Donald Trump will spend this day in a secure room, inside a large federal facility, surrounded by a fence, inside an “unscalable” wall, backed by another fence, and ringed by 1,000 prison guards. So … just think of this as a dry run for the next decade.
In preparation for his loss, Trump has hunkered down inside a fortress White House, though it’s not clear exactly why. Trump seems to expect violence because he’s been out there lying about burning cities and rampant mobs. He seems to have forgotten that he’s the one who fired on a peaceful crowd for a publicity stunt. If the results tonight are anything near the polls, no one is going to spare a second to wonder where he is, or what he’s doing. Poking a dead fish with a stick may be Trump’s idea of sport, but everyone else will be too busy either having a drink for a good reason, or settling in for a long-deserved peaceful night’s sleep. When Trump asks what’s going on beyond the walls, and the fence, and the wall, and the other fence, the answer should be: singing. Joyous singing. But, okay, it can still be the “nah nah nah nah, hey hey hey” song. What are we, saints?
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The prison guards thing is real. Trump’s violence whisperer, Attorney General Bill Barr, is once again sweeping through the dregs of the Department of Justice to find a thousand officers used in putting down prison riots and bringing them in to “defend the nation’s capital.” Presumably because they couldn’t think of anything less appropriate. So expect to see, once again, people patrolling the streets of Washington, D.C., who look as if they’re out to bag a deer. Camo works so well on city streets.
The mere fact that Trump is not planning to appear on stage somewhere in front of a sea of red hats says everything about what he expects tonight. If he thought there was the least chance he’d be happy about tonight’s results, the Blue Angels would already be making practice runs over cities and teams would be applying gold leaf to the White House walls. It’s not happening.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden will be in Delaware, at the same venue where he began his campaign with a group of people prepared to celebrate as hard as they can considering the walls of social distancing Trump’s incompetence has constructed around everyone. The number of unscalable walls and prison guards between Biden and the rest of the planet will be zero.
But Trump’s not done. No, ma’am. He’s simply returning to his original plan from 2016: turn his rallies into an unending source or admiration and ready cash as he tours the nation stiffing contractors, encouraging violence, and preparing to lose again in 2024.
Trump has already been running the idea of a 2024 run past Republican leaders. And since every single Republican official either sold out to Trump, or got kicked out of the pool, it’s not like they’re going to say no. If Trump wants to run in 2024, and he’s still out there going city to city, encouraging his fans to rough up anyone who doesn’t play along, exactly which Republican “leader” is going to get in his way?
if Republicans want to avoid having to stand behind Trump again four years from now, there’s really just one good plan. It’s the one Trump is demonstrating today. Where he stays behind a wall, and a fence, surrounded by guards, for four more years. And 10 to 20 more after that.
