The irony of Donald Trump pressuring House Republicans to undo a border deal is that many of his voters once counted on him to prevent the “deep state” from harming the United States. Since the former president left office, he and his cohorts have made that conspiracy theory a reality: an unauthorized network of individuals embedded in and around the government redirecting power for their own purposes.
opinion columnist
LZ Granderson
LZ Granderson writes about culture, politics, sports, and living life in America.
Throughout the 2020 general election, Trump referred to the immigration crisis as an “invasion.” In December, he said immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country.” Today, he boasts of being able to kill a bipartisan bill that, among other things, would give Biden and future presidents the authority to close the southern border. The proposed bill would also add 1,300 Border Patrol agents along with technology to detect smuggled fentanyl more efficiently.
Now Trump – the man who went to Washington to “drain the swamp” – does not want the bill to become law. His approval would hurt his campaign claim that President Biden is neglecting the border, a belief he is counting on to get votes in November. And he is without shame Let people know that he is trying to kill the bill, telling his supporters in Las Vegas on Saturday: “Please blame me. Please.” Putting yourself ahead of the problems and well-being of the nation.
Again.
Of course, Trump was never the disinfectant he claimed to be. His time in the White House marked a new low for self-serving abuses of power, which ultimately led to a coup attempt, along with a draft executive order to seize voting machines. But at least then, when he was leading his party in the worst direction, he was an elected official.
Today Trump is a private citizen.
A private citizen who in less than a year was found responsible for defamation (twice) and sexual assault. A private citizen who allowed Boxes of classified documents that will be subject to misappropriation. and stacked near a bathroom on his Florida estate. a private citizen declared responsible for fraud because he exaggerated the value of that property by 2,300%. A private citizen who came to the White House with a decades-long record of ruining and bankrupt companieswho left office four years later after having increased the country's debt by almost 8 trillion dollars.
That's the person from whom House Republicans, some of whom were involved in Trump's coup attempt, take their orders.
That's the person who doesn't want his party to do anything about the border unless he's president.
This is the person House Speaker Mike Johnson (aka MAGA Mike) answers to. That's why he sent a letter to the Senate saying that the border bill that chamber was still working on would be “dead on arrival” in the House.
How can the president be so sure that an as-yet-unwritten bill will fail in the House? Because his future cause of death has nothing to do with national security and everything to do with the man who needs to maximize the appearance of chaos under Biden.
Last year, another of Trump's surrogates, Senate candidate Kari Lake of Arizona, accused Biden of allowing the immigration crisis to continue. “destabilize our country.” Now he doesn't want Biden to stop the immigration crisis. She is not serving the national interest. She is enslaved by a certain private citizen who runs for office and is in and out of court.
Okay, so Trump and his followers are showing that their border speech is not about the border, but only about optics. Hypocrisy is as prevalent in Washington as Dodger Dogs are in Chavez Ravine. But this is no ordinary political doublespeak. In reality, this is a crisis.
From June 2022 to June 2023, the Border Patrol arrested more than 200 people on FBI terrorist watch list trying to enter the United States from Mexico. And the man who wants to be our commander in chief is telling his troops in the House to stand down for his personal benefit.
And the spokesman has indicated that the troops are willing to obey. Meanwhile the The House prepares to dismiss the Secretary of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas for, above all, his management of the southern border.
This is not your run-of-the-mill plot from “Madam Secretary” or “The West Wing.”
This is more like the “Baggage” episode of “The Handmaid's Tale,” where we learn what caused the fall of democracy before the dystopian era of that show. We forget how dangerously close January 6, 2021 came to imitating that terrifying work of art. The peaceful transfer of power interrupted by violence. Members of Congress running for their lives.
“You were there the whole time, but no one noticed you,” June's character said in that episode, while reviewing old newspaper clippings about protests and unscrupulous leaders with large followings.
“Democracies erode slowly, in barely visible steps,” according to the authors of the 2018 book “How Democracies Die.” For us, that first step toward erosion was taken when the electoral college was established to appease enslavers who fear democracy.
Centuries later, another step was the rise of Trump to the White House: a populist known for not paying his employees, a favorite of evangelicals although he has a weakness for porn stars. A charlatan who doesn't want Republicans to help Biden stop the same “invasion” that he claims is destroying the United States.
Do you know what really puts us at risk? Elected officials who do whatever that private citizen wants.
