As the media continues to downplay the dangers of Donald Trump’s ongoing coup against democracy, the president is digging deeper into his delusion and desire to remain in power using any trick at his disposal whether it’s legal or not.
Over the last few days, the Trump regime’s coup attempts have escalated into an ever more desperate and dire stage. Based on the lack of broad public outrage about his continuing effort to overturn the 2020 election, it would appear that many Americans may in fact be vulnerable to Trump’s ploy.
As several news outlets reported, Trump last week convened an Oval Office last Friday where he had a “discussion” with a cabal of conspirators about how to overturn the 2020 presidential election by invoking martial law, using a special counsel to invalidate the election, and seizing voting machines to “inspect them” for “irregularities.” Of course, the intended result of any such “investigation” would be to manufacture Trump’s “re-election.”
Predictably, Trump raged on Twitter that there were no such discussions and this was all another example of “fake news.”
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It should have been the headline in every newspaper and other news media outlet in the United States every day until the new administration is sworn in. But the meeting, first reported by The New York Times, has quickly banished from the headlines.
On Monday evening, the Washington Post also reported on Trump’s cabal, observing that the president “has turned to a ragtag group of conspiracy theorists, media-hungry lawyers and other political misfits in a desperate attempt to hold on to power after his election loss.” Trump’s “unofficial election advisory council now includes a felon, adherents of the QAnon conspiracy theory, a White House trade adviser and a Russian agent’s former lover.”
Axios added that Trump is “retweeting threats of putting politicians in jail, and spends his time talking to conspiracy nuts who openly say declaring martial law is no big deal, it’s impossible not to start getting anxious about how this ends.”
“People who are concerned and nervous aren’t the weak-kneed bureaucrats that we loathe,” the official added. “These are people who have endured arguably more insanity and mayhem than any administration officials in history.”
Matters have become so serious that on Friday Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville felt compelled to issue a statement that there “is no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of an American election.”
This is not the first time during Trump’s reign that military leaders have publicly said they will not interfere in elections. Such an announcement should set off alarm bells with the national media.
However, the announcement was not among the leading stories in the online edition as most media outlets inexplicably continued to minimize Trump’s coup attempt.
The mainstream media’s refusal to highlight the true danger of Trump’s ongoing coup attempt and the depths of the country’s democratic crisis more generally should concern every American.
In this moment of crisis, the American media must tell the truth, which may at least help to prepare the public for the struggle necessary to reclaim the country’s democracy. Or it can remain in denial about the long struggle ahead to rehabilitate our democratic institutions and public life.
