Like a cornered rat, Donald Trump has been fighting desperately for his own survival. The president has spared no effort in claiming—without evidence—that any electoral defeat in the November US elections will be the result of fraud. While he employs every means necessary to influence the outcome of the US legislative elections—which could lead to the Democrats gaining control of the House of Representatives and perhaps even the Senate—Trump is expected to intensify the White House’s attempts to interfere in the Brazilian elections. The sense of being cornered and the possibility of facing a third impeachment process will likely trigger a fierce attack against his opponents, both domestically and internationally.
Although Trump has campaigned aggressively over the past two months to get the US Congress to pass the “Save America Act“—designed to restrict the participation of voters likely to support Democratic candidates—a small group of reluctant Republican senators has signaled that the president lacks the votes needed to pass the legislation, despite the wrath he has unleashed upon members of his own party.
Last week, he faced additional opposition from Republican senators whom he had defeated in the party primaries (the internal process for selecting the candidate to run against the Democrats in November). After losing to Trump-backed candidates, Republican senators Bill Cassidy (Louisiana) and John Cornyn (Texas)—who will leave the upper house of the legislature at the end of the year—are now tentatively challenging the president, as is Thom Tillis (North Carolina), who gave up on running for another term because Trump declared he would oppose his candidacy.
Trump’s Enforcer Sparks Rifts Among Republicans
The most visible source of dissent among Republicans is the president’s failed attempt to nominate Todd Blanche as the new Attorney General. Blanche has served as acting Attorney General since Trump fired his predecessor, Pam Bondi, due to her failure to achieve some of his key objectives—specifically, using the powerful government apparatus to pursue (and prosecute) Democrats deemed enemies of the president.
Blanche previously served as second-in-command under Bondi. Over the past year and a half, he has dedicated his time to implementing the Justice Department’s most controversial policies, ranging from the violent mass deportation campaign against immigrants to a two-day interview with Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice in trafficking young people and adolescents for sexual exploitation. Intended to clear Trump’s name of any wrongdoing, Maxwell’s statement—claiming she knew of no involvement by the current president with minors—aimed to convince Trump’s supporters that nothing in the 3 million withheld documents could incriminate him. As a reward for stating that Trump knew nothing of Epstein’s transgressions and had never engaged in illicit sexual activities, the government transferred Maxwell to a minimum-security prison one week after her interview with Blanche. There, she has enjoyed considerable freedom.
However, for a small group of Republicans, the final straw was the extremely favorable deal Todd Blanche struck with the Trump family after the president sued the Justice Department for $10 billion, claiming a contracted employee had leaked his tax returns. In this bizarre case, Trump was, in effect, suing himself.
Subsequently, the Justice Department signed an agreement with its nominal boss, Trump, establishing a $1.7 billion fund to provide financial compensation to those involved in the violent storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Not only did Trump pardon the insurgents on Inauguration Day, but he now seeks to reward them for their rebellious actions. The agreement also provides for the exemption of the entire Trump family from any tax audit regarding their personal or business finances, which could spare them from paying $100 million in fines and back taxes.
During last week’s Senate confirmation hearing for Blanche, the Acting Attorney General stated that the fund was no longer operational. Democrats, as well as Republicans Cassidy and Tillis, insisted that he formalize his pledge in writing. Initially, Blanche refused to do so. This prompted the two Republicans to withhold their support for advancing Blanche’s nomination to the full Senate for final confirmation.
Political observers noted that Blanche’s hesitation to provide a written guarantee stemmed from Trump’s reluctance to give up distributing financial rewards to his loyal supporters, whom he might need in the future. When it became clear that the Judiciary Committee Republicans lacked the votes to approve the nomination and send it to the Senate floor, Trump put Blanche’s nomination process on hold. However, following negotiations with the two senators, Blanche agreed to revoke the order regarding the fund, declaring that it no longer had “force or effect.” This paved the way for the Judiciary Committee to move forward with the nomination.
This does not mean, however, that Trump will abandon the idea of rewarding his loyal insurrectionists. The president revealed his true intentions by promising to seek another way to channel federal funds to reward his loyal insurgents—who have largely become a private militia for Trump, ready to answer a call to action, including during the upcoming elections.
Trump persists in repeating lies.
Despite dissent among the politicians Trump has ousted from office, his core support base remains intact. There has, however, been a slight dip in his approval ratings among Republicans. While 81% of likely Republican voters supported the president a month ago, that figure has dropped to 78% in the most recent polls. Much of the conservative dissatisfaction with Trump is linked to the high cost of living and the war in Iran.
Trump’s standing is even worse among independent voters, who increasingly lean left. A recent poll indicates that 76% of independent voters are dissatisfied with how the president is handling the economy and his war efforts in the Middle East.
Ironically, instead of introducing major government measures to strengthen the economy and end the war with Iran, Trump insists on focusing on other issues. Furthermore, true to form, he denies any responsibility for any failures of his administration.
This became crystal clear this week when far-right Fox News commentator Jeanine Pirro—currently the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia—dropped the case against a three-time Olympic athlete accused of vandalizing government property by allegedly damaging the reflecting pool on the National Mall in Washington. Upon realizing she lacked the evidence to support the charges against David Hearn—which could have resulted in a 10-year prison sentence—Pirro dropped all charges.
Nevertheless, Trump continues to insist that vandals damaged his $15 million project to change the reflecting pool’s bottom to “American flag blue.”
Those who closely follow the president observe that his mental and physical health appears to be deteriorating rapidly. Journalists report swollen ankles, purplish blotches on his hands and neck—concealed by makeup—slurred speech, and confused phrases, such as the reference to the “Islamic Republic of Japan.” Yet Trump is such a pathological liar that, even when all evidence proves him wrong, he remains unyielding and insists on the veracity of his lies. This ostrich-like attitude—burying one’s head in the sand—may be one of the reasons why Trump appears to be heading for disaster on November 3, nine days after the runoff election in Brazil.
PayPal 
