The last thing I want is for Trump to become a dead martyr. This might not be true for everyone.
Dead or alive, he might not even have to cross the finish line in order for the well formed base of hate, chaos and craziness to thrive for years. However, if he does win the election, and Vance takes over shortly after, it’s a bigger win for many, like, the Heritage Foundation, and a huge loss for the rational world. The money/billionaires behind the MAGA drive only need a straw man. As Harris has so expertly shown, Trump is easily manipulated. Vance would be more so.
As a result of Trump’s years long hate rhetoric, victims have received death threats, had to move, isolate, and been murdered. Their lives were upended. Trump is a felon. He can’t leave the country, there are some restrictions on his desire to smack talk a court’s employees, but mostly his rights remain intact. He lives where, and does what, he wants.
Martha Schoenfeld sent bomb threats to the Trump’s “Florida International” club in July. The Pennsylvania assassination attempt on July 13th, occurred in an open air rally.
Yet, to date, he has spurned security advice to have safer rallies and venues indoors.
On Sept 13th, He visited his California club in Palos Verdes. promoting it, under the guise of calling attention to the 330 foot deep ancient landslide that is dropping the city, and his golf course, into the Pacific Ocean. He stood out in the open air, his back to that ocean, and had a press conference. (When he bought that golf course it had already lost its 18th hole. If he were to become president and designated FEMA funds to the area, is there any doubt of a quid pro quo?)
In the most recent assassination attempt, his Florida golfing stop, on Sept 15th, was unscheduled, and the Secret Service had to improvise. While Routh waited for 12 hours to try, anyone could see Trump was going to show up there eventually.
While private golf clubs are a large part of his business, a president must practice self care for the good of the Nation. He complains about Biden and the Secret Service, but does anyone else remember when he first entered the White House that he wanted and was able to pay for his own security? Where are they? What about all the posturing when they tried to protect him at Trump Tower?
It appears that he is having a little too much fun blaming the Biden administration for their lack of security. Down 400 people and a small force to begin with, most protectees would recognize the problem and do what they can to protect themselves.
I remember sitting in an unsecured Palm Springs clubhouse, eating a Pepper steak, with my family and their friends, as, outside the window, Eisenhower played through. That was an eon and many presidents ago. While Obama played on a secured military base, history has shown they are a presidential security problem. Now, the Secret Service has told him to stay off golf courses.
Trump is that straw man. While he may stand and shake his fist at assassins, but will he comply? Or, might he be toying with another way out of his problems?
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/17/us/politics/trump-ronald-reagan-golf-secret-service.html
Grab and Keel 