On November 9th, 2016. the citizens of United States of America awoke to the uncomfortable reality that a brazen, brash real estate mogul from New York managed one of the most unlikely and inconceivable victories in the history of American politics — and it wasn’t even that close.  To the amazement of most voters, Donald Trump had defeated Hillary Clinton by convincing a thin sliver of the upper Midwest to abandon their traditional voting pattern and take a chance on a complete novice  over the supposed ‘most prepared’ candidate in history.  The great majority of the public had a wary, wait and see attitude about the unknown quantity that was Donald Trump.  An elite cadre, including, it appears, the outgoing administration, had a much more targeted impression in mind.  From almost the first day after the election, whispers of “foreign influence” in the election began and the suggestion was the unreal outcome may have tainted.  The result was a rapidly progressive narrative that the win was dirty, and had been achieved by means beyond the ballot box.  The idea that a clownish Trump with no political experience could have convinced a nation on his own that the country’s direction of the last twenty-five years, and particularly the last eight, needed a shocking redirection, was too much for the elite establishment.  There had to be another, far more nefarious answer — collusion with the arch enemy Putin.

So began the public assault on the Trump Presidency from his first day in office.  The private assault began much earlier it turns out.  Mechanisms to assure that in the unlikely scenario of a Trump victory the Trump presidency would be cornered and starved for oxygen day one were put in place.  The assumption likely was that the excruciating pressure would cause the novice to explode and flame out by taking some extra-constitutional action that would allow for a legal overturning of the electoral outcome through an impeachment process.  The number of people that coordinated to position the embryonic Trump administration for demolition was impressive and may not yet be fully exposed. 

The key to the process would be Trump’s incendiary personality, because everyone intimate to the assault had to know the evidence that would be used was at most flimsy, and to a large part concocted and paid for by the very political campaign Trump had managed to defeat.  No matter, because such day to day pressure upon such a thin skinned individual would no doubt expose other vulnerabilities and make the original far fetched connections immaterial.  The early indications must have enhanced the confidence of the conspirators.  The appointment of a special prosecutor by Trump’s own Justice Department, the firing of the FBI Director, the enthusiastic assumption of the narrative by the mainstream media.  Perhaps the fatal conceit was the judgment of the character of the President himself, the thin skin proving to be downright reptilian, and the bombastic comebacks covering a relatively nuanced and careful avoidance of impulsive actions by the reputed King of Impulse.

Two years, millions of dollars, and to the chagrin and horror of the elites, the Scorpion King stands above the chaos.  Now, the questions may begin to swirl as to whether Trump has simply survived a legal investigation, or possibly was the victim of one of the more dark political operations in the history of the constitutional republic.  Did the previous administration determine to scuttle the next President?  Was the opposition campaign involved? Is a fantastical image of a Deep State immune to the decisions of the electorate and determined to function athwart the democracy a reality?

Watergate will always be held up as the most significant attack on the constitutional republic, but was in essence, the clumsy and illiberal efforts of a politician to wall himself off from being associated with his contributions to the dirty pool of American politics.  This political scandal, that may have been a direct attempt to take down an American President by his own executive branch, may end up much closer to shaking the foundations of American government, if all the scabs are fully exposed.  Will the national press that relished the opportunity to expose the first scandal determine, as the facts come out regarding who really were the colluding collaborators,  engage to reveal, or bury, the second?

Whatever you may think of Trump, and God knows I’ve thought it all, he may, unbelievably, prove to be on the right side of history.  His unparalleled ability to withstand and overcome those that sought to overturn a national electoral decision, may have made this most unlikely of constitutional patriots,  the indispensable person for our troubled times.