NY Daily News: ‘Trump is Toast — This Really is the Beginning of the End’

Last updated on December 16th, 2018 at 12:36 pm

With all of the news that has come out recently about crimes committed by Donald J. Trump, many people are asking this one all-important question: How the heck can this joker still be President of the United States?

For some unknown reason, Trump still has the backing of Republicans in Congress and about one-third of the American public. Among Republican voters his approval rating is 89%, according to the Gallup Poll.

So I ask: What’s wrong with this country?

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History will show that Donald Trump is the biggest criminal — and the most prolific liar — ever to occupy the White House. Yet he remains in office.

How long can this last?

Earlier this week we reported that two top lawyers were recommending — and predicting — that Trump’s own attorneys would soon advise him to cut a deal with prosecutors to save his own skin. The idea is that he would resign from the presidency in order to protect himself — and his kids — from greater legal jeopardy.

And now New York Daily News writer Michael Golden has published a piece saying the same thing.

In an article entitled “Trump is toast: This week really was the beginning of the end for the President” Golden makes a case for why Trump will not be allowed to serve out his full term. He writes:

“Donald Trump will be forced to resign the presidency before November 2020. It’s always looked like this might be where we were heading. But now it is far easier to believe it’s going to happen. The case against Trump has barreled past the tipping point. And there’s nothing he can do to reverse it.”

Both his former attorney Michael Cohen and his buddy David Pecker, the head of American Media, Inc., have now implicated Trump in serious felonies. We have the top legal analyst from Fox News (and many others) calling Trump a felon. We have Adam Schiff, the incoming chairman of the House intelligence committee, saying that Trump can be indicted while president. We have a lot of people saying Trump should be impeached right now.

And still, Mueller is not done. In fact, when it comes to criminal charges against Donald Trump, he is just getting started.

As Golden writes:

“Robert Mueller III isn’t done. Maybe not even close. He has remained silent for 18 months for a reason. He’s never indicated when his work will be done, not even a soft deadline. This is because when you investigate something, you keep heading down a hot trail until it goes cold. Until you have all of the truth that is meaningful. Until there’s no more.”

Golden also lists a sampling of other Trump crimes that are reportedly under investigation by the Department of Justice:

1) Money laundering.

2) Conspiring with foreign agents to defraud American voters in the 2016 presidential election.

3) Perjury.

4) Obstruction of justice.

5) Witness tampering.

6) Fraud associated with the 2017 Trump Presidential inaugural committee.

And that may not even be a complete list. Golden adds:

“There may be plenty more that comes to light that we cannot yet envision, because Cohen, Pecker, Rick Gates, Michael Flynn, Allen Weisselberg, Maria Butina and many others are likely singin’ like Gaga”

What will happen when Nancy Pelosi and her fellow House Democrats get their hands on Trump’s tax returns, and also on all of the evidence that Mueller has compiled?

As more and more details about Trump’s crimes come out in the coming months, we will probably see Republican members of Congress lose some of their firm loyalty to the president. This is inevitable if they decide it is best for them politically to do this.

On this point Golden says:

“No one should be under any illusions about the GOP sticking with Trump no matter what. Most Republicans in Congress are disgusted and mortified by the President. They continue to support him for one of two reasons (or both): fear of defeat in their next reelection due to Trump’s seemingly impenetrable control over his base, and the Faustian bargain that most of them cut with their consciences long ago. That is, they want to jam judges and legislation through while they have the power to do so.”

Concerning whether Trump will ever decide that resigning is best course of action for himself personally, Golden concludes:

“Trump loves playing the martyr. If we arrive at that juncture where his ouster by the Senate looks like a lock, Trump will do what he would have done if he’d lost in 2016: Take his impossibly loyal following and monetize the hell out of it.”

“We’ve raced past the tipping point. We’re only going to see more revelations in the coming weeks and months. And the weight will be just too heavy for this President. One way or another, he is done.”

More and more people are speaking honestly concerning Trump’s chances of remaining as president for the next two years. These knowledgeable people are concluding that there is just too much evidence that implicates Trump in serious crimes for him to stay in office much longer.

Sometimes it looks like Robert Mueller is toying with Donald Trump. He keeps dribbling out new information and new evidence to increase the heat on Trump, his family and his criminal cohorts.

What we’ve seen so far seems like the tip of an iceberg. And as more of that iceberg of evidence comes to the surface, and is revealed to the American public, Donald Trump’s chances of staying in office will continue to be reduced to nearly nothing.

And that is the moment many millions of Americans are waiting for — it will be the moment when our nation will change course and we can begin to heal the many wounds that have been inflicted by Donald Trump and his criminal presidency over the past two years. It is a moment that cannot come too soon.

Leo Vidal

I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.