SOME GOOD NEWS : 2019 WAS NOT GOOD BUT 2020 WILL BE A DECISIVE YEAR FOR TRUMP

1. The good news is that the process of holding Trump to account has at least begun, firstly through the Mueller Inquiry and secondly through the current Impeachment Inquiry against Trump. By Autumn 2019 the Impeachment Hearings were underway in the US House of Representatives into abuses of power by Trump in his dealings with Ukraine earlier in 2019. We will follow this Impeachment Inquiry as it develops but there is no guarantee that it will evict Trump from office. Trump is accused of witholding Aid to Ukraine as a means of pressuring this 'foreign power' to make a public announcement which was designed to smear Joe Biden, one of Trump's main Democratic opponents in the upcoming US Presidential Election (which will take place in November 2020). It is illegal under US Law to seek to gain any electoral advantage from a foreign power in this way. There is more on this below.


THE MUELLER INQUIRY

2. From March 2017 to May 2019 a Special Counsel Investigation was led by Robert Mueller, a former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The starting point for this investigation was to examine credible claims (by the U.S. Intelligence services) of Russian interference in the 2016 United States Presidential election, including exploring any links or coordination between Trump's campaign and the Russian government, "and any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation". Mueller had an experienced and expert team and his investigation took over several pre-existing FBI investigations relating to Trump. Many other matters also quickly "arose" so the scope of the investigation was broadened - but nobody knows in exactly in what way or by how much because the investigations were carried out in secret, as they would be in any criminal investigation. Also, the final Report was heavily 'redacted' (by Trump's hand-picked Attorney General William Barr) and much was not revealed.

3. Up until mid-September 2018, it was public knowledge that over 100 contacts had been proven to have taken place between Trump's team and Russian nationals. Every one of these contacts had, at least initially, been denied by Trump or his various spokespeople, but the evidence is solid. Up until August 2018 over 100 criminal charges have been made against 32 individuals and 3 companies as a consequence of Mueller's investigation. Six of the accused have so far been found or pled Guilty to crimes. Others have been found to have violated federal ethics rules, or were forced to resign over security clearance issues. Others are serving prison sentences. There may be more Trials to come. Also, 25 Russians have so far been Indicted for offences of interference in the USA's 2016 Presidential election and system of democracy - although it is unlikely they will ever face charges in a U.S. Court.

4. Mueller's Inquiry confirmed that Trump made multiple serious efforts to obstruct justice, interfered with witnesses, lied on his written responses to Mueller, and engaged in support for illegal activity. Mueller also reminded the world that Trump’s campaign chair, campaign co-chair, personal attorney, national security advisor, and a pair of foreign policy specialists were all indicted and convicted. And he reminded everyone that Russian interference in the 2016 election was extensive and extreme, and that Russia was not just planning to do the same thing in 2020, but was already doing the same thing. When he testified to Congress, on live TV, Mueller said that Russian election interference "was not a single attempt. They're doing it as we sit here." Mueller also noted Trump's own idiotic admissions of his obvious attempts to 'obstruct justice'. Trump tried to obstruct justice in several ways, firstly by actually sacking the Director of the FBI, James Comey, and admitting he did this to try and stop the investigation. According to Comey, Trump demanded that Comey pledge his loyalty to Trump, not to the US Constitution. Trump also obstructed justice by threatening to sack Mueller, and then by sacking his own chosen Attorney General Jeff Sessions (in November 2018) specifically because Sessions did not get rid of Mueller. The Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had oversight of Mueller's investigation and gave Mueller permission to widen the investigation to cover matters 'arising' from the testimonies of ex-Trump cronies, such as Flynn, Cohen, Manafort, Weisselberg (who all 'Flipped' and gave evidence to Mueller) as well as information from others. These 'wider' investigations covered some of Trump's business activities, reputed to include much money laundering, tax evasion, and frauds. It became very clear that Trump was threatened to the core by this investigation. Trump had also previously tried to obstruct justice by his attempt in July 2017 to rewrite his son Don Jr's false account of the Trump Tower meeting in 2016 with a Russian national who was promising 'dirt' on Trump's Presidential campaign opponent Hillary Clinton. Despite all this, The US Congress failed to hold Trump to account (as we explain below). It has also (up to November 2019) failed to introduce any legislation to curb foreign interference in future Elections.



21st AUGUST 2018 - A CRUCIAL DAY AND A TUMULTUOUS WEEK FOR TRUMP AND HIS CRONIES

Trump's Personal Lawyer & Fixer Michael Cohen was Convicted & Flipped...

