THE COLUMN: The Leaving of It

Michael Walsh20 Mar, 2023 4 Min Read
Trump at the crossroads.

Donald J. Trump, most recently the 45th president of the United States, may—to use the favorite phrase of the New York Times—"make history" this week by becoming the first chief executive ever to be indicted after leaving office. Not for anything he did while in office (that would be unconstitutional, although at this point what difference does it make?) but for... wait for it... paying $130,000 in hush money to a hitherto unknown "porn star" to keep quiet about an alleged one-off sexual tryst in 2006.

Now a transaction, however trashy and unsavory, between consenting adults 17 years ago, which became a political issue in 2018 (you remember that; it was in all the papers), is hardly the crime of the century. The rogue local prosecutor, Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, Jr., is ostensibly in charge of this precedent-shattering miscarriage of justice, but everyone knows he's just a front man for the brains of the outfit, including his deputy, social-justice warrior Meg Reiss, the Clintons, and, ultimately the Biden White House.

In the brave new world of the Panopticon, anything you've done at any time your life from birth and the present can now bring you down, the corrupt cur media baying at your heels.

The alleged crime, which has something to do with campaign financing laws involving how Trump reimbursed his sleazy former lawyer and recent jailbird, Michael Cohen, who was the front man on the deal. You may rightly think that such a charge—a philandering playboy businessman paying a woman who, as a working professional, will have sex with anybody for money—is right up there with spitting on the sidewalk or picking your feet in Poughkeepsie. And cooler heads may yet prevail if, as rumored, Cohen's own former legal adviser, Robert J. Costello, appears before the grand jury today to shred what little is left of Cohen's credibility. 

But when that man is named Trump... 

Trump broke the news of what he said was his impending arrest tomorrow via social media (all caps his):

THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE AND FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!

And...

“IT’S TIME!!! WE JUST CAN’T ALLOW THIS ANYMORE. THEY’RE KILLING OUR NATION AS WE SIT BACK & WATCH. WE MUST SAVE AMERICA!PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!”

That is the last thing anybody should do. Or didn't we learn anything from the Jan. 6 fiasco, which has landed hundreds of innocents in what JJ Sefton, the morning blogger at Ace of Spades, has taken to calling the Garland Archipelago. The Left's inability to ever stop (they never stop, they never sleep, they never quit) because the dictates of Marxist "progressivism" make it impossible for them to stop, means that should protests get even a little bit out of hand, the red-diaper babies and their amigos in the media will view it as the next Reichstag Fire, starring conservatives as the hapless Marinus van der Lubbe, and act accordingly. 

There's no question but that the Bragg/Reiss tag team is trying to provoke a confrontation with their absurd legal theories about the Trump/Daniels frolic, but one of their additional goals is to fan the flames of the Trump/Ron DeSantis rivalry. There's been talk of ringing Mar-a-Lago with Trump supporters and demanding that Ron DeSantis call out the Florida National Guard to prevent Trump's possible extradition. Already, the lunatic fringe is frothing:

Still, even Loomer has reconsidered her firebrand stance on her hero's "Protest!!" demands: 

Waco—that's not incendiary or anything. 

DeSantis would be smart to say nothing about Trump (as indeed he did not in this statement today), but instead to issue a warning about the unprecedented political chutzpah of Democrat stooges arresting and trying not only a former president but a current candidate for the office again. Despite Trump's constant whining about how the Florida governor "owes" him "loyalty" for Trump's endorsement back in 2018, DeSantis owes Trump bupkis; as Mr. Dooley famously said, politics ain't beanbag and nobody owes nobody nothing once the bell sounds. 

But what should Trump do? If and when he's arrested, or voluntarily surrenders, he should take the high road. He should utterly reject Bragg's legitimacy or authority to bring charges against him, that on behalf of all living former presidents and all future presidents he will not be a party, on constitutional grounds, to a precedent-setting farce, to wit partisan attempts to use a local legal system to affect the outcome of a national election and in defiance of the will of the people.

And then he should say "not guilty" and just walk out. No speeches to the media, no preening, no playing to the crowd, but instead cloaking his worst instincts in the solemnity of his demeanor. He should not encourage the people to rally to his side, but instead play the martyr, and let his bloody shirt wave itself. 

Another Ace co-blogger, CBD, makes these valid and troubling points:

A Trump arrest will galvanize his support and re-energize his struggling campaign for president. And why would the Democrat-Socialist apparatus want this? Maybe because they WANT to run against Trump in 2024. They see Donald Trump's electoral college success with a hard ceiling of about 235 votes, but fear DeSantis or some other new, young and nimble Republican candidate as a much stronger opponent who can savage the Democrat candidate (Biden or some other malleable vegetable) without having to deal with the baggage of the fake January 6th issues and personal peccadilloes that can overwhelm more substantive advantages.

So this is a twofer for the Democrat-Socialist machine. They continue their long march through our institutions, destroying everything in their path, and they solidify their political hold on the country by manipulating a flawed candidate into contention for the Republican nomination.

Be careful what you wish for: I think Trump is likely to be defeated by any Democrat at this point, but then again that's what everybody thought in 2016, when I thought otherwise, and said so in the pages of the New York Post. And it's possible, just possible, that he's learned enough from what happened to him in 2020 to make him competitive.

