8/28/20
The words of Trump’s own sister, the former federal judge Maryanne Trump Barry, hung over the opening day of the convention. “He has no principles,” she said in a leaked recording. “None! None!” Many a past president has been burdened with siblings who drank too much, talked too much, or grifted too much. But I cannot think of one who was a central witness against the president’s character. Add Judge Barry’s words to those of Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer and one of numerous felons from the law-and-order president’s inner circle. “I was complicit in helping conceal the real Donald Trump,” he says in a new ad. “And I’m here to tell you he cannot be trusted, and you shouldn’t believe a word he utters.” On convention’s eve, Trump had tried to divert attention from the historic tragedy of his presidency, the death of nearly 180,000 Americans from Covid-19, by promoting a miracle therapeutic. But by day one of the party infomercial, FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn had been forced to apologize for vastly overstating, in a disgraceful news conference with Trump, the curative effect of blood plasma treatment. Day three of the convention marked the 6 month anniversary of Trump’s assertion that the coronavirus might soon disappear. As of that day, more than 5.8 million Americans had contracted the deadly disease.
In the spiritual realm, the downfall of the president’s most forceful evangelical promoter fit the pattern of the big scam. Jerry Falwell Jr., was ousted from Liberty University after reports that he liked to watch his wife having sex with a former Miami pool boy. Becki Falwell, wife of the disgraced evangelical, was on the advisory board of Women for Trump. She appeared in a campaign video last year promoting — What else? — traditional family values. Was anyone surprised when Steve Bannon was charged with defrauding the poor saps who gave millions to his We Build the Wall campaign? Mexico did not pay for Bannon’s bail. But his arrest is a reminder of the foundational fraud of Trump’s 2016 campaign: that Mexico would pay for a border wall. Even Trump’s biggest propagandist, Sean Hannity, is in on the con. He thinks the president is “crazy”. At the same time, California is burning and the South is underwater. If you play the sucker, you won’t notice that this confederacy of con men has been unable to gaslight the seasonal rage of climate change. Nor would you care.
