I have to admit, it was a challenge writing satirical pieces about Trump and his administration over the last four years. What started out as an attempt at light-hearted humor often ended up as Trumpian reality.
The highlight of my efforts to make fun of the-man-who-no-longer-occupies-the-White-House was a story I wrote about Trump’s deranged pardons. The article was titled, “Trump Pardons Charles Manson.”
What made that story memorable was that it was picked up by then-presidential candidate Marianne Williamson who did not realize it was “fake news.” She tweeted to her 2.8 million followers, “There is something deeply sinister about Trump pardoning Charles Manson, even posthumously. Dog whistles of the very worst possible kind …”
The brouhaha that arose over Williamson’s faux pas made its way into many media outlets. The story even found its way into Jimmy Fallon’s monologue on the Tonight Show! Williamson withdrew her candidacy weeks later. Coincidence? Ha!
So, when I read an article today in the very conservative townhall.com, titled, “Key Advisor Reveals Trump’s Post-Presidency Plans,” I was shocked to learn just what those plans were! In any other publication the linking of Trump with election integrity would, no doubt, be parody.
Here is part of the very real piece written by Beth Baumann:
Now that President Donald Trump has left the White House, many Americans are wondering what he plans to do next. There have been rumors about him starting a new political party, known as the Patriot Party. But, according to one of his key advisors, Jason Miller, Trump plans to focus on something bigger and far more important: election integrity.
Just one day after boarding Air Force One with the Trump family on their venture from Washington, D.C. to Mar-a-Lago, Miller told “Just the News AM” that the former president has a couple of goals over the next few years, including “winning back the House and the Senate for Republicans in 2022 to make sure that we can stop the Democratic craziness.”
“You’re also going to see him emerge as the nation’s leader on ballot and voting integrity,” he said.
According to Miller, Trump wants to focus on voter integrity but that work will never take place in Washington, D.C. because Democrats don’t believe there is a threat to America’s elections. Instead, Trump is likely to work with individual states and state legislatures to create reforms.
If you have the time, read the comments of some of Trump’s more ardent supporters. The belief that Trump had the election stolen from him, and that he is right to fight for “fair elections,” is all too real to those wackadoodles.
Sorry, President Biden, but there can never be normalcy again in our great country until a writer’s attempt at political satire is no longer at his peril.
Photo | Forbes.com
Trump … election integrity? Too funny. BTW, I remember that whole Marianne Williamson fiasco well!
Thanks. That Williamson-Charles Manson kerfuffle was a whole lot of fun!
Trump and election integrity is what is known in the real world as idiot syncrocies. He wouldn’t know what election integrity was if it hit him in his far ugly orange face. Very funny stuff. He should just slither back into his cave at mar a Lago never to be heard from again
Yes, he should slither … but, of course, he won’t.
I had no idea you’re the one who started the Marianne Williamson-shocked-at-Donald-Trump’s-pardon-of-Charles-Manson bit. Being the journalistic skeptic I am, I just did a search and found reports in major news services that mentioned the article, and found the websites that were mentioned as having carried it. Everything is as you said. Wow. That definitely needs to go in your obituary (which I hope won’t be needed for a long, long time).
As for Trump saying he’s concerned about “election integrity,” that doesn’t surprise me. With his combination of mental conditions as diagnosed by his psychologist niece Mary L. Trump, his continual lying combined with paranoia and not being able to handle loss, that seems predictable.
I still hope that one of two things will happen:
1) The Republican Party will recreate itself (it did that after Agnew and then Nixon left), hopefully this time becoming a reasonable political party. It was that way in the past, and I think it can be that way again. And that, of course, means a party that doesn’t follow Donald Trump.
2) The Republican Party will go the way of the Whigs and die.
The upcoming Senate impeachment trial will tell us what path the GOP will take.. I have a feeling the Republicans will stick with Trump because they’re afraid he will start his own party ( Patriot Party? MAGA Party?)
Yes. That whole Marianne Williamson thing was a lot of fun!
The trouble is when a Republican says “election integrity” they mean “voter suppression”.
You certainly have that right!
Trump understands full well that “election security” means making sure that people who aren’t white aren’t allowed to vote.