Then they came for…
The other day it was John Bolton, and I noted here, as many others did elsewhere, that this had nothing to do with “classified documents” and whatnot, but was a simple and straightforward personal attack against someone within the Republic sphere who had become a public critic of Donald Trump. Today it is Chris Christie.
For the apparently no-longer-acceptable behavior of appearing on a television program to express an opinion slightly unfavorable to Trump’s narrative, Trump himself, bypassing his bootlickers this time, took to “Truth Social” (which might soon be appropriately renamed “True Socialism”) to issue the very same warning, to all who dare to defy the dictator, that Kash Patel delivered on the morning of the FBI raid on Bolton’s home.
For context, in the ABC News interview, Christie commented on the release of the script (er, sorry, that’s transcript) from the Ghislaine Maxwell coffee klatch with Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche, the chat that got Maxwell transferred to a comfortable low-security prison, and will presumably get her a full pardon from Trump in the end. To his discredit, Christie actually took the trouble of covering his backside by insisting that, “I don’t think Donald Trump had anything to do with — with Jeffrey Epstein that was untoward or illegal.” Nevertheless, he belittled the use of her recorded remarks to exonerate Trump: “Why should we believe a damn thing Ghislaine Maxwell has to say about anyone?”
In other words, Christie’s public position appears to be that Trump did nothing wrong in relation to Epstein’s abuse of underage girls, but that Maxwell’s word adds nothing credible to the story because she is a hardened criminal with an obvious vested interest in saying whatever she thinks will please Trump. Now, that’s an odd position to take, since the fact that the Trump administration took pains to seek out and then release Maxwell’s verbal exoneration of Trump, and clearly offered her improved living conditions (at least) as an enticement for her helpful statement, would seem to prompt the question, apropos Christie’s assertion that Trump did nothing untoward or illegal, of why it was so important for Trump to get this statement from Maxwell and then release it to the public.
Be that as it may, it seems that Christie’s own assertion of Trump’s innocence was not enough to appease his old boss. For his indiscretion in attacking the credibility of this particular witness, a convicted child sex trafficker desperate for a pardon, Christie became Sunday’s John Bolton.
Trump’s social media reply, in part:
Can anyone believe anything that Sloppy Chris says? Do you remember the way he lied about the dangerous and deadly closure of the George Washington Bridge in order to stay out of prison, at the same time sacrificing people who worked for him, including a young mother…. Chris refused to take responsibility for these criminal acts. [This was long before Trump hired Christie as a member of his first presidential adminstration, which would seem to prompt another interesting question, typical in the case of Trump’s personal attacks on so many people he once hired himself.] For the sake of JUSTICE, perhaps we should start looking at that very serious situation again? NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW!
There it is at the end: NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW. Exactly the sentence Kash Patel used (although capitalizing only “NO ONE” in his case) in his own social media post about the Bolton raid. The ratcheting up of the intimidation tactics proceeds apace. And since, as January 6th proved, and as Trump’s pardoning of all those who committed crimes on his behalf doubly proved, these intimidation tactics come with real, physical, mob violence threats to the lives and families of any who stand against Trump, there is no doubt that they will be effective, as indeed they have already been so effective in silencing almost every Republican in congress and the entire “conservative media.” Bolton, Christie, and others coming soon, are merely useful public piñatas to remind everyone that the threat is real. Trump is running a full-blown mafia-style operation now, with hints of terrorist group methodology sprinkled on top. That is to say, he is becoming increasingly Putinesque with each passing week. Opposition of all kinds will be silenced or muffled, one way or the other. Those who refuse to cooperate with the conditon that as long as you do not make Trump angry you will be left alone, will be held up as object lessons for everyone else: NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.
As I pointed out in my last post here, the implied sense here is this: “The Law = Donald Trump and his chosen facilitators and henchmen. The FBI’s mission is to serve Trump’s wishes and stifle his critics. If you speak against Trump, publicly question Trump, or reveal things that place Trump in a bad light, the law will seek you out and destroy your life. Look at John Bolton today, and then think twice. NO ONE is above The Law. YOU could be next.”
Christ Christie was next. Intel’s CEO avoided the wrath by ceding ten percent of his company to Trump’s ownership, in an act of direct coercive government takeover of industry. This is fascism plain and simple. Trump was always highly socialistic in his rhetoric and preferences, long before he sought public office. The inclination has never changed, for socialistic control of industry, banking, healthcare, and so on, is the natural political instinct of a sociopath with delusions of grandeur, all the more so when he himself is, as he clearly sees it, the state personified.