5. As aprt of the Mueller Inquiry, in April 2018 the home and offices of Trump's long-time personal Lawyer (and general 'Fixer') Michael Cohen were raided by the FBI and Cohen was under criminal investigation. This placed the sitting President of the USA just a heartbeat, or less, away from any crimes committed by Cohen and others. Interestingly, the Prosecutor said that, as far as they could tell, Cohen appeared to only have one client - Trump. This placed Trump, his family and other associates in the spotlight and under extreme pressure.

6. On 21 August 2018 (a very bad day for Trump, see more below) Cohen, in a criminal Trial, was found Guilty of various crimes including tax evasion, bank fraud and the violation of campaign finance laws after paying hush-money (just before the election) to two women who, it is alleged, had affairs with Trump. Cohen was given a jail sentence.

7. During his Trial Cohen pled Guilty and (even more importantly) under Oath he directly implicated Trump by stating that he followed Trump's orders "...in coordination with and at the direction of..." Trump to pay this hush-money, for the "...principal purpose of influencing [the] election." In other words, Trump directed him to commit a felony and he thereby implicated Trump in an illegal conspiracy to defraud the American public and influence the 2016 Presidential election. Trump then (in a TV interview) admitted the hush-money was paid from one of his many accounts. Since this is clearly illegal, Trump had (in his usual idiot style) admitted this further crime and is therefore currently an un-Indicted co-conspirator with the convicted criminal Cohen. Paying this hush-money is one of the ways in which Trump tried to hide these unsavoury facts from the public to influence the election and cheat his way to the Presidency. By the way, the last President of the USA to be an un-Indicted co-conspirator was the criminally corrupt Richard Nixon - and that ended badly for him too. Incidentally, in the same TV interview Trump claimed : "I tell you what, if I ever got Impeached, I think the market would crash, I think everybody would be very poor...Because without this thinking [pointing to his head] you would see numbers that you wouldn't believe in reverse." Unsurprisingly, Dim Dumb Delusional Don seems to think the world would end if he was Impeached. Delusions abound ! In fact he seems very likely to be Impeached by the House of Representatives so we may see if the Stock Market crashes as he claims it will.

8. As the whole world knows, Trump cannot take pressure - Trouble in Trumpland is always completely denied, impetuously and angrily, regardless of the facts or the truth. Trumpland is an ethics-free, morality-free, fact averse and truth-free zone. Trump keeps endlessly denying that he has done anything illegal. The narcissist Trump simply fails to understand that he had already admitted (in another TV interview) trying to obstruct justice by sacking James Comey, then Director of the FBI, who was heading an investigation into Trump at the time. Trump had also openly admitted that he fired Comey to stop the Mueller investigation (it did not stop). Also, on the same day as Michael Cohen's conviction, Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis said in a TV interview that Cohen had now 'Flipped', meaning that he was now happy to co-operate with the Mueller 'Russia investigation' : "Mr Cohen has knowledge on certain subjects that should be of interest in the special counsel and is more than happy to tell the special counsel all that he knows." Trump was very unhappy about this and commented that 'Flipping' by his former associates "...almost ought to be illegal". Thankfully, it is not and many more of Trump's cronies also 'Flipped' (see a few of them below) . Trump's week did not improve when Lanny Davis also said : "If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn't they be a crime for Donald Trump." At the end of this same week, Cohen’s bad week got even worse when the state of New York subpoenaed him as part of its investigation into the fraudulent Trump Foundation (more in paragraph 25 below). In late November 2018 Cohen made an unexpected appearance in Court where he pled guilty to making false statements to Congress (in 2017) about his efforts to pursue a real estate deal for Trump in Moscow during the 2016 presidential campaign. In his confession he said he lied to Congress out of loyalty to Trump. That exposed Trump's repeated lies that he had no business ties to Russia - lies he has frequently told when questioned about his praising of Russian President Vladimir Putin.


Trump's Former Campaign Manager Paul Manafort Flipped...

