What Happens When Trust Is Lost

Yesterday's US attack on and killing of Iranian military leader Qassim Suleimani, provoked an immediate personal reaction: What is the bad news that the president is trying to deflect our attention from?[1] The administration’s claim that the killed Iranian was planning imminent attacks on Americans is a diversion. The dead general is always planning attacks on Americans and he had been doing that for years. The president intentionally timed this attack to divert public attention from damaging information from information coming out of federal courts.

The objective basis for that instant reaction is the president’s track record of constantly lying to the American people and his track record of trying to deflect public attention when bad news about him and his corruption becomes public. So far, the president’s public track record includes over 15,000 false and misleading statements he has made to deceive, confuse, distract and polarize the American people. He relies on tactics of lies and deceit to try hide his constant stream of crimes, corruption, incompetence and golf course sloth.

His non-existent golf outings have cost taxpayers about $115 million so far

More evidence of lies and illegal activities

It turns out that there is massive bad news that the president is desperate to deflect public attention from. Newly released documents the courts have forced to be made public show overwhelming evidence that the president obstructed justice. That evidence could easily be the basis to start another impeachment proceeding in the House against the president. Also newly released is unredacted documents proving that Trump and the administration was breaking the law in looking for dirt on Joe Biden from Ukraine. That could also constitute grounds for new House impeachment proceedings.

Kate Brannon at Just Security reported yesterday:

“‘Clear direction from POTUS to continue to hold.’ 

This is what Michael Duffey, associate director of national security programs at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), told Elaine McCusker, the acting Pentagon comptroller, in an Aug. 30 email, which has only been made available in redacted form until now. It is one of many documents the Trump administration is trying to keep from the public, despite congressional oversight efforts and court orders in Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation. 

Earlier in the day on Aug. 30, President Donald Trump met with Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to discuss the president’s hold on $391 million in military assistance for Ukraine. Inside the Trump administration, panic was reaching fever pitch about the president’s funding hold, which had stretched on for two months. Days earlier, POLITICO had broken the story and questions were starting to pile up. U.S. defense contractors were worried about delayed contracts and officials in Kyiv and lawmakers on Capitol Hill wanted to know what on earth was going on. While Trump’s national security team thought withholding the money went against U.S. national security interests, Trump still wouldn’t budge. 

Thanks to the testimony of several Trump administration officials, we now know what Trump was waiting on: a commitment from Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden. 

But getting at that truth hasn’t been easy and the Trump administration continues to try to obscure it. It is blocking key officials from testifying and is keeping documentary evidence from lawmakers investigating the Ukraine story. For example, this note from Duffey to McCusker was never turned over to House investigators and the Trump administration is continuing to try to keep it secret.”

Also, documents related to the Mueller report were released. Buzzfeed reported yesterday that 356 pages of documents were obtained from FOIA litigation after a long legal fight between Trump’s corrupted Justice Department and the House Judiciary Committee. The House committee wanted to get an unredacted copy of the Mueller report and grand jury testimony from the investigation, along with FBI summaries of 33 interviews. Corrupt Justice Department officials claimed the impeachment inquiry does not entitle the panel to see those records. Buzzfeed commented: “A federal judge disagreed, ruling in October that ‘DOJ is wrong’ and that the White House and the Justice Department were ‘openly stonewalling’ the committee.”

But wait, it gets much worse

Release of all of that information is the real story the president is desperate to distract public attention away from, regardless of the cost or damage to American interests it causes. The president thus attacked and killed a bitter American enemy at this time to try to distract the public from the fact that there is plenty of new evidence for another impeachment proceeding in the House. The counts could include (1) obstruction of justice, and (2) illegally withholding aid to Ukraine. The two counts the House impeached the president on are (1) abuse of power related to Ukraine, and (2) obstruction of congress. If the House wanted to get aggressive, it could also add to the list the president’s stunt yesterday in trying to deflect public attention from his political problems at the cost of new Middle East unrest and maybe a new war.

That harsh assessment of the attack on the Iranian general yesterday is how an American could see it as a blatant attempt to deflect attention away from the newly released information that is very damaging to the president. That kind of thinking is what can happen when people lose trust in a corrupt chronic liar like Donald Trump.

Is that belief unreasonable or irrational? Opinions will obviously differ. But at the very least there is solid empirical evidence to believe this version of reality.

Footnote:
1. The president has a well-know track record of trying to distract public attention from his problems.

“PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP was facing a potentially very bad news cycle, with special counsel Robert Mueller preparing to testify before Congress and a past friend, Jeffrey Epstein, charged with sexually molesting underage girls. So he went on a rant about four minority, female members of Congress, calling on them at rallies and in tweets to "go back" to their countries of origin. It was a classic Trump move: distract, divert, repeat. When a presidential problem surfaces, the president finds a way to move the problem out of the public eye, relieving pressure on him to solve the actual problem.” (emphasis added)

“Don’t let Donald Trump’s antics distract you from what’s really important. He’s paying fraud fines and collecting bribes — and distracting you with Hamilton tweets. .... Foreign diplomats are booking rooms at Donald Trump’s hotel in Washington, DC because they believe that directly putting money in the pocket of the President-elect of the United States will serve as a bribe that helps them curry favor with him and influence foreign policy.”