By Sarkis Joseph Khoury Ph.D
Mr. Donald Trump came into the Presidency with a BIG Bang: huge plans and massive expectations. Many of his plans have been realized and America prospered. As a citizen of this great country I am grateful indeed. I supported President Trump ever he walked down that elevator with his wife. His talents and vision touched every aspect of American life: The economy, foreign policy, domestic policy, tax policy, and especially the Virus Vaccine achieved at woke speed. It takes at least one book to list all of his accomplishments. I shall resist, however.
President Trump is about to leave office with a BIG Bang. It is, unfortunately a negative one. Much of it is his own creation. The bluster, the constant and vociferous complaints, the accusations, the threats to political opponents who do not tow the line or share his vision did not fall on deaf ears. The audience on January 6, 2021 was already doubly enticed into action: irregularities of the November 3 election, and the prospects of a truly radical government with Biden as President.
The rally on this day was a form of abuse of the massive support he had engendered throughout his presidency allowing him to assume that it will always be there, no matter his conduct. This President was working based on the wrong assumption: Presidents can do no wrong. But if they did, they should have kept in mind that the consequences could be disastrous. His exhortations and the loud and widely approving reactions he received from the crowd may have precipitated the assault on the People’s House. His speech on that day was full of lament, self pity, exaggerations, intolerable repetitions, and excessive public pressure on a Vice President that had already come to a conclusion. He urged the crowd, irresponsibly, to “Go to the Capitol and Show strength”.
What the President was calling for to reverse the election results cannot and should not occur, especially given the events that unfolded after the election. There is no room in the constitution for the Congress to infringe or overrule the will of the voting public unless massive evidence successfully adjudicated before the lower courts and possibly the Supreme Court are in hand. He wanted his Vice President to wave a magic wand that he did not have.
The Trump Rally of January 6, 2020 demonstrated flawed planning, careless execution, and a speech focused on abuse of due process and outright fraud. Yes, the President is right on many claims. Even those living on Mars have concluded that the election was fraudulent in many key states. The State of Pennsylvania and the state of Georgia, to name a few, conducted elections based on rulings and policies generated by unelected bureaucrats while their constitution clearly stated that this is the domain of their legislators. Over 50% of the American voters had already concluded as much- more fodder to the protesters.
But none of these facts were key to the invasion of the Capitol. Every demonstrator knew them. The passion of the President and his insistence that there must be consequences to the fraud added kerosene to the fire. Some demonstrators may well have thought that their grievances could be addressed by simply assaulting the Capitol.
The President should have anticipated that a crowd of angry men and women exceeding 50,000 would have rogue elements and can drive matters into unknown and dangerous territories. They should have been warned to be peaceful or else.
The Capitol police were also ill prepared. Even with the lowest probability of major disorder (Trump rallies have always been peaceful) they should have erred on the side of caution. The Capitol is one of the best guarded locations in Washington DC with 2,300 officers pledged to defend it. The doors to the Capitol should have been closed with massive police presence. Officers should have been posted at the perimeter of the Capitol.
Now the Trump haters are out in force. They want him to resign. They are threatening the use of the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution where a majority of the cabinet could vote to force the President to resign despite the fact that his term expires in two weeks.
None of this will happen.
The venomous hate by democrats and some RINOs against the President knows no bounds. Just listen to the commentators on CNN. They are taking victory laps and calling the President of the United States all kinds of names as if the insult to a President is not an insult to the office that all Americans should respect.
Imagine what will America look like if the democrats succeed in their policy objectives. Trump may well rise again stronger than ever before, possibly leading a third party. The Republican Party will never survive this. Recent history should have taught politicians that underestimating TRUMP is invariably a mistake.
Marlene Khalifeh
Marlene Khalifeh, a Lebanese journalist. She worked for a period of twelve years in An-Nahar” newspaper before moving to “As-Safir” were she spent ten years as a diplomatic reporter. Between these two periods, Mrs. Khalifeh published many articles in the Al Hayat” and “Al Riyad” newspapers, “Al Wassat” and “Newsweek Middle East” magazines.
She created her own website “Masdar diplomacy”,on the 11th of July 2016 focusing on diplomatic activities in Lebanon and the Middle East.
After attending many training courses in a number of European, American, and English institutions, she specialized in investigative journalism. Her hard work paid off when she was awarded, twice (in 2004 and 2005), with the “investigative journalist” prize by the Commonwealth (in Jordan) among four Arab participating countries. Afterwards, she focused her attention on the politic and diplomatic press training and research on fact checking.