9. Also on this very bad day for Trump (at the conclusion of the first Trial to emerge from Mueller's investigations) Trump's former election campaign manager Paul Manafort was found guilty on eight charges of tax fraud, bank fraud, failing to disclose foreign bank accounts, etc. The jury in the Manafort Trial failed to reach a verdict on 10 more charges, to which he later pled Guilty. Before, during and after his Trial Trump repeatedly claimed that Manafort was "a Good Man", "a Good Guy", a "very good person" and did not deserve to be tried or convicted ! This opinion is one of many which confirm that Trump's own moral and ethical standards are down at the level of the gutter - or lower. However, the more positive news is that by mid-September 2018 the Mueller Investigation announced that Manafort (then in Jail on a sentence of at least ten years) had also 'Flipped' and had started giving them information on subjects they were investigating. He was later found to have lied to the Mueller investigators, so he is still in Jail and now facing multiple charges of state felonies. The 70 year-old Manafort could therefore face the rest of his life in jail. Manafort was also forced to hand over $46 million of his assets (including his condo in Trump Tower) and he must regret ever having set eyes on Trump.


Trump's first Director of National Security Michael Flynn Flips...

10. On this same Very Bad Day for Trump (at the end of another Trial emerging from Mueller's investigations) his former National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, was due to be sentenced, having pled Guilty, among other things, to "willfully and knowingly" making "false, fictitious and fraudulent statements" to the FBI about his own and the Trump campaign's meetings with Russians to discuss election and other matters. Flynn had admitted these criminal acts and was convicted of them in Court. He got a jail sentence but also decided to 'Flip' and give Mueller information about any matters being investigated. So, Flynn's usefulness to Mueller's investigation is unknown and its anybody's guess what information he gave to Mueller (or any other investigators) - and who that might implicate. Mueller therefore requested that the Court should defer Flynn's sentencing for the time being, and the Court did this.


The Trump Organization's Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg Flips...

11. At the end of this tumultuous week for Trump the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) broke the news story that Allen Weisselberg, the Trump organisation's Chief Financial Officer (who provided information which led to Cohen's convictions) had now agreed to Flip and co-operate with Mueller and federal prosecutors. The WSJ described Weisselberg as "Trump's longtime financial gatekeeper" and reported that he has been an executive at the Trump Organization for over four decades, and "after Mr. Trump was elected, he handed control of his financial assets and business interests to his two adult sons and Mr. Weisselberg." So, Weisselberg is an absolutely central figure in Trump's business dealings over the past four decades. He is said to know “where all the financial bodies are buried” in Trump’s (over 500) businesses (in over two dozen countries, including in Tax Havens) . Many of these are clearly 'shell' businesses with no employees or real premises, but all under the Trump organisation 'umbrella'. This is the 'business universe' Trump has built and it shows all the classic features of a structure designed for : Money-laundering, evasion of taxes, improper reporting of currency transactions, corporate fraud, financial unaccountability and hiding 'unhealthy' or insolvent businesses. Weisselberg was subpoenaed to appear before a Federal Grand Jury about the Cohen investigation but we do not know whether he also revealed details about Trump's business affairs. Nothing emerged from Mueller's final Report but we may not have heard the last of Weisselberg.


White House Attorney Donald McGahn Gives Information to Mueller

13. Around the end of this same week The White House also announced that the White House Attorney (its top lawyer) Donald McGahn was now leaving the White House. In the Autumn of 2018 legal analyst Harry Litman, a former U.S. attorney, told MSNBC there was now "a sense that the dam is breaking over the last week and people are rushing in from all sides." According to Litman : "Everybody who's around Trump now - and has been over the last ten years intimately - is in a world of hurt with legal battles on all sides." It emerged that McGahn (who has, by November 2019 still not been accused of any crime) had voluntarily "co-operated extensively" with the Mueller investigation, reportedly spending 30 hours sharing detailed information with the investigators - without Trump knowing this. When he discovered this, the idiot-in-chief at Trumpland quickly told McGahn to never again 'darken his doorstep', so he left. What exactly McGahn revealed to Mueller we do not know but some of it may yet play a part in Trump's downfall. In November 2019 McGahn received a Court Order stating that he is legally bound to Testify at the Impeachment Hearings into Trump...(more below).

14. Trump has often claimed that he has the ability to 'size up' any person in a few seconds and that he himself is a 'very stable genius". That is part of Trump's self-image. The evidence of all these Felons being found among his close associates within the Trump team contradicts Trump's self-image. It supports the more correct image of Trump as a crook, pure and simple. A legal Tsunami is heading towards Trump because Trumpland is like a Festival of Felony ! There have already been various convictions but will it turn into a Carnival of Convictions ?



