Trump, The New PAC Man
– By Ed Kociela –
One thing we must remember until the very last second of the very last day of this administration is that it is headed up by a Grifter-in-Chief and that the only interests he has are centered on maintaining his grip on power and stuffing his pockets with wads of cash.
To the surprise of nobody, that is what is happening in the lame-duck phase of this White House as the Trump campaign announced last week that it has raised more than $207 million since Election Day.
The post-election window is usually a wind-down period of a campaign. Final bills are paid, backs are slapped, hands are shaken and everybody goes back to their day jobs.
Not so with the Trump Holy Roller Travelling Campaign Show, which shows no signs of pulling to the side of the road.
Now, the thing is that $207 million is pretty much free money that he can use at his discretion. His team is pulling a flimflam that the money donated to this fund will go to the president’s efforts to get the 2020 election overturned, to support his “legal challenges” as he contests the now generally accepted results and vows to “clean up our corrupt elections process in so many areas around the country and to build on gains from the 2020 elections so we can take back the House and build on our Senate majority in 2022,” according to a statement released by Bill Stepien, the president’s campaign manager. In other words, that money will be used to secure the president’s political clout after the moving van leaves the White House with his belongings and he will use it as bait, to be a kingmaker as he enters his next phase.
The money is going into what is termed a leadership PAC, which has different rules than straight-up donations, meaning that it can also be used for personal expenses. Paul Ryan, vice president for policy and litigation at Common Cause, describes leadership PACs as being “notoriously abused by politicians as slush funds without violating any laws.” A gray line? Yes, which means the likelihood of abuse is in direct proportion to the character and integrity of those in charge of the money. Given that this fund is being advertised as being directed to his “election defense task force,” as described by staff, I will let you make the character and integrity call on your own. Know, however, that we will not mention the fund by name because I certainly don’t want to publicize something that might soak the innocent, even if they have waded neck-deep into the president’s propaganda pool.
Just be aware that the president is like the sideshow geek who would bite the head off a chicken if it filled the coffers and bought another round of applause. That attention is what he thrives on and there is nothing, and I mean nothing, he wouldn’t do to bathe in the spotlight with cheers ringing in his ears. That is precisely why he remains on the campaign trail in Georgia. It isn’t to solidify the Republican Party, it’s about him and another opportunity to hold onto his place as a guy who can draw a crowd and revel in the cheers, which translates into a certain power, a power other Republicans covet. And, the others? I guarantee they simply want to shirt-tail his popularity, his base, and the money thrown at him by rabid followers. Truthfully, I don’t think many office-holding Republicans give a rat’s ass about the president. But, they do want his mailing list and access to the generous donors who built his war chest of campaign money.
That’s why I don’t expect the president to make another run in 2024. Why should he? A martyr, as he sees himself, is better served appearing damaged than overcoming the rabble that cast him out. Plus, money buys influence, and the president, I think, is more interested in that than anything else. The real power, remember, is behind the throne, not seated on it.
We will, undoubtedly, see a book from the president when this is all over, and it will make a lot of money, a pile of money, more money than any other book ever written, I am sure. The president will also likely create a new media platform that will out-Fox Fox News that will perpetuate the sideshow. It’s his right, you know, the 1st Amendment and all that. But, I seriously doubt he’ll make another run at the White House. The moment he leaves office, he opens himself up to the criminal and civil lawsuits that he has been protected from by virtue of the presidency. That legal quandary should keep him fairly busy well into 2024. Oh, he’ll dangle the prospect of another run every now and then when he feels the need for attention, but I think that somewhere, deep inside, he realizes that once the Oval Office door slams shut behind him he’s done.
What we should hope for is that the public soon grows weary of the president’s “I wuz robbed!” mantra and moves forward. Of course, a lot of that will depend on how well Team Biden performs once it takes office. Even if it is moderately successful at cleaning up the mess it should be enough to squelch any hopes of a 2024 run by the out-going president. You see, voters are fickle and one-time darlings soon become persona non grata. Just look at how quickly Sarah Palin dropped from the political scene. Supposedly, she was the pinup girl for the new movement known as the Tea Party. Those hopes were flushed shortly after she and running mate John McCain were defeated by Barack Obama and Joe Biden and she moved on from political headlines to tabloid fodder. Nobody reads yesterday’s papers.
That’s why the soon-to-be ex-president will most probably become a puppet master for the extreme right and pursue any hustle that will boost his fortunes, whether he holds private dinners in the Mar-a-Lago Ballroom at $1,000 per person for the privilege of dining with him or ends up in some memorabilia shop in Las Vegas like Pete Rose, hustling autographs for 50 bucks a pop.
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