The man remains dangerous well beyond his deselection. Donald Trump is undermining America’s democracy. And he could become her gravedigger.
It doesn’t have to end like this. What is worrying, however, is that so far civil society and the rule of law have not found any means of dispute that will turn the hope that this arsonist will not return to power in 2024 into a certainty.
They experiment with what promises success. Therein lies the real explosiveness of the breaking news of the past few days.
Searching the house of an ex-president, plus the suspicion that he stole “top secret” documents on highly sensitive topics, possibly even nuclear weapons from the USA or other countries, when he left the White House and didn’t return them – that’s it explosive and incredible.
In the past, allegations of this dimension would have been deadly for your future career. Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election in part because of an FBI investigation that Trump and Republicans took full advantage of. As Secretary of State, she had emails with the lowest level of security, “Confidential,” run through a private server: a venial breach of the rules compared to Trump’s misconduct.
The scandals seem to have done surprisingly little damage to his reputation. Approval for him has ranged between 39 and 41 percent since he was voted out. Rejection varies more, between 50 and 57 percent.
President Joe Biden is no better off three months before the congressional election, with one difference: his numbers are falling, also because of inflation. After all, he has now brought a prestige project through Congress.
Is Trump Returning? Where is the mass public outcry against a man unwilling to accept an election defeat and calling on supporters to take up arms?
His camp also responded to the house search with a “call to arms” – an armed Trump fan attacked an FBI office in Ohio – and with webs of lies that turned reality upside down. The USA is threatened with tyranny, the allegedly illegitimate Biden government is abusing the state apparatus to persecute political opponents.
The retained documents are not “top secret,” Trump claims. And it’s a bet that if the FBI corroborates finding top-class papers, he’ll say they were placed there during the search — as part of the conspiracy against him.
Even in a democracy like the US, which is older than Germany’s and has resisted extremists more reliably, many people are frighteningly seductive. The struggle with arsonists like Trump is not hopeless. But it’s a matter of perspective.
If Trump’s opponents overreach the charges because he’s doing the same, they’re playing into his hand. Every accusation must be verifiable. Do the documents really concern nuclear weapons, or does this turn out to be a duck?
The decisive group in elections are the wavering voters. And the means to convince them is credibility. The polls indicate that.
Trump fans will not change their minds, support for him is stable. The rejection, on the other hand, is sometimes bigger, sometimes smaller – depending on how many swing voters can be convinced that he is planning the overthrow and is betraying secrets. And depending on what the Democrats have to offer to improve citizens’ everyday lives.
It’s a frustratingly uphill struggle. But the best way to prevent Trump’s return to power.
