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DONALD J. TRUMP'S RUNS A CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE AND DEMOCRACY IN THE USA



BILL LEE 

May 18, 2007 



Trump's Criminal Behaviour 

There has been shock and dismay in the USA but also in other parts of the world at the brazen action of the American Attorney General, Bill Barr, in the dropping of the DOJ's quite solid case against Lieutenant-General Michael Flynn1, the disgraced former national security adviser to Donald Trump. The general feeling is that this action makes a mockery of the justice system and justice in general in the USA. But none of this should be surprising. The presidency of Donald J. Trump has, from the day he falsely claimed his inauguration crowd was the biggest in history, been littered with evidence of various acts of criminality, from his campaign's fraternizing with Russian oligarchs to the utilization of his fake foundation and his fake university. He has also managed to block, with the help of a supine GOP, pretty much any reforms being enacted or the addressing of serious issues facing the country like the obscene gap between the 0.02% and working-class people and reasonable gun control measures. But this direct action by one of his minions in the exercise of justice by a USA court seems a new low in what only can be called criminal behaviour. But is it really? 

Trump's Criminal Influences 

Trump has always had three malign and criminal influences. First, his father who was a racist and a crooked developer, from whom he learned secrecy, racism and the business jiggery-pokery he loves to play. Donald appears to have inherited both his father's racism and his crookedness. He has lauded White Supremacists as "fine people" and he uses the White house to leverage an ever-increasing wealth for himself and his family. Second, it was the mafia who showed him how to run a criminal enterprise - the general use of thuggery, extortion and bribery as well as the imposition of loyalty of the obsequious minions to the Don. The third, it was Roy Cohn, aider and abetter to the anti-communist demagogue McCarthy, from whom he picked up the strategy of using the courts to bully and silence critics and whistle blowers by threats of litigation and to block the workings of the scales of justice or at least to use delaying tactics to keep righteous justice at bay. All of this stuff was outlined by Trump's former fixer, and now convicted felon, Michael Dean Cohen, and has been on display throughout the sad and chaotic years of his mal administration. Thus, what we have all seen occurring since the onset of this incompetent and corrupt USA presidential administration is simply the building and functioning of a vile, ruthless criminal enterprise that seeks to acquire as much power and money as it can for the Don (pun intended) by any means necessary. Thus, Trump, the criminal actor in the White House, is no different from Trump the crooked real estate developer who is no different to the crooked candidate that spread foul, but lame, lies about his predecessor and his opponent. He has been able to bamboozle a significant sector of the public and
has actually co-opted the GOP into his malign xenophobic, racist and crooked philosophy. I suspect that he could not have accomplished this feat had there not been elements in the country that either accept his racism and criminality or will look the other way. 

Two Questions 

There are two question for our friends in the USA. First, what has the Trump administration done to the fabric of democracy in their country? How much damage has been done to the institutions of government and to the trust of the citizenry in the institutions of government? I don't mean to suggest that the American democratic institutions were running along nicely without serious problems. They have long ago fallen prey to the ravages of capitalist dominance and corruption. But this is not the point of this piece. Indeed, I assert that Trump's criminal enterprise makes it more difficult to even confront that serious problem let alone to develop ways and means to do anything about it. The latest gambit by the DOJ head, Barr, is a prime example of a consigliore who does what ever he can to insert brook sticks into the spokes of the wheels of justice. Mobsters are always looking out for the main chance and aren't generally amenable to democratic discourse. They rather, are averse to seeing the rule of law as anything but a curb on their "normal" activities. The second, what can be can about the damage that the Trump gang has done in subverting so many democratic institutions? The only thing I can think of at this late point in his criminal administration is for the citizens of the USA to come out to vote for the Democratic presidential candidate. 

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1 The Judge in the case is not playing ball with Barr however and is delaying final judgement to give time so amicus curia submissions can be heard about what should be done.

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