Col#259- 10/1/25
WHAT IS THE END GAME?
By
Richard Davis
Just in case the rest of the world needed affirmation, it is now crystal clear that the President of the United States is an arrogant, stupid fool who is in love with himself. There are other mental health issues as well, but his speech in front of the United Nations was painful to listen to, even for a few seconds. It sounded as though there was a lot of derisive laughter as he spoke. As an American, it was an embarrassment. Nothing new.
Trump’s madness is escalating because he has become completely intoxicated with his power. He is able to do whatever he wants and no one else in power is stopping him. There have been a few legal challenges and a few high level politicians have railed against him but, for the most part, his power is unfettered.
The Supreme Court is poised to carry the Trump water and Washington Republicans are in lock step behind the newly self-appointed dictator. He is trampling over the constitution and the rule of law does not apply to him. When the courts rule against him he ignores them and no one challenges him.
This means that our government has collapsed and that any hope for a robust democracy is gone.
The founding fathers of this country had a lot of foresight but they did not anticipate that a president who is unethical, immoral and who wantonly breaks the law could be elected. When a leader is allowed to ignore every legal and ethical safeguard in a democracy then that democracy no longer exists.
There is a question that all of this chaos begs. What is the end game? Even though Trump is clinically mentally ill and out of control, it does not mean that he does not have some sort of long-range plan.
An egomaniac of such great proportion may still be capable of laying out plans with the hand-picked cabal of cabinet members and support staff that surrounds him.
What are the possibilities? Foremost in many people’s minds is the question of whether or not Trump is trying to find a way to either stay in office in an unconstitutional third term or if he is planning to hold power another way. I suspect he has already decided that he will not go gently into the night and he may even be planning a military takeover of this country during the next presidential election.
Trump controls the military and he also controls the Department of Justice. The Justice Department no longer represents the people. It is now Trump’s personal legal team acting out the revenge he orders on anyone he perceives as an enemy. Given this scenario it is not a far leap for him to order the military to stop people from voting and declaring a national emergency. This could let him stall for many months and retain power for a long time.
The current military intrusion into Democratic cities may be a test for the big takeover on the next presidential election day. Troops will be able to act quickly to suppress voting in places declared to be in some sort of emergency state. No doubt most of those places will be where there is a majority of Democratic voters.
Would the military follow the orders of a deranged commander in chief? It is possible. But this is where the people need to assert their power. If such a scenario starts to play out we all need to take to the streets and convince the military to drop their arms and support the people and not a mentally ill leader. It would require us to block the military and force them to simply walk away from their posts.
We need to start thinking about these extreme possibilities because they could play out, and we need to realize we must act if we want to live like Americans and not like Russians.
There is a historical marker at West Point that reads:
There is a historical marker at West Point that reads:
“Loyalty to the Constitution
The United States boldly broke with the ancient military custom of swearing loyalty to a leader. Article VI required that American Officers thereafter swear loyalty to our basic law, the Constitution
While many other nations have suffered military coups, the United States never has. Our American Code of Military Obedience requires that, should orders and the law ever conflict, our officers must obey the law. Many other nations have adopted our principle of loyalty to the basic law.
This nation must have military leaders of principle and integrity so strong that their oaths to support and defend the Constitution will unfailingly govern their actions. The purpose of the United States Military Academy is to provide such leaders of character.”
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I think history tends to show us that despots do not last, and there are many ways cookies can crumble. Natural causes, infighting, loss of support, errors, mistakes, incompetence, coups, resistance, war, jealousy, outside events, and so on. History books are filled with humans that think they are unstoppable.
Sometimes, too, an attempt at authoritarianism will swing things lightly the other way. Notice how support for immigration has reached all time highs now.
I don’t know what will happen and things don’t look good at the moment. But I do know much can be done, even when ordinary people take little actions (see: totally unorganized Disney boycott cost them millions of subscribers and park guests) on their own. Understanding the threat – as you lay out – is a first step. If one cannot identify the problem, it could be hard to solve it.