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Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse
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“He doesn’t give you questions, he doesn’t give you orders, he speaks in code, and I understand the code because I’ve been around him for a decade,” Michael Cohen https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/michael-cohen-testimony/2019/02/27/089664f0-39fb-11e9-a2cd-307b06d0257b_story.html?utm_term=.2ae39687618b (told the House Oversight Committee) on Wednesday about President Trump. It was not the most shocking statement, but it might have been the most insightful.
As when viewing a Pointillism painting, it’s helpful to step back to examine the portrait of the Trump Organization that Cohen painted:
- Everything goes through Trump (including the details of the hush-money reimbursement payments)
- By Cohen’s estimate, Trump used him more than 500 times to threaten and intimidate people.
- Tactics such as “catch and kill” and inflating or deflating his wealth are standard Trump tactics, Cohen says.
- Trump is a pathological liar in Cohen’s telling, looking him in the eye to inquire about the Moscow Tower deal and going out to tell crowds the same day “No Russia deals.”
- Trump used lawyers to shield himself from detection (e.g., Jay Sekulow edited Cohen’s false testimony, the hush-money payments went through Cohen). Lawyers are there not to advise as to legality but to enable Trump’s allegedly illegal acts.
- Protecting Trump requires finessing testimony, scaring witnesses and flat-out perjury.
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It was telling, however, that just like mob lawyers defending their client, Republicans have nothing to say about the substance of Cohen’s testimony. None other than former prosecutor and New Jersey governor Chris Christie observed, “The interesting thing is that there hasn’t been one Republican yet who has tried to defend the president on the substance, and I think that’s something that should be concerning to the White House. Why are no Republicans standing up and defending the president on the substance?” I think the question was rhetorical.
This week, President Trump went on Twitter to ask his supporters to “HOLD THE DATE” for a celebration at the Lincoln Memorial on July 4 “called a Salute to America.” The gathering, as he explained, will include “a major fireworks display, entertainment, and an address by your favorite President, me!”
Many mainstream commentators lambasted the president for his predictable bombast. “Trump’s July 4th celebration sounds like a salute to Trump,” read a typical headline. Such commentary, however, deflects attention from a more ominous historical context. The Fourth of July has routinely been used by white nationalist and supremacist movements to consolidate power, recruit members, raise funds and draw ideological linkages between race and nation, whiteness and patriotism, and blackness and civic fraudulence.
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Patriotism and racism went hand-in-hand with Klan leaders routinely seen waving and distributing American flags at such celebrations. It wasn’t just the Klan that saw the link: In some instances, groups like the American Legion https://www.grandforksherald.com/news/2189524-kkk-once-active-north-dakota-grand-forks-its-hotbedthe Klan’s Fourth of July gatherings.
For most presidents, trying to organize a Fourth of July celebration wouldn’t conjure this sinister history. But Trump’s record of racist rhetoric invites the linkage. Implicit in his tweet is a plan to celebrate a narrow vision of America and Americanism, one that omits immigrants, ignores racial inequality and lionizes the white working man routinely championed by Trump.
Social movements grounded in white nationalism have long used Independence Day as an epicenter of organizing, recruiting, fundraising and messaging. Historians must draw out these linkages to Trump’s rally, both now and this coming summer. To ignore these inconvenient histories would leave Americans underequipped to challenge the white nationalist movements emboldened in Trump’s America.
Fordham University is confirming it received a letter from Donald Trump’s then-lawyer threatening legal action if Trump’s academic records became public.
Ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen has testified to Congress that Trump directed him to write letters warning his schools and the College Board not to disclose his grades or SAT scores.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said Thursday that the panel will seek to interview several of the people that Michael Cohen mentioned during his six-hour testimony, including President Trump's children Don Jr. and Ivanka, as well as Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg.
Why it matters: Cohen testified that he believes Trump Jr. and Weisselberg signed one of the $35,000 checks reimbursing him for a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, which he provided to the committee as part of his testimony. Cohen also claimed that he briefed Trump Jr. and Ivanka about Trump Tower Moscow approximately 10 times, though Trump Jr. testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2017 that he was only "peripherally aware" of the project.
The big picture: Cummings told reporters the committee would "take a look at" all of the names that Cohen brought up during his testimony, and that they have "a good chance of hearing from us — at least an interview," per Politico.
- Other names that Cohen mentioned include Trump's longtime assistant Rhona Graff, now-indicted adviser Roger Stone, former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, personal Trump attorneys Jay Sekulow and Rudy Giuliani, and several others at the Trump Organization.
