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It’s Trump, Again, But We Will Get Through It
Jane Helfrich, PAD Secretary
Donald Trump won the popular vote for the first time in 20 years: 77.3 million votes, 49.9%, 312 electoral college votes, an impressive win for a deeply flawed candidate. Previous presidents have had legal troubles-most recently Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon. Clinton was charged with perjury and obstruction of justice for lying about his affair with intern Monica Lewinsky but was acquitted on both counts. Richard Nixon, facing obstruction of justice regarding his role in the Watergate scandal, resigned from office. President-elect Donald Trump was sentenced in New York months after a jury found him guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business documents to cover up an extramarital affair. The judge granted Trump an unconditional discharge, a sentence that affirms he’s a convicted felon, but one where he will face no further penalties, fines, or any time in jail. (PBS News Hour 1/10/25)
Trump’s reputation is that he is spiteful, vindictive, dishonest, egotistical, and devoid of integrity. We’ve heard his denigration of those he believes to be unfit or unworthy. He seeks vengeance on his critics, and has made threats to investigate, prosecute, imprison, or otherwise punish his perceived enemies, including political opponents and private citizens (NPR). Especially worrisome is his scorn for the Constitution.
During his first term, Trump advocated for the deregulation of oil and natural gas production, expedited federal drilling permits and leases, and claimed that wind and solar energy technology was unreliable. Trump recently stated that “no wind farms will be built” during his second presidency. While being interviewed by Kristen Welker in December, Trump relayed that he has “concepts of a plan” for health care that includes repealing the Affordable Care Act, which would put critical protections and coverage for over 100 million Americans at risk.
Trump has flouted all kinds of norms set by previous presidents, starting with his decision not to divest from his business interests while in office, setting the stage for what became an administration marked by self-interest and profiteering. He often brought senior government officials to visit his properties (i.e. Mar-A-Lago), and a new report (January 2025), released by the House Oversight Committee, shows that Trump’s businesses received at least $7.8 million from officials and the governments of 20 countries during visits to his properties to in his first term. These kinds of visits also provided Republican Congressmen opportunities to curry favor with the Trump administration: 143 members of Congress made 361 visits to Trump businesses. (The top five Members of Congress visiting Trump properties were Lindsay Graham, Matt Gaetz, Rand Paul, Kevin McCarthy, and Jim Jordan.)
A central promise of Trump’s 2024 campaign was to “carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history” once in office. He has already signed an executive order to revoke birthright citizenship, and he will target the core rights of immigrant children and families, barring undocumented children from schools, and again forcibly separating children from their parents at the border. Trump’s advisor, Stephen Miller, has described plans to federalize National Guard personnel and deploy them for immigration enforcement, in some cases against the will of local officials and communities. (source ACLU)
A New York Times editorial, July11 2024, urged voters to reject Trump:
“Mr. Trump has shown a character unworthy of the responsibilities of the presidency. He has demonstrated an utter lack of respect for the Constitution, the rule of law, and the American people. Instead of a cogent vision for the country’s future, Mr. Trump is animated by a thirst for political power: to use the levers of government to advance his interests, satisfy his impulses, and exact retribution against those who he thinks have wronged him.”
So, what are Democrats to do? A conversation televised on “The Warning” between Steve Schmidt, a former Republican and founding member of the Lincoln Project, and Paul Rieckoff, a former military officer who served in Afghanistan, offered these words:
“We need to rise to the moment, we’ve had the warning…vigilance is the guardian of democracy and the base of citizenship… Brace for a long fight … don’t give up an inch of integrity. There may be deep depression, but we will endure, and we must not let [Trump] divide us. To help soothe us, take time to go back to wisdom, to family, and to our values. We have amazing people in this country, and they will step up.”
Speak up. Act Up. Join In. Discuss the issues. Make suggestions. Write letters to editors and elected officials. Continue to write and right what’s wrong. Be informed. Get involved. Refuse to be intimidated. Support each other. We will persist.
—Jane Helfrich
Sources
The Warning, Steve Schmidt
NY Times Editorial July 11, 2024
PBS News Hour 2025
House Oversight Committee Report January 2025
ACLU News
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