Former President Donald Trump was a wrecking ball — that’s what people like me voted for in 2016. We recognized the existence of an unelected deep state, composed mostly of Democrats and their shills. And, we understood instinctively that we needed an outsider to demolish the accretions of tyranny.
Trump delivered in spades. He was the first real threat to the bureaucratic state since Nixon.
But, wrecking balls aren’t precision instruments. They’re crass, blunt force trauma, kinetic energy mechanisms of destruction that lay waste. The destructive energy released is the precursor to creation, renewal, and resurrection. But, if you need something deconstructed in quick order, there’s nothing else suited to the job. Trump tore down and built over the rubble, just as he’d done countless times through the decades while building a real estate empire.
President Donald Trump’s accomplishments will leave you gobsmacked when they’re stacked one on top of the other — a magic beanstalk of wins whose terminus is lost in a nimbus of high-flying cirrus clouds. Here’s a list. Grab a cup of coffee and settle in, it’ll take you a while to get through all fourteen pages.
Trump wasn’t perfect. He broke some china. For the snowflakes, feelings got hurt. Trump tweeted harshly. He emoted often — a bunch of highly entertaining, but impolite thoughts. He insulted people, generally, the ones who richly deserved it. In a manlier age, no one would have cared. I certainly didn’t, and don’t.
However, his appointments left a great deal to be desired. At the top of my “wish he’d picked someone else list” are current FBI Director Chris Wray and former Vice President Mike Pence.
The FBI is clearly a mess and Trump could have installed a real cop as an FBI Director. He didn’t. We got another postmodernist lawyer, steeped in the meaningless drivel peddled in almost all American law schools — the “Constitution is a living document” tripe that strips every civil right of its meaning. We got a phony-tough, empty suit adept at doing all the wrong things while saying most of the right things. AKA, a politician.
Wray’s lack of leadership led to the current whistleblower phenomenon. A bizarre menagerie of the bitter and disaffected who have found convenient cover for their professional ineptitude. Former FBI Agent Nicole Parker and Retired FBI Agent Thomas Baker are notable exceptions. If you’re looking for a litmus test for evaluating who to listen to, consider this:
First, anyone advocating for the abolition of the FBI is a buffoon and likely just a burlesque, fan-dancing crank. It’s no less obscene than advocating for “defunding the police.” Reform is the only serious solution.
Second, anyone who disparages fourteen thousand Special Agent employees wholesale is a fraud and never deserved the badge they carried.
If you’ve heard anyone that fits either description, hit Ctrl+Alt+Del.
Presidential hopeful Vivek Ramasamay stated at CPAC that if elected, he’d abolish the FBI. This is the political analog to “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” Politicians know it’s a fool’s errand, but it’s sensational and gets the lapdogs slavering.
On to former Vice President Mike Pence, who recently delivered some politically calculated comments Saturday during the Gridiron Dinner. It’s another incestuous D.C. event designed to provide legacy media and politicians with an opportunity to canoodle. The dinner got its start in 1885 and has featured nearly every president since that time.
During the dinner Pence decided to take the opportunity to drive a knife into Trump’s back. Clearly, the careerist politician, Pence thinks it’s strategic to denounce his former benefactor in the fashion of Brutus. Perhaps, Pence is feeling vulnerable about his cowardly indecision during the last crucial days of the 2020 presidential election cycle.
Pence said, “President Trump was wrong…I had no right to overturn the election. And his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”
And, during an apparent attempt at stand-up comedy, he continued, “I read that some of those classified documents they found at Mar-a-Lago were actually stuck in the president’s Bible. Which proves he had absolutely no idea they were there.” I have to give him credit. That’s kinda funny. But, Pence may want to revisit the Biblical passages regarding Judas Iscariot.
As to Pence’s claim, he had no right to overturn the election, he’s really presenting a straw-man argument. His powers as Vice President delineated in the 12th Amendment to the Constitution are as follows: “The President of the Senate [the Vice President] shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President…”
This is no mere ceremonial duty. The clear meaning and intent here are to grant the Vice President a role in determining the validity of votes. It’s implicit in the authority to count the votes. Otherwise, the section is an absurdity. Based merely on the illegal actions of the Pennsylvania legislature in altering mail-in voting laws, Pence would have been well within his constitutional powers to question the Pennsylvania certificate. There is precedent for VP involvement in the process. Pence was just too chicken to brawl.
