This week’s politics chat with Susan J. Demas and Edwin Eisendrath was cut short because of dodgy internet during a northern Michigan storm (it happens!)
But they were able to talk about Donald Trump’s announcement Monday that he’s taking over the police force in Washington, D.C. and sending in the National Guard. Ostensibly, it’s because of crime and homelessness, but we know that he wants people to be distracted from his falling poll numbers and the Epstein scandal.
“He has decided, ‘I want the press to be focused on this,’” Susan notes. “They all will be because they're in D.C., so they're going to report on my big move to take over the police, take over the Capitol.”
Edwin, a former Chicago alderman, thinks Trump is in for a rude awakening.
"You cannot lie your way through being a mayor. Can't do it. People know,” he says.
And hey, remember how Trump somehow wasn’t able to call up the National Guard on January 6, 2021, when pro-Trump insurrectionists were destroying the U.S. Capitol, beating police, and trying to overthrow the government? Now we know, once and for all, that the president has that power because he’s exploiting it for his own ends now.
"He wanted January 6th insurrection. He wanted it to happen, right?” notes Edwin. “He couldn't figure out how to send the National Guard to help the insurrectionists, so he kept them out, so they couldn't help anybody else. Now he's sending them in for show."
Unfortunately, they weren’t able to get into much about Trump inviting Putin to Alaska to hash out exactly how they’ll sell out Ukraine — or how the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office confirmed that Trump’s budget will make the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
But if you haven’t already, read Edwin’s column today on the parallels to where we are today with America in the 1940s. In 1940, FDR warned Americans that “new forces are being unleashed, deliberately planned propaganda to divide and weaken us in the face of danger as other nations have been weakened before.” We’re seeing this playbook today on a far more sophisticated global scale.
Trump Is Threatening the Very Things that Saved Democracy in the 1940s
My friends, if democracy has faced a comparable challenge, it was in 1940, after France had fallen.
And later this month, we’re so pleased to announce that Edwin will be joining Lincoln Square with his own show, “It’s the Democracy, Stupid.” Stay tuned for more details! And say, why not become a Lincoln Loyal paid subscriber if you can so you never miss an article or a show?
See why we’re the #1 Rising U.S. Politics Substack!
Share this post