There has been a lot of hullabaloo lately about the FBI raid on ex-President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
Some of Trump’s supporters are so pissed about it that they’ve attempted to attack FBI offices, verbally threatened FBI employees, and a couple of Republican legislators have suggested that the F.B.I. should be “defunded”. One G.O.P. Congressional candidate from New York said that the F.B.I. Director should be executed. Another Republican hopeful from Florida said that if the F.B.I. raided his house “they’d have gone home in a body bag”.
So much for the Republicans who used to brag that they were the “law and order” Party. Nowadays, the Republican base likes politicians who advocate tearing our democracy down. I think that they are now the Testosterone Party, with elected officials and candidates each trying to out-Schwarzeneggar the next.
Really, is anyone surprised that Donald Trump would have unauthorized Top Secret files at his residence? He called them “his” files.
While President, Trump used the word “my” an awful lot. Does anyone recall “my Generals” when he described the top military brass? The Prez seemed to think that the whole government apparatus belonged to him, that centuries of Federal rules and traditions could be ignored, and that he could do pretty much what he wanted because he was, essentially, King.
“Classified”, “Secret”, “Top Secret” and “Your Eyes Only” information shared with him by intelligence agencies somehow, in his mind, became HIS property. He felt that he could “declassify” secret stuff simply by waving his hand over it, rather than comply with Federal laws and security procedures that apply to such stuff. Sometimes, to his NSA Director’s dismay, he blurted out classified information in a public setting, delighting our foreign adversaries, I’m sure.
It was quite apparent before he became President, and certainly while he was in the White House, that Donald Trump was not qualified to be Commander in Chief of the dominant nation on Earth. He had no public service background, no education in government, and no experience in managing anything other than his own family business. The ex-draft dodger’s ignorance on geopolitical issues was evident from the get-go when he publicly sucked up to dictators such as North Korea’s Kim, Russia’s Putin, and the Philippines’ Duterte. His chief advisors, many who had significant experience, quit his Administration in droves, to be replaced with inexperienced sycophants. He fired “his” intelligence experts who dared disagree with him. Other countries began to laugh at the U.S., even publicly when Trump spoke at the United Nations.
A guy without a clue… that we elected.
Trump was/is a great believer in secrecy when it pertains to his own actions but is seemingly cavalier about secrets that protect the lives of the folks who work behind the scenes of American diplomacy, intelligence, and espionage. Everyone who works for him (or was appointed by him while President) was required to fill out a Non-Disclosure Agreement, i.e. “no snitching on the Boss”. Evidently, the guy who prizes loyalty above everything but money is not so loyal to Federal employees who risk their lives in the employ of the Nation’s security agencies.
Another aspect of the Trump personality that could be involved with the classified files that he was keeping at Mar-a-Lago is an obsession with leverage.
Trump the businessman is used to exerting pressure, legal and illegal, on competitors and public agencies to get what he wants. “Go big or go home!” seems to be his motto, and often (as it is now apparent by all of the lawsuits that he is fighting) his audacious actions cross the line legally. The F.B.I. raid of Mar-a-Lago was the culmination of Federal efforts to reclaim files that Trump had no reason possessing, and the raid was necessary because Trump and his lawyers had blown off numerous previous attempts to quietly secure the files.
If the ex-President has just returned all the classified files, there would have been no raid, no public spectacle, and the need for everyone in the Trump orbit to get so excited. Trump probably expected the Feds to back down; instead, they doubled down, stealing a page from the Trump playbook.
Why such fierce resistance to giving up those files?
It’s only speculation, but there could be stuff in there that has legal value to Donald Trump. As in, leverage to avoid prosecution re: Jan 6th Capitol Riot or to minimize jail time if found guilty (a Trumpian “Get Out of Jail Free” card). “You drop all charges or I’ll reveal who really shot JFK!”
Alternately, the file information might be used to embarrass politicians, foreign and domestic. Donald Trump loves the role of Kingmaker and being relevant. As the saying goes, “information is power”
Recall the impeachment trial regarding the extortion attempt on the Ukrainian President: Trump wanted “dirt” on his opponent’s son (Hunter Biden) to use in the 2020 campaign. He used leverage (a threat to withhold promised military equipment) in order to secure damning political ammo. Trump was not successful in this extortion attempt, but it gives a glimpse into his ruthless nature when it comes to securing and retaining power.
And, of course, U.S. secrets could be sold. Let’s be honest: the guy knows how to make a dollar and is ruthless about it. He has proven that he has no love for democratic ideals. And, he’s proven that he has no conscience.
It is unlikely that the public will ever find out what was on those files that the Federal government wanted back under lock and key and that Donald Trump coveted so much… because the information is classified.
The bottom line is that there are laws and procedures governing classified files, private citizens have no right to possess them, and if Joe Sixpack obtained such information and kept it in his personal residence, he would no doubt be arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced to prison.
Presidents are not above the law, and the same goes for ex-Presidents.
It could be that, as the various legal proceedings against the ex-President approach the final curtain, strategists in the Department of Justice decided to remove Trump’s “Ace in the hole” to put more pressure on he and his co-conspirators.
The political blowback from the F.B.I. “raid” on Mar-a-Lago will probably include tens of millions of additional dollar donations to Trump ostensibly to fight his “harrassment” by the Federal government.
This might have been his “secret file plan” from the beginning: make a fuss, get people excited, and cash in… again.
As P.T. Barnum said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”