The bