Your bag is empty.
One word defines 2020: fear.
And it’s not because Halloween is around the corner.
The American public is drowning in fear. Trump lovers fear he’ll lose. They fear losing influence, relevance, power. They fear civil unrest—to the point they’re willing to cause it in order to prevent it. They fear the destruction of our country, the end of the Second Amendment, a flood of illegal immigrants and the end of Leave It to Beaver, 1950s-style life that never truly existed. They fear socialists, communists, atheists, people of color, women and queer people will ruin a great God-fearing nation.
Some may not like Trump but fear Joe Biden and his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris. Some fear Trump’s growing infatuation with fascism.
The Never Trumpers fear the growing pandemic, the president’s horrifying handling of it, civil unrest, the failure of democracy, the destruction of our country, systemic racism, misogyny, a lack of respect for civil liberties for those who aren’t straight white males, economic ruin in which the rich get richer and the rest of us suffer in a technological serfdom, the abandonment of science, the devastation of the environment and a general disregard for humanity.
Everyone is angry and afraid of one another.
But no one is angrier and more afraid than Donald Trump. He is afraid of criminal prosecution and even more afraid of his mountainous debt, should he lose the presidency. That fear is driving him to lash out in ways that make the old Donald Trump—before he started crashing and burning in the polls—seem somehow sane.
He recently attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci, the most experienced and well-respected member of his virus task force. “People are tired of hearing Fauci and these idiots, all these idiots who got it wrong,” he said on a Monday call with campaign staff.
At a weekend rally, Trump mocked Biden by saying the former vice president would “listen to the scientists.”
I’m not sure that’s the insult he thinks it is, but Trump sounds more and more like the title character in the old Saturday Night Live sketch “Theodoric of York, Medieval Barber.” We may next see him prescribing leeches and blood-letting for those with coronavirus. He’s already suggested ingesting disinfectant.
Trump said Americans were “getting tired of the pandemic” and blamed the media for covering it.
Many in the GOP are now quickly trying to distance themselves from the coming implosion. Senator Ben Sasse from Nebraska and Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee are among the latest. Sasse criticized the president on a call with constituents, and Alexander defended Fauci, saying the country would have fewer virus cases if people had listened to the doctor.
Meanwhile, at the end of his Prescott, Arizona rally, Trump frightened people who like to dance by doing so with his feet apparently glued to the ground as the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.” played loudly. More than one member of the press corps, and even some junior Trump staffers, asked out loud if he was aware of the song’s connection to the gay community.
At that same Arizona campaign stop Trump said Americans were “getting tired of the pandemic” and blamed the media for covering it. Then he got into insults. To Reuters pool reporter Jeff Mason, he said, regarding allegations about Hunter Biden, “You’re a criminal for not reporting it. You are a criminal for not reporting it…. Joe Biden is a criminal and he has been for a long time. And you’re a criminal, and the media, for not reporting it.”
My question to Trump would have been, “Is that a threat, Mr. President?” But I was not in the pool that day. “What law do you think I’ve broken?” would have been my follow-up. But the White House these days serves only as Trump’s bunkhouse between campaign stops as he tries to shore up his flagging support in the days before November 3.
I don’t expect he will make himself available to me for questions before the general election.
Trump and his best friend, Rudy Giuliani, obviously intend to derail the Biden campaign with accusations about Hunter Biden. But Joe Lockhart, press secretary to President Bill Clinton, doubts the effectiveness of such a maneuver. The children of candidates aren’t on the ballot and their behavior usually doesn’t factor into the voting metric, Lockhart told me recently.
But if Trump wants to make children a part of the equation, Lockhart is all for it. “If the GOP really thinks the families of the candidates should be an issue, then let’s do it. Let’s talk about the dozens of legal settlements, convictions against the company he says his kids run. Let’s talk about the thousands of times Trump org has been sued,” he tweeted on Monday. “Let’s talk about the $25 million settlement of Trump University run by the Trump org. Let’s talk about the kids being barred from running a charity in NY after stealing from cancer children and veterans.”
While on the campaign trail over the weekend Trump mused about what would become of him should he lose, joking he might have to leave the country. His fear, of course, is based upon the possibility that he will be indicted in the Southern District of New York, the emolument lawsuits brought against him in Washington, D.C., and other potential court actions he faces once he leaves office—not to mention the billion-dollar debt he hates to acknowledge.
Televangelist Pat Robertson got into the fear game on Tuesday, predicting Trump will win reelection—and usher in the apocalypse. Reports of giddy evangelicals are merely speculation at this point. But the anger and fear are palpable.
Americans who disagree politically seem to have become comfortable being angry with one another. Shouts of “Lock him up” come from both sides. Trump’s voice is the loudest, but plenty of people will be eager for Trump to be locked up once he’s out of office, whenever and however that happens.
Lockhart, who served during the tumultuous Clinton era, seems hopeful for the future. Trump, he believes, will lose.
Trump has the survival instincts of a New York sewer rat—he’ll do what he can to keep his reality show on the air, inside or outside the White House.
“Trump won’t leave the county. Bruce Springsteen isn’t moving to Australia, and we aren’t all moving to Canada,” Lockhart told me earlier this week. So what’s next for Trump if he loses?
That is more problematic. Trump will try to strike a deal, of that many are certain. Inciting violence won’t get him anywhere, which he should know. Maybe he’ll open the Trump News Network. Maybe he’ll be wearing an ankle bracelet at Mar-a-Lago. Trump has the survival instincts of a New York sewer rat—he’ll do what he can to keep his reality show on the air, inside or outside the White House.
In the meantime, it’s likely Trump will try to manipulate the election through various voter-suppression efforts, while using any and all of his financial assets and political patrons—foreign and domestic—to do so. He failed earlier this week when the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania—a critical swing state—can be counted up to three days after the election. But he’s not done yet.
Whatever happens, do not count on Donald Trump to ease up on the fear he has promoted in this country. He doesn’t want it to subside. But after the election, it must end.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt famously said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself,” as he rallied a nation facing a crushing depression in 1933. He was later able to lead a united country—far more united than we are now—to face down fascism and imperialism during World War II.
Donald Trump wants you to believe you have everything to fear, including your neighbors, those who worship differently, those who think differently, those who love differently, those who are poor, those who look, speak and dress differently, and those who don’t agree with him. Trump has bottled and is selling fear as a national distilled libation. And those drunk on the fear, including Trump himself, see nothing but division and discord.
Is this really America? Unfortunately, it is. Donald Trump is not the cause but a symptom of a divided nation. He eagerly and happily manipulated our fears and anger to catapult him into power—and he’s counting on that fear and anger to keep him there.
This Halloween, Trump is the Grim Reaper, putting on his best act to inspire fear, hoping to frighten you into thinking he’s the only one who can make things better—even if he’s the one responsible for making the mess in the first place.
We should not fear this faux reaper. Let’s send him on his way—along with all that horrible orange candy corn.