THE LEGAL TSUNAMI HEADING TOWARDS TRUMP

15. So, the walls have closed in around Trump and his family, his Foundation, his businesses, his (withheld) tax returns, and around more and more of his associates. Trump regularly protests that the Mueller investigation and the Impeachment Inquiry (begun in the Autumn of 2019) are all a 'Witchunt' against him, he is completely innocent, he is the best President the USA has ever had. But he only sounds more panic-fuelled as time passes. As investigations move inexorably closer to Trump and his family and as he continues with his ever-rising tide of lies he shows increasing anger, discomfort and paranoia. He is full of lies, distortions, evasions and diversionary talk - not the behaviour of an innocent man.


Was Trump Laundering Russian Money...And Did the Russians Help Trump Cheat His Way to the Presidency ?

16. The Mueller Investigation began as a probe into Russian interference within Trump's 2016 election campaign. Although the Mueeler investigation ended in mid-2019, the information given to the Mueller investigation by the 'Flippers' (see paragraphs 4-13 above), particularly by Cohen, Manafort and Weisselberg was likely to be mind-boggling. Between them they knew/know just about everything regarding Trump's relationships with Russians - and much more. They know about the hundreds of millions (or billions) of dollars of illegal funds which poured into Trump's businesses from Oligarchs from Russia and ex-Soviet states. Was this laundered through Trump's shell businesses and offshore tax havens ? Through such mechanisms many of these Russian 'businessmen' bought apartments in Trump properties in the USA in what appears to be a massive money-laundering scheme. The exposure of such vast criminality is a threat to Trump, his office, his money, his image, his companies, his properties, his family, his lavish lifestyle, everything he owns - and his freedom. When the Mueller Inquiry ended, its final Report was initially only released in a heavily distorted 'Summary' hastily written and released by Trump's hand-picked US Attorney General, William Barr. This 'Summary' was designed to hide Mueller's findings from the public. It then took many weeks and and extreme legal pressure from Democrats within Congress before a heavily redacted version of the Report was made available to Congress.


Trump - The Record-Breaker

17. The Washington Post reported in September 2018 that Trump had set a new personal record (for himself, since becoming President) of making 125 false or misleading statements in 120 minutes ! According to the WP's fact-checkers Trump had made over 5,000 false or misleading statements while in office and had recently averaged 32 per day. Mixed into these statements is much anger, impatience, ignorance and paranoia. Trump knows he is in deep trouble but his behaviour will probably continue until the end, possibly becoming more extreme. So, we can safely predict that there will be many more lies, angry denials, false or misleading statements, diversionary and disruptive tactics from Trump. He is a major danger to his own country - the alarm bells have been ringing for a long time now.


Protecting Trump - the Despot

18. For Trump, his cronies and the Republican Party hierarchy, everything now seems to be about protecting Trump, the Despot, above everything else - above the law and justice, above the Constitution and above any shred of Democracy left in the USA. This may look like the 'Madman in the Castle' syndrome but its much more than that because of all the enablers and supporters in his administration and the Republican Party. Trump's only concept of the Presidency has been that it should give him the powers of an absolute Fascist Despot and Dictator. He thinks that he alone should be free to decide everything and deny anything. He thinks that what is Truth and what is Fake is for him alone to decide. The depths and details of Trump's many delusions have been exposed more as time passes, as events overtake him and as the truth catches up with him and his cronies. Meanwhile, the Republican Party continues to protect him.


THE NOVEMBER 2018 U.S MID-TERM ELECTION - WHAT CHANGED ?

19. The main result of the mid-term election was that the Democrat Party gained control of the USA's House of Representatives for the first time since 2008. From January 2019 this gave them greater powers to frustrate Trump's legislative programme. It also gave them oversight of, and the ability to launch any existing or new investigations and to support their funding, if they wish. In the immediate aftermath of this election Trump did what he had been threatening to do for a long time, he sacked Jeff Sessions, his own choice as the U.S. Attorney General. This was yet another serious 'Obstruction of Justice' by Trump. Sessions was no use to Trump because he had 'Recused' himself from overseeing the Mueller Investigation, while Trump had repeatedly asked Sessions to sack Mueller and stop the Investigation. On several occasions Trump explained 'on-the-record' that he had threatened to sack Sessions for this specific reason. Just to clarify that : The sitting President of the USA - the man who was the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation - asked his Attorney General to fire the man leading that investigation ! Sessions never did this and his Deputy (Rod Rosenstein) didn't either, despite intense pressure from Trump and his cronies.

