Are you shocked by the arrest of former FBI director James Comey? Don’t be. It is the latest move from the fascist playbook and if you’ve been following my writing over the past nine months, you saw this coming.
The roadmap was obvious from the January 6th insurrection: from public rants about punishing enemies, to Elon Musk raising the fascist salute on the inauguration platform. But those responsible for maintaining the guardrails of democracy misread the signs, looked the other way, or were complicit in helping the playbook take root.
And so, the march of gangster fascism has unfolded as planned.
The Timeline of Authoritarianism
Within two months of taking power, we saw the arbitrary kidnapping of people off the streets. And they got away with it. So they went to the next step.
By month three, Trump’s ICE militia was so bold that they arrested a judge in a courtroom. When that provocation failed to rouse the U.S. judiciary, MAGA moved to establish the first concentration camp in the United States.
This was a mere four months into the reign.
This past week, it has been reported that 1,200 people who were sent to Alligator Alcatraz have “disappeared.” Were they deported? Have they been moved deeper into the emerging American gulag system?
Again, the fascist playbook in action.
Then Trump announced a list of political enemies that he wants prosecuted. He fired a top attorney for refusing to do his bidding. His handpicked Attorney General stepped in to satisfy his personal taste for vengeance.
And so now nine months into the Trump reign we have the first show trial. No wonder that will be the man at the top of Trump’s hate list: former FBI Director James Comey.
It’s part of Trump’s ongoing effort to rewrite the role of Russia in his rise to power. Because in 2017, Comey refused to back off investigations of Trump allies who were connected to Putin’s machine. So Trump fired him.
The Trump-Russia connection goes way beyond the hacking at the Democratic National Committee and the use of stolen emails to damage Hilary Clinton’s campaign. Trump is a creation of the Russian kleptocrats. He is their avatar.
Trump’s Dirty Russian Money Empire
Let’s look at the history of this real-life Manchurian Candidate.
In the mid-1980s Soviet gangsters clocked Trump as the perfect chump. They began funnelling money to his real estate empire. They invited him to the Soviet Union and feted him as they spied on his behaviour and built a dossier.
With the fall of the Soviet Union, a wholesale looting of the public infrastructure took place. Trump’s real estate empire was the perfect place to invest stolen money. By the late 1990s, a third of the luxury apartments in Trump Tower had been paid for with Russian money.
Trump was a business failure, owing over four billion dollars to seven different banks. Nobody would touch him. But the Russian oligarchs kept Trump afloat. Russian “banks,” which are notorious for laundering money for the kleptocracy, fronted him the money he needed.
Donald Jr. once bragged: “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of our assets. We are seeing a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”
The Russians built Trump SoHo and handed Trump 18% of the profits even though he didn’t put up any money. But it was the Miss Universe Competition in Moscow in 2013 was where they landed their prize. Trump was paid $20 million for the use of his name – money that he badly needed.
That was when Trump saw his political future.
Russia was awash in kleptocrat money. It had become the nation with the greatest economic inequity in the world, with the United States a close second. Trump loved the way money flowed among the rich and how they flouted the law to build their own empires. This dog-eat-dog world was Trump’s idea of paradise.
Trump tweeted to the world that he was hoping to become Vladimir Putin’s best friend. He became their political patsy. All the while, being kept afloat by dirty Russian money.
While he was schmoozing at Miss Universe the FBI were breaking up a major gambling scheme in Trump Tower. They arrested 29 men. The leader of the operation was Alimzhan Tokhakhounov. He ran a money laundering operation in the condo directly under Trump. While the FBI were searching for him, Tokhakhounov was attending Trump’s Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow. He sat just a few seats from Trump.
Preet Bharara was the U.S. Attorney who led the investigation into this scheme in Trump Tower. He was fired as soon as Trump became president.
Felix Sater, a convicted felon who had worked with the Russian mafia, lived in Trump Tower. He pushed a massive real estate project in Moscow, where he promised to secure Putin’s buy-in: “I will get Putin on this and we will get Donald elected.”
When Trump announced he was running for president, the team that quickly gathered around him looked like they had been put together out of an FBI dossier. They were a crew of pro-Russian dunces and criminals.
Paul Manafort was Trump’s campaign manager. He had worked for Russian oligarchs and served as key political advisor to Victor Yanukovych, the Putin puppet leader in Ukraine. When the people forced Yanukovych was forced out of Ukraine, Manafort went to work for a pro-Russian party in Ukraine. From there, he jumped into the top spot on Team Trump.
Manafort was later convicted on eight felony counts and jailed - until Trump pardoned him.
Jared Kushner was Trump’s right hand. He had enormous contacts with Russia. He was involved in the meeting in Trump Tower with Russian operatives over sharing dirty information on Hilary Clinton.
Trump’s campaign foreign policy advisors were George Papadopoulos and Carter Page, both of whom had ties to Russian operatives. Both were involved in rewriting Republican policy on Ukraine and providing huge openings for Putin.
Michael Flynn, a former member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was the other key Trump advisor. Flynn was deeply compromised with Russia. After the election, Trump appointed him to his cabinet. Acting Attorney General Sally Yates warned the president that Flynn was a prime target for Russian blackmail. Trump had her fired.
He then leaned on James Comey to back off the investigation. Comey refused. Flynn was jailed. Trump pardoned him and is now coming after Comey.
Trump wants to erase the historic record of the massive Russian interference that helped get him elected. But he is also using his growing power to move forward with the next phase of the fascist playbook – the arrests and show trials of enemies.
Even David Frum has warned that the Comey indictment is a glimpse of Trump’s roadmap for destroying what remains of the democratic system. Trump is now proposing targeted legal action against people who donate to liberal causes. His top spokesmen are now openly calling the Democratic Party an “extremist organization” that needs to be outlawed.
Still think that won’t happen?
Ordinary people get it and are marching in the streets. But the political class remain mostly on the sidelines.
Just this past summer, I spoke with a Democratic congresswoman who expressed her frustration that the big brains in the Democratic establishment were willing to wait out Trump. They were confident he would self-implode.
From my reading of the fascist playbook, there is a glaring truth - those who think they can wait on the sidelines as the cages are built will end up in those cages.
Nice crisp summary of the Russian intrusion to American politics. I fear the rot will drift a cross the border into Canada.
Charlie, thank you for this excellent summary of trump's involvement with Russia. You have clearly stated the progression of fascism in the US since trump took over. Aside from a few Democrsts like Newsom, Sanders, AOC, JB Pritzker, the silence of the establishment leadership of the Democratic Party is deafening. Wait until trump implodes, wishful thinking, no action. I don't understand it. It is baffling especially when polls indicate the majority are dissatisfied with all things trump.
Your last sentence should be blasted out every day all day long everywhere possible.