What he should not do is this:

Can Trump control himself in this crisis? He recent dog-in-a-manger behavior regarding the presidency, his childish attacks on DeSantis, and his deteriorating command of the English language, don't offer much hope:

REMEMBER, THE SAME ANIMALS AND THUGS THAT WOULD DO THIS TO PERHAPS 200 MILLION PEOPLE, BUT ACTUALLY ALL AMERICANS, ARE THE COMMUNISTS, MARXISTS, RINOS, AND LOSERS THAT ARE PURPOSEFULLY DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY!

He'll be 78 at the time of the next election, and if we've learning nothing from Joe Biden then we're even dumber than Robinette himself. To slightly paraphrase Malcom in Shakespeare's Macbeth: "Nothing in his presidency/ Became him like the leaving it." Nothing would become Donald Trump, half-Scottish himself, more than a principled, defiant—and above all peaceful—exit from the national stage. 

Michael Walsh is a journalist, author, and screenwriter. He was for 16 years the music critic and a foreign correspondent for Time Magazine. His works include the novels As Time Goes By, And All the Saints, and the bestselling “Devlin” series of NSA thrillers; as well as the nonfiction bestseller, The Devil’s Pleasure Palace and its sequel, The Fiery Angel. Last Stands, a study of military history from the Greeks to the present, was published by St. Martin's Press in December 2019. He is also the editor of Against the Great Reset: 18 Theses Contra the New World Order, published on Oct. 18, 2022. Follow him on Twitter: @theAmanuensis

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10 comments on “THE COLUMN: The Leaving of It”

  1. Remember, never fight back. Take whatever is forced upon you. Roll up in a ball and absorb the kicks. Don’t say anything inflammatory. Fighting back is not who we are. Remember, we’re Republicans. We spread ‘em wide and we take what’s coming to us.

  2. The democrats could run a used Kleenex as their Presidential candidate and "win" because the electoral system is hopelessly corrupt. Until the corruption is eliminated - and I can't imagine that happening - the Left will hold on to power. It's sad, but realistic, to expect political and social oppression to increase.

  3. I remember when Trump was at first running, then elected- the entirety of the political class and media said he would destroy the economy, start the third world war, divide America, and cause America to lose its standing in the world. Except exactly the opposite happened. Despite the fact that the ruling class in both parties and media, did everything they possibly could to destroy trump and his policies.
    Through it all Trump showed up every day, always impeccably dressed, never breaking a sweat. He is the hardest working politician I have ever seen. And he is the only one I have seen lose money as a result of being in public office.
    Trump is absolutely dedicated to main street America. I know there is no puppeteer running him, nor does he have special interests he is beholden to.
    So because Trump has had the temerity to strike back just has hard at his (and Americas) enemies as they strike him, now he's somehow unfit for office? Trump and his family have been dragged through the mud, and now you imply he's not electable because he has wiped off that mud and thrown it back it those who are dedicated to the destruction of America - and as such the free world? Boo effing hoo.
    What an utterly self indulgent vanity you have awarded yourself.
    Trump has demonstrated that as a result of standing in the breach at the greatest attack that any American President has ever faced, that he is indeed the exact man needed at this time.
    What do you think the ruling class is going to do at this point, just walk away? Americas enemies have never been closer to destroying her, and they do not care that they are now exposed.
    Trump exposed the rot and its extent- via his unwillingness to roll over.
    Trump is the best chance to eradicate it.

  4. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. seems to be mounting a candidacy. If true this changes everything. A democrat that is anti-war, anti-big pharma and reality based. He is actually everything democrats say that they are but clearly are not.

    He is a centrist, and as such, could pull in massive amounts of voters disgusted with both parties. His speech issue might be a problem but who knows it certainly didn't hurt Fetterman. He has the "name" and seemingly a population that is starting to wake up from a tyrannical stupor.

    I've got my bowl of popcorn.

  5. yea you called it in 2016 "The secret forces that could lead to a Trump victory" ... except that it was a warning that Trump could win not that you expected or wanted him to win ...

  6. For as much as DJT got consistently hosed and the vermin who did it not only got
    away with it and still are getting away with it, they still have the two main cards of destroying our constitutional republic: their ballot counting machine and Googles censoring math.
    The repubes have done next to nothing to destroy that fraud much less play that
    game which no matter how distasteful are now the current ground rules in the
    swing states.
    The combination of The Lefts get out the vote hatred of DJT and the inability of so called reasonable dems and independent critical thinkers to see our republic hanging
    in the balance and vote for the constitution, that will not happen.
    Let’s see if we cannot vote Disantis into the election of 2024 and let the better angles
    of our nature at least delay for a bit the second shot heard round the world as China
    licks its chops.

  7. The press is corrupt and treasonous.
    DeSantis is learning how to battle this Evil but Trump is and has been the Master of that.
    Together they can save our nation.
    So, get with it you two: It is time and we need you both.
    ==========

  8. 78 + is too old for the presidency...look at that demented POS we have in office now. Younger blood needed post haste.

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