Pence’s claim that Trump endangered his family holds as much water as AOC’s claim that she was in grave peril, though located nowhere near the Capitol building that day. Claims that Trump fomented a riot that day wither in the light of his admonition to the crowd to conduct themselves peacefully. In fact, the J6th videos show most protestors simply milling about the halls of the Capitol building as if on tour, some lead by armed and uniformed Capitol Police officers.
Pence has beclowned himself. He hasn’t got a chance in 2024, and his position is not strengthened by revealing the hollowness of his character.
Paul Revere says
Sad man who. instead of following his Christian faith fell back on his deep state beliefs!
David Ray says
He lost me for good when he defended the FBI flinging pure bullshit in all directions. (The FBI is a proven disgrace that he’s witnessed up close for 4 years, so he doesn’t have any excuses.)
11bravo says
He helped set up Mike Flynn. And after J6 of course he has zero chance. Is he that dim that he can not judge how he is seen by the party, and general puplic?
Enoughalready says
He absolutely helped setup General Flynn. I read some things 3-4 years ago that actually Paul Ryan, Mike Pence and Rod Rosenstein were conspiring with a small group PRIOR to 2016 to remove Trump from the ballot at that time and elevate Pence to the top a slot. I am sure it has been scrubbed from the internet by now.
Lightbringer says
Very disappointing. I had expected much better of him.
B Seidem says
Yep, me too. Now disgraced he needs to go to his home state and disappear.
Buff Oon says
Abolish the FBI. Sorry, not sorry.
Steve Haynes says
Abolishing the FBI is not the same as defund the police. We don’t need a national weaponized police force. We do need local police.
pepperspapa says
The author says reform is the only way to go. You would have to purge the agency from the mid manager level up. The conversion of the agency from old to new took place by placing at the top the change merchants who promoted those under them who were controllable who were of like mind. If you leave in place the middle management group you cannot control day to day operations. Middle managers are the “get it done” group.
stevenl says
The vast majority of W DC institutions are corrupt and need to be cleaned-up deep and wide and rebuilt.
This includes ALL the intel agencies.
Forget Pence.
Larry E. Brandes says
Very impressive article.
BJB AZ says
President Trump is a wrecking ball for dilapidated, rotted, unsalvageable entities.
He saves his finesse for rebuilding, restoring, and renovating.
His “harshness” was for the crooks and slime who deserve it.
Trump is father to three fine children, and the Real President to the millions of
American taxpayers who legally elected him President in 2020.
He has never, ever been harsh to honest Americans.
Lightbringer says
He is the father of five fine children.
William Griffith says
Mr Nantz,
Since you Hell fire sure the FBI should not and cannot be dissolved- you are then obligated-presuming your are serious about restoring an actual justice system in the US –
to tell us troglodytes how said reform is to be accomplished??
The US DOJ and FBI has been spiraling into a modern day Stasi since Bush 41. Bad actors-actual felons with badges are rewarded time and again and promoted.
If you reward bad behavior you will get more bad actors.
That fact has been clearly visible at the FBI for decades.
Cat says
Idk the Trump was harsh blah blah blah is tiresome leftist drivel recycled here. This author has obviously never met the man. I have. Maybe judge a person after you’ve “ broken bread” with him.
President Trump is a great listener. He loves people. He’s soft spoken . He’s brilliant ( yes, I too was surprised that a “ celebrity” could be brilliant) and he has confidence he deserves to have and ambition. He is a benign person. I think his positive intent led him to see the good in others. In DC there isn’t much good in politicians.
On to the FBI. It’s obscene and reminiscent of a conquest mosque ( look it up) to build an enormous new FBI building as planned. Were there a shred of hope for the FBI, were there a shred of humility in anyone there, there would be no new huge building on the beleaguered taxpayers’ dime. Not after the crimes committed by the FBI. I say abolish the FBI. It’s rotten to the core. Its reputation, to quote a personage it has served enthusiastically, is, “deplorable and irredeemable.”
Yeah, we citizens have long, long memories,
Spurwing Plover says
Eco-Freaks just feel betrayed when Biden opened up the Oil Fields hey sound out their total suckers for a snake pol Salesman
Blackgriffin says
“Manlier age?”
Just so you know, a person doesn’t have to be a man to not care about Trump’s more colorful traits. Being a woman is NOT the same as being weak or easily wounded or hysterical.