![]() When asked on Morning Joe about it, Reince Priebus responded, “You just have to wait and see,” thus foreshadowing the prospect of U.S.-Russian solidarity. It is also unremarkable that, on the same day Trump announced plans to nominate Tillerson for secretary of state, the Trump team refused to commit to keeping sanctions in place against Russia. Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, who is Trump’s pick for secretary of state, has cozy business relationships with Russian President Vladimir Putin and was in fact presented with the “Order of Friendship” award by Putin in 2013. The plot also begins to thicken with the CIA’s recent conclusion that the Russians have interfered in the presidential election for purposes of helping Trump get elected. Civil liberties could “legally” be discontinued, and a state of absolute, military control of the sort Trump has already endorsed could be imposed on the land of the free. In this military environment, Congress would be a paper dragon, devoid of any real power. Were martial law to be declared by Trump, government military personnel such as John Kelly, James Mattis, and Michael Flynn would have the authority to establish civil and criminal law. Chillingly, Schwartz made this prediction in October, before Trump was elected and had disclosed his military-laden national security team. According to Schwartz, Trump’s supporters include police, border guards, and the “far right wing” of the military. “I think before very long, its quite possible that he would find a way to declare martial law,” stated Tony Schwartz, ghostwriter for Trump’s Art of the Deal. So, a President Trump who grew tired of being criticized could have more than his Twitter account to put an end to opposition, and it would be “perfectly legal.” Such unwarranted exercise of presidential powers is predictable according to some who have gotten to know Trump well. From Trump’s approval of China’s quashing of peaceful student demonstrations in Tiananmen Square by bringing in tanks that (literally) crushed the peaceful protesters, to his praise for intolerant and oppressive dictators such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, Philippine’s Rodrigo Duterte, and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, it is clear that Trump’s idea of power is the exercise of absolute, militaristic control, including the putting down of “civil unrest.” Viewed in this broader context, Trump’s military selections are therefore not surprising.Īnd, given Trump’s predilection for distorting reality, finding the occasion for declaring martial law would not be very challenging for him. Indeed, his own ideal of what exercise of power means attests to this. Predictably, Trump will use his authority to put down such expressions of democracy. Such antipathy fits well with Trump’s own personal attacks on the media, those who criticize him, and those who demonstrate peacefully against him. ![]() So what comes next? All dictators have a strong disaffection for free speech, peaceful assembly, a free press, and all other civil liberties essential to democracy.
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