President Trump gave an address on election security. Why? He made two points. First, that China had "interfered" in the 2020 election and had obtained voter information but he presented no evidence that China had actually manipulated voting. No big surprise there. And did he announce any new actions against China in response? No.
Secondly, that the intelligence community suppressed that information and prevented it from reaching President Trump as part of its collusion against his administration. Certainly possible given the IC's involvement in the Russia Collusion Hoax. However, a few excerpts from emails aren't the proof. After all, former DNI Tulsi Gabbard (thank goodness, she's gone) released a report and emails purporting to show IC collusion from the first Trump administration but, on close examination, the report and the documents were overhyped.
The speech was a waste. If the President was going to speak to the American people it should be on whatever we are up to with Iran. We seem to have entered yet another phase in the Iran War, which started in 1979 with the regime's declaration of war on the United States. We deserve some clarification about what the goals are here, instead of speculation. It could have also possibly helped him with the mid-terms coming up if he could effectively make the case for what he is doing.
What this shows is Trump's continued obsession with the 2020 election. The truth is the Democrats outmaneuvered the Trump administration. They may have played dirty, but not illegally.
And the truth is that in 2020 Donald Trump "spit the bit" as George Steinbrenner once said of Ken Clay, a moment later to be immortalized on Seinfeld.
He was played for a fool with the Covid relief bill that allowed changes to the election process for 2020 that were taken full advantage of by the Democrats. Meanwhile his campaign was completely unprepared to capitalize on those changes or to monitor what the Democrats were up to. Maybe it would not have made a difference because his entire campaign was a shambles.
At the beginning of the year it was widely accepted that Trump would win reelection, but starting with Covid everything fell apart as it highlighted Trump's weaknesses, beginning with his daily press conferences where he was out of control, easily baited by the press, and allowed himself to be manipulated by Anthony Fauci, the 21st century version of J Edgar Hoover.
Then came his pathetic response to the George Floyd riots when his response amounted to tweeting "law and order" on a daily basis but doing nothing to try to halt the orgy of violence and destruction.
What happened after the election was worse. Despite the fact that his campaign's own polling accurately predicted the outcome in the battleground states, with the exception of Georgia they thought would go for Trump, the president immediately claimed the election was rigged, tossing out an ever changing crop of allegations to keep his most fervent supporters at fever pitch.
I thought Trump would give it up after the electoral college met on December 14, and confirmed Biden's victory. I was wrong. Instead he doubled down, leading to the disgraceful events of January 6. No, he did not plan an insurrection; Donald Trump does not do planning. Instead he is always improvising to see what happens and then makes his next move. But his rhetoric and actions are responsible for stirring up his supporters to the point that they got out of control on the 6th.
Those events also showed that Trump's top priority is always Trump. On January 5, Georgia held its runoff election for its two senate seats. Winning those seats was critical to the Republicans controlling the Senate. Trump spoke at multiple rallies, ostensibly to support the Republican candidates. But after briefly telling audiences they should vote for the R's he would go on extended rants about how the election was rigged and how his supporters votes wouldn't count. He successfully suppressed R turnout and the Democrats won both seats. It's not hard to see how Trump knew, whether consciously or unconsciously, that if the Republican candidates won it would undercut his claim that the November election was stolen. He needed the R's to lose.
Trump's neediness and ego nearly resulted in the end of democracy, from which we were only spared by Democratic senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, to whom we owe thanks.
Trump's priorities can also be seen in the fate of the J6 defendants, most of whom entered the Capitol through open doors, committed no violence or acts of destruction, and after wandering around peaceably left the building, yet were prosecuted nonetheless.(1) Trump raised somewhere between $150 million and $250 million based on the plight of the J6 defendants and his "stop the steal" campaign, yet none of that was spend on providing legal or other assistance to the defendants. The result is many of the defendants had to rely on unsympathetic public defenders or fell prey to inexperienced grifter lawyers who did not know what they were doing. Its quite a contrast with how the Democrats effectively provided support to their violent supporters during the George Floyd summer.
Trump's destructive obsessions can be seen in the damage he's done in Arizona where I live. Trump and his MAGA supporters in the state insist the 2020 election was stolen in Maricopa County. It wasn't stolen. If you compare the 2020 results with 2016 on a precinct by precinct basis, you discover that Trump picked up some votes in Hispanic and poorer White precincts while losing more in the wealthier White areas. Yet Trump's claims led to the ridiculous Cyber Ninja audit and the descent into insanity of many of the state's Republicans.
It also likely had some knock on effects nationally. Arizona's governor in 2020 was Doug Ducey, the very popular (he won reelection in 2018 by 15 points) and capable Republican who defied Trump's instructions not to certify the state's election results as valid, enraging the president. The term limited Ducey left office in 2022, with the lunatic MAGA acolyte Kari Lake losing the governor's race. There was speculation Ducey would run for Senate in 2022 but he decided not to. The reason many informed observers gave is that while Ducey would have easily won in the general election against Mark Kelly, he would have had to go through a grueling primary battle in which he would run against a MAGA candidate supported by Trump, who called Ducey a "weak RINO" who he would never endorse, and that "MAGA would never accept" him running. Instead we had the bizarre candidacy of Blake Masters who got stomped by Kelly. Yet another Senate seat lost to the Democrats in order to satisfy Trump's ego. Thanks a lot.
MAGA is simply whatever Donald Trump does at any point in time. It is not a philosophy, it is not a movement, it is not an organization. When he leaves office in January 2029 he will leave a shambles behind. I pity whoever is the R candidate in 2028 because they will have to live with Trump incessantly commenting on the campaign, unwilling to leave the scene and the starring role in his reality show.
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(1) I supported the pardon of those who peaceably entered and left the building and did not engage in violence or destruction. I opposed the pardon of those who did engage in violent acts.
In preparation for this future, SS (Smarmy Smile) Zohran Mamdani went to Rikers Prison to build some loyalty to him by watching the World Cup semifinals with inmates While enjoying the match Mamdani sat next to an inmate who had strangled his wife to death. I'm pretty confident the mayor didn't waste any time thinking about the woman. 