20. After Trump sacked Sessions he eventually appointed a new Attorney General, William Barr, to protect him. Barr is a keen Trump supporter and fierce critic of any questions about or investigations into Trump. It is not very surprising that Trump's activities in this period were said by Nancy Pelosi (who leads the Democrats in the House of Representatives) to have placed the country very close to a full-blown "Constitutional Crisis". That was a definite understatement. Even some senior Republicans are alarmed by Trump's actions and have said that Mueller's Investigation should not have been impeded in any way. Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer said : "Clearly, the president has something to hide." Another gross understatement !


IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS ARE TAKING PLACE - BUT WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT ?

21. The Impeachment investigations and Hearings currently being carried out by the US House of Representatives are Democrat-driven and likely to Impeach Trump. If that happens then the case will pass to the Senate to decide if he is guilty. Currently, the US Senate, consisting of 100 Senators is balanced just in favour of Trump's Republicans (53 Rep. Senators against 45 Democrats, plus 2 Independents). The rules of Impeachment require that at least two-thirds of the 100 Senators (that is 67 of them) need to vote to Convict and evict Trump from office. Will too many (perhaps all) of the 53 Republican Senators fail to convict Trump and continue protecting him and helping him to go for re-election in November 2020 ? That is the key question because, if Trump were to lose the support of just 20 Republican Senators then the Impeachment Trial there could evict him from the Presidency. That seems very unlikely. However, its obvious that, whatever anyone else does, Trump will just continue being Trump. He will go on bragging about himself, dividing the nation and doing as much as he can to avoid Justice by any means. Trump's permanent 'normality' includes being unhinged, narcissistic, egotistical, a pathological liar - and a menace to his country. Be assured, Trump will only ever help himself, not the country.

22. As the Impeachment of Trump continues in the light of Trump's extreme, alarming, impetuous and vindictive personality, will he escalate even more the divisions inside the USA into major conflicts ? As he is fighting Impeachment he will also be fighting for his own re-election as President. Will he at some stage invent a 'State of Emergency', try to suspend the constitution, seek to shut down Congress (again) or start a war somewhere, just to distract attention from his own problems ? Anything is possible because Trump feels no moral or ethical constraints. He is completely unmoored morally and ethically - as is the whole neoliberal hierarchy that shapes the U.S.A.'s toxic political-business system. There are plenty more of these morally and ethically deficient people throughout the US's business-political culture and the Republican Party is full of them - they are all enabling and supporting Trump, so far. If they fail to Impeach Trump and evict him from office then how much further will they support him in the re-election year? Question : Just how big a criminal does a U.S. President have to be to lose the support of his Republican Party ?

24. If Trump adds to his obstructions of justice (Trump seems highly likely to continue doing this) then this could plunge the country into an even longer and deeper period of constitutional and political chaos. Its impossible to predict how the impetuous and irrational Trump will behave and therefore how his downfall will evolve. Only the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives appear disposed to restrain him or Impeach him. But even if they vote to Impeach Trump they then have to pass the case to the Republican-controlled Senate who would Try Trump and decide whether or not to convict him. No previous President in US history has been convicted in an Impeachment process. At present its impossible to know how much further the Republicans controlling the Senate will go to defend and protect him from the laws, from Justice, and from Impeachment. Perhaps they will, if they have to, use a Senate Impeachment Trial as a 'Show' Trial to proclaim Trump 'innocent' and re-sell him as a newly squeaky-clean and improved President who should be re-elected.

25. In the U.S.A., the 'holy land' of neoliberal capitalism, extensive political-business corruption and cronyism has been thoroughly normalised (over several decades) into the fabric of the U.S.A and it is now very deeply entrenched. So, we predict that the Republican Senators will not break with this pattern. They will fail to Convict Trump, simply because they are too much like Trump. They will fail to Convict him because they are so steeped in the same neoliberal values, corrupt as those are - they simply fail to see his crimes as 'real crimes'. Trump's business universe has been set up by him and is run by him in the same way as thousands of other U.S. businessses and corporations which fund US politicians and Parties. Trump's corrupt business universe is a small example of what is widely wrong inside the corporate sector of neoliberal disaster capitalism. So, for these Republican Senators to Convict Trump would be to admit that much is also wrong with their own values - and across the toxic political-business culture of the U.S.A., and in the whole pattern of business and corporate behaviour. For these Senators to Convict Trump would be to also condemn the political-business values of themselves, their own Republican Party and their funders - their very core foundations. The longer these Republican Senators do not deal with Trump decisively, the longer this crisis will roll on and the more this chaos will extend and deepen. Any credibility left in the USA's Constitution and its system of government will disappear completely in the eyes of the global audience watching this spectacle - and in the eyes of many U.S. citizens too.

