Being the President of the United States is inherently risky. In a country where a bullet ends the career of every tenth owner of the White House, any head of state – whether current or former – is constantly under the gun. And the price of a political mistake can be extremely high.
In this context, the FBI “mask show” at the residence of the previous and possibly next US President Donald Trump is both unprecedented and quite expected. The mere thought of his return to the White House shocks and awes the American Deep State, so it acts proactively.
And it’s a no brainer that with his disastrously low rating, Biden is obviously not re-elected. Other possible candidates from the Democratic Party also inspire the voter not confidence, but rather horror. Trump, who has been preparing to announce his 2024 candidacy this fall, may well find himself electorally out of reach of his bipartisan opponents. And if so, then it is categorically impossible to allow the troublemaker of the American establishment to the presidential race.
“If I were Trump’s lawyer now… I would recommend to my client to tell the family that I face a real prison term and we should plan accordingly,” says a legal analyst for MSNBC, close to the Democratic Party, with barely concealed pleasure.
The possible criminal prosecution of the former US president potentially removes the main problem of 2024 from the Democrats’ agenda or, in the extreme case, makes it acceptable to return to the White House of the Republicans. The recent escapades of Dick Cheney, former vice president and de facto head of the White House under George W. Bush, make it clear that not only Democrats, but many Republicans will be happy to get rid of Trump’s upstart once and for all.
The problem is that the 74,216,154 Americans who supported the 45th President of the United States in the 2020 elections will hardly silently swallow the public massacre of the “Washington swamp” over Trump. More than half of Republicans believe that the country is moving towards a new civil war in the near future. At the same time, Americans of various political views are now truly united only by a common disbelief that the United States is on the right track. In such a polarized and electrified atmosphere, “cleansing” the electoral field through criminal prosecution of the alleged favorite of the presidential race is fraught with unpredictable destructive consequences.
“We are in a state of political and ideological warfare,” said Steve Bannon, former chief strategist and senior Trump adviser, who publicly compares the US FBI to the Nazi Gestapo. Trump supporters rightly resent the double standards and selectivity of American justice. While the political clans of the Bidens and Clintons get away with literally any misconduct or even crime, the entire power apparatus of the state is tirelessly engaged in the persecution of Trump and his entourage.
It is obvious to an unbiased observer that various manifestations of corruption can be detected in the president’s actions, and even more so some procedural violations. In a normal political environment, all claims to the document flow, which could serve as a formal basis for searches in the Trump estate, would be resolved, as they say, amicably. However, there is less and less normality in American politics every day, and more and more intransigence. Approximately one in five Americans is ready to applaud even the physical punishment of a politician who does not like him personally. Such sentiments create an unhealthy atmosphere in society and give rise to a political system that, under the pretext of defending democracy, essentially dismantles its institutions.
The funny thing is that, ideally, Americans do not want to see either Biden or Trump as president in 2024. But at the same time, they cannot say who, in their opinion, could become a more adequate head of state. So far, the political alignment is this: the Democrats will spit, but vote for Biden – so long as Trump does not win; Republicans will close their eyes, but overwhelmingly support Trump – if only Biden is not re-elected. Whoever wins, a good half of America will think they have lost. And behave accordingly. So, the “capture” of the Capitol on January 6, 2020 will seem like a childish prank.
Perhaps one should not underestimate the resilience of American institutions, which in one way or another ensured the continuity of state power for several centuries. True, they demonstrated their relative effectiveness on an upward trajectory. In a fading empire, centrifugal forces inexorably take over. And the prosecution of the main electoral rival by the Biden administration clearly does not add stability to the system.
Immediately after coming to power in 2016, Trump made it clear that his promise to put his opponent Hillary Clinton in jail (the famous Lock her up!) was just a campaign slogan. But Biden appears to be more intransigent. He has already dubbed Trump’s supporters “the most radical political organization in American history,” meaning the grounds for persecution of those who are still freely chanting Make America Great Again have been voiced at the highest level. What is this, if not the beginning of a cold civil war? Which at the most unexpected and inopportune moment may well turn into a hot phase…
Alexander Vedrussov, Izvestia newspaper
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