Alan Zendell, April 4, 2024

A source I trust and frequently troll for ideas is historian Heather Richardson’s Letters From an American. She thoroughly researches and fact checks everything she writes and discusses current events in a historical context. Yesterday’s Letter sent a chill up my spine.

A majority of Americans strongly disapprove of Donald Trump ‘s behavior. We know that because he has never come close to fifty percent in polls or actual vote counts, and exit polls and voter interviews show that a sizable share of people who voted for him metaphorically held their noses as they cast their votes. His profane, amoral, no-holds-barred approach to politics allowed him to destroy the Republican Party of Ronald Reagan, not by appealing to a majority, but by undermining it with lies, threats, and innuendo.

He wins by pandering to extremists and hatemongers, encouraging voter suppression in states controlled by his MAGA movement, and filling court dockets with lies and spurious challenges. Recalling the old Bob Newhart comedy sketches, I sometimes imagine trying to explain the phenomenon of his success to a Martian. How could I explain that although most of Trump’s extreme views are remarkably unpopular with Americans, he seems relatively unaffected by their disapproval?

Three-quarters of Americans believe a woman has a right to manage her own body and determine if and when she wants to have children. Two-thirds of Americans understand that allowing Russia to defeat Ukraine could be a re-run of the lead-up to World War 2 with nuclear weapons. The vast majority of Americans, while supporting Israel in its war against Hamas (and by implication, Iran,) are horrified by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s callous disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians. Yet, Netanyahu, who has for decades undermined efforts to achieve lasting peace with Israel’s neighbors, continues to have Trump’s unqualified support.

For three months, Trump’s hypocrisy over our southern border has been on display. A bipartisan bill containing most of the provisions demanded by Trump, passed in the Senate with seventy Yes votes, and knowing the bill would easily pass in the House, Trump forced Speaker Mike Johnson to prevent it from coming to a vote. Perhaps most important, Richardson reported that recent polls show ninety-eight percent of Americans support our Constitution and the right of every American to vote. In what other place and time could a candidate like Trump survive when most voters see his policies as undermining our democracy and the rule of law, and destabilizing the world order that has prevented a nuclear holocaust?

See why my Martian friend is confused?

Despite all the above, what got my attention, yesterday, is that Trump is running a shadow foreign policy that undermines the Biden administration’s attempts to protect our alliances and suppress the efforts of our adversaries. Think about that. Not only has Trump’s MAGA movement infiltrated state legislatures and used friendly judges to upend decades of legal precedent, he is attempting to do the same thing to America’s diplomacy and foreign policy. Richardson quoted foreign affairs journalist Anne Applebaum, who summed the situation up perfectly: “we have an out-of-power ex-president who is in effect dictating American foreign policy on behalf of a foreign dictator or with the interests of a foreign dictator in mind.”

The agent of this tactic is Trump’s former acting head of National Intelligence, Richard Grennell. The Washington Post reported that Grenell “is openly laying the groundwork for a president who will make common cause with authoritarian leaders and destroy partnerships with democratic allies.” Grennel appears to be Trump’s choice for Secretary of State if he wins the election.

Imagine that if while running for president in 1968, Richard Nixon had used campaign funds to send Henry Kissinger around the world assuring our enemies that if they helped him defeat the Democrats he would pull us out of Vietnam and leave our alliances in tatters. By any definition, that would have been viewed as treason. Yet, that is exactly what Trump is attempting to do now. He would assure Vladimir Putin that a Trump win would spell the end of NATO. He would assure Benjamin Netanyahu (an old family friend of his son-in-law Jared Kushner) that he would use all his influence to help him remain in power and scuttle Biden’s support for a two-state solution.

When will enough be enough? Donald Trump has told America what he intends to do if he is elected. He attempted to do everything he said he would when he was president, and his failure to mold the country in his own image was due to Congressional opposition. In 2024, Trump has made it clear that destroying our democracy is his highest priority, because democracy is not in the interest of a candidate who cannot appeal to the majority. His love for autocrats and his expressed desire to become a dictator on his first day in office are the real defining elements of his campaign.

Believe what Trump says, not the right-wing mouthpieces who claim he says those things only to anger his opponents. Trump means every word of it, and if he becomes president, we will be led by a mentally ill narcissist who will do everything in his power to destroy the America we know