency, skipping the inauguration ceremony for President Joe Biden. Trump was in town to give a speech to a new member of the Republican network of shady, money-grab “institutes,” the America First Policy Institute. And if the intent of Trump’s speech was to show that not only is America under threat, but also that irony is stone-cold dead, he absolutely nailed it.

The focus of Trump’s speech—when he wasn’t whining about the House select committee on Jan. 6—was on law enforcement. In short, he wants a lot of it. In fact, he wants the U.S. to be more like—wait for it—China. Police on every corner. “Very short trials.” And mass executions. Trump also praised the way crime is handled in the Philippines, where over 12,000 people have been executed for drug-related crimes. And while the police were busy shooting everyone they suspected of selling or using drugs, Trump also insisted they force homeless people to leave the cities for tent-based camps erected in the wilderness.

But while Trump had plenty of time to explain how the police “are my heroes” and to push for lots of executions and a new generation of internment camps, there was one thing he didn’t get around to mentioning. In all his calls for law and order, there was not a peep about how his followers savaged police on the steps of the Capitol. In fact, when it came to the assault on the Capitol, Trump said, “We may just have to do it again.”

Newsmax, which carried Trump’s speech live, had perfect timing in their ads. Trump spent a big section of the speech complaining about how all those unsightly homeless people spoiled his view of cities and made the scenes outside his limo unpleasant. So he advocated for all homeless people to be rounded up and forced from the cities, safely out of view of those who were deemed wealthy enough to remain. Trump didn’t say exactly where he wanted the homeless to be sent, other than to “large parcels of inexpensive land.” Places like Tule Lake, California; Minidoka, Idaho; and Heart Mountain, Wyoming. These camps, Trump insisted, could be created “in one day.” And then everything would be better.

As Trump was pushing for the homeless to be moved from cities so they could be “clean and beautiful” and taken to a new generation of Manzanars, Newsmax decided to split the screen with an ad selling gold coins for Trump supporters. Because there is no bottom to disdain.

As CNN notes, Trump didn’t miss paying tribute to the smaller ways in which police can exert authority over the population, display racism, and cause systematic misery. He made calls for a “return to stop and frisk” policies that have proven to be roundly ineffective in everything except giving police an excuse to harass Black people. He also opposed the idea of removing from police “their liability shield in any way, shape, or form” to prevent police from facing any consequences when they execute people in the streets.

In summary, Trump wants mass executions over drugs, mass incarceration for the poor, and unlimited authority for the police. That’s his formula for America. Then the cities will be beautiful. Like in China.

Repeatedly, as he was expressing his love for law and order, Trump simply ignored the fact that he had encouraged his followers to join in a violent riot in which people died, and hundreds of police were injured. He also ignored how he planned and executed that assault in service of a coup plot designed to utterly grind any concept of “law” into the dust.

But wait. It gets better.

Nowhere was the irony level more skull-crushingly high than when clear when Trump actually started talking about calling out the National Guard. “Where there is a true breakdown of law and order,” said Trump, “… then the federal government should send the National Guard to restore order and secure the peace without having to wait for the approval of some governor that thinks it’s politically incorrect to call them in.”

In addition to removing governors from the loop so that the whole National Guard would become his personal police force, nowhere—nowhere—did Trump mention that when he had the opportunity to call in the National Guard to halt the assault on the Capitol, he refused to take that action. It fell to Mike Pence to finally get the Guard moving, while Trump sat in the White House dining room, flinging ketchup on the walls and fretting that his insurgents weren’t able to actually hang anyone.

Trump openly described a nation in which he would be in sole charge of a national police force, police would be exempt from the consequences of their actions, execution would be carried out immediately, following “a very quick trial,” and millions of Americans would be confined in internment camps without ever being charged with a crime.

That’s what he’s selling. It’s not about “law and order,” which interests Trump not at all. It’s about authority and brutality.

But the most horrible thing is, there are buyers.

Dept of Justice is investigating Trump and his role in the Jan 6 coup attempt

The Justice Department is investigating President Donald Trump’s actions as part of its criminal probe of efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, according to four people familiar with the matter.

Prosecutors who are questioning witnesses before a grand jury — including two top aides to Vice President Mike Pence — have asked in recent days about conversations with Trump, his lawyers, and others in his inner circle who sought to substitute Trump allies for certified electors from some states Joe Biden won, according to two people familiar with the matter. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

The prosecutors have asked hours of detailed questions about meetings Trump led in December 2020 and January 2021; his pressure campaign on Pence to overturn the election; and what instructions Trump gave his lawyers and advisers about fake electors and sending electors back to the states, the people said. Some of the questions focused directly on the extent of Trump’s involvement in the fake-elector effort led by his outside lawyers, including John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani, these people said.

In addition, Justice Department investigators in April received phone records of key officials and aides in the Trump administration, including his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, according to two people familiar with the matter. That effort is another indicator of how expansive the Jan. 6 probe had become, well before the high-profile, televised House hearings in June and July on the subject.

Read more (May be behind a paywall.): https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/07/26/trump-justice-investigation-january-6/

 

In case there is any question as to DOJ investigatin Trump for criminal activity:

Breaking news: Justice Dept. investigating Trump’s actions in Jan. 6 criminal probe

The Washington Post
@washingtonpost
Prosecutors who are questioning witnesses before a grand jury have asked in recent days about conversations with Trump, his lawyers, and others in his inner circle who sought to substitute Trump allies for certified electors from some states Joe Biden won.

 

The Washington Post @washingtonpost
Breaking news: The Justice Department is investigating President Donald Trump’s actions as part of its criminal probe of efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, according to four people familiar with the matter. https://wapo.st/3owJ8Tf

The Washington Post @washingtonpost 35m
Prosecutors who are questioning witnesses before a grand jury have asked in recent days about conversations with Trump, his lawyers, and others in his inner circle who sought to substitute Trump allies for certified electors from some states Joe Biden won.

The Washington Post @washingtonpost 31m
The prosecutors have asked hours of detailed questions about meetings Trump led in December 2020 and January 2021; his pressure campaign on Pence to overturn the election; and what instructions Trump gave his lawyers and advisers about fake electors.

Read this article. Pass it on to your Trump-loving friends and neighbors, don’t expect much from them . . .

Season of Treason: A Recap of the First Eight January 6th Committee Hearings

Trump spearheaded a seditious conspiracy to overthrow our democracy. What comes next?

The article is on a subscription Substack site — on the opening page is a link to subscribe along with a link that says something like “Let me try it first.”  Click on that link where you can read articles without a subscription.