26. Until Trump is brought to Justice any delays in this process will do further harm to the U.S.A. It is interesting here to look at the precedent of Richard Nixon, the criminally corrupt and disgraced former (Republican) President of the USA who in 1973 sacked a Prosecutor who was investigating him for his leading role in the 'Watergate scandal'. Several months later in August 1974, after a constant stream of lies and denials, and before the Impeachment process could begin, Nixon resigned (there is more on this in paragraph 50 here). In the case of Nixon, we must not forget that as soon as the new 'replacement' President (Gerald Ford, Nixon's Deputy and also a Republican) came into office he pardoned Nixon ! Trump is not waiting for that, he has such a deluded sense of his own immunity that he has already claimed that he could pardon himself, and anyone else he wishes ! He cannot be sure about that because the extent of a President's powers to pardon someone (in this case himself !) of a Federal conviction have never been fully tested and defined, either in Congress or in Court. So, (ridiculous as it may seem) the US Congress or Courts may be pushed to decide this at some stage during Trump's downfall. Question : Do the U.S. laws and Constitution allow a President to be a full-scale pathological liar, criminal and Despot, or not ? Yes or No ?

27. However, it is already clearly established that a US President's powers to Pardon do not apply to convictions by local or State Courts in the U.S.A. So, Trump, his family and his cronies need to also fear more Indictments, prosecutions and lawsuits from States, such as those laid against him by the New York Attorney General. Based on a plethora of investigations various subpoenas are now in operation relating to a range of Trump's business dealings. One Lawsuit relates to the Trump Foundation (Trump's 'charity') and cites : "a pattern of persistent illegal conduct...occurring over more than a decade, that includes extensive unlawful political coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and wilful self-dealing transactions to benefit Mr Trump's personal and business interests, and violations of basic legal obligations for non-profit foundations". Infamously, Trump used this 'charity's' money to indulge his 'appreciation of the arts' (sic) to buy a six-foot portrait of himself costing $60,000 ! What the Courts eventually make of all these investigations, subpoenas and charges we look forward to finding out. Since Trump took office as President, the New York Attorney General has so far brought over 100 legal or administrative actions against Trump and against congressional Republicans. These will not be the last, and New York's actions are only a few of the many legal actions by other States which make up the the Tsunami heading towards Trump, members of his administration, his family and his cronies.


TRUMP - HOW WILL ALL THIS END ?

28. For those of us around the world and in America who have been shaking our heads, the 'Trump era' may have been happening painfully slowly, but - one way or another - his downfall is getting closer. Maybe, after more revelations of criminal acts and misdemeanours emerge from the many investigations he will eventually succumb to accumulating pressures, and 'jump' before he is thrown out of office - just like Nixon ? If he does, will he be pardoned, or will he become open to Federal indictments. If he continues to the 2020 Election and is not re-elected then he surely could not expect to be 'Pardoned' by any incoming Democratic President. Re-election or not, many rumours of Trump's comprehensive criminality have been swirling around for decades. Based on our vivid memories of the Nixon end-game, it seems we are now moving inexorably into Trump's end times. Trump's end times are very different - more complex and multi-faceted than Nixon's end times. For one thing, Nixon's crimes were small compared to Trump's. Yes, even the comprehensively corrupt Nixon was small fry compared with Trump.

29. So, Trump's psychopathic presidency is going downhill and in the direction of the 'Exit' signs by one means or another, whatever fantasy he tries to portray. However, given Trump's extreme personality, his pathological lying and his many enablers and collaborators in the Republican Party (and in the Supreme Court) this is already a severe test for the American political and legal system and its Institutions. This is a test the USA could fail. It has become an alarming and epic spectacle for the world to witness, with risks at every stage that the USA may not deal with this Bad Leader and his cronies decisively. It is imperative (in any sensible universe) that Trump and his cronies are made accountable and brought to Justice. However, in the case of the USA at this time, just bringing Trump to justice will not only be difficult, it will not be enough. Even if Trump were to be Impeached and evicted from office or if he is later tried and convicted on various criminal charges (unlikely as that may at present seem), then how much of the USA's money-driven and toxic political-business culture and system will still remain in place - to continue degrading US and global politics into the future ? The US Constitution, laws and governance system need to be improved for the benefit of the citizens of the USA and the world.


Note : We are not trying to provide an up-to-date news service on Trump's evolving fall from power. But we will add here a digest of the main developments as they occur, and keep our focus on the main issue : Bad leaders and bad governance in the world's most economically and militarily powerful country on earth.