I enjoy rewatching old movies. I never tire of them. I watch them for the six elements of basic plots in all their wondrous, sometimes even magical nuance and finesse. It seems TrumpWorld also enjoys rewatching the near-cinematic tragi-comedy of its eponymous hero — except he possesses only one storyline: vindictiveness.
Morbidly they never tire of watching the same dreck erupting from this sad, small man. Over the weekend he was in Texas, vomiting it up again. As the Waco Tribune-Herald headlined the pitiable extravaganza, "Trump draws thousands to Waco rally, sticks with familiar themes."
In reality there was only the one.
Under the Biden administration, which has done more for the American people on singular days than Trump failed to do in four years, the United States is becoming a "banana republic," said the wannabe generalissimo. Behind him were signs with the words "Witch Hunt."
Because according to the publicly documented mobster, he's the victim of the justice system's "weaponization," which he called the "central issue of our time"; in the real world — the one far outside TrumpWorld — it's the centrality of a phantom phenomenon.
"The abuses of power that we’re currently witnessing at all levels of government will go down as among the most shameful, corrupt and depraved chapters in all of American history," said Trump. "They couldn’t get it done in Washington, so they said, 'Let’s use local offices,'" he continued, in reference to the Manhattan district attorney's probable felony indictment, backed up by a solid paper trail.
He hideously distorted, again, the outcome of past investigations. He said they had found nothing nefarious, which "probably makes me the most innocent man in the history of our country." Never mind that Special Counsel Robert Mueller, for one, found multiple instances of Trump's obstruction of justice and several unmistakable ties to Russian intelligence.
And rare is the year in which a former president faces three separate criminal indictments from two separate prosecutors. Mere happenstance?
Trump's messianic response: "They’re not coming after me, they’re coming after you." Because they've heard this burlesque umpteen times, TrumpWorld believes it. He is somehow the victim, notwithstanding that he vindictively calls New York's black district attorney an "animal" and prophesies "death and destruction" if he's charged.
Of his principal primary opponent, Ron DeSantis, Trump said "He’s dropping like a rock." This particular rock has buoyancy, however. He also persevered in alleging that America's greatest enemy is neither China nor Russia, but ourselves, via our elected officeholders who happen to differ from Trump in any way, to any degree.
The Texas Tribune summarized Trump's "performance" as "incendiary," what with him "vowing to be the MAGA movement’s 'retribution.'" (He also "vowed to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine within a day of beginning his next administration." Okay, that's not vindictiveness. Just imbecility.)
The Tribune wrote that he "positioned himself as the sole protector of American values, painting a grim future if he is denied a second four-year term." The crowd ate it up. They "roared in approval," for instance, when Trump essentially pledged to keep first graders from reading Harvard Law Review articles on critical race theory.
Said one gentleman from Comanche, Tex., to the Tribune: "Trump is the man for the hour. He’s the only man who can take on Washington in the times that we live in. Trump needs to dredge out the swamp with a bulldozer."
With extreme prejudice and intense vindictiveness. Which is the old movie we'd be forced to rewatch if this hateful buffoon ever again possesses the power to turn out America's lights. We will have theatrically entered "the most shameful, corrupt and depraved chapters in all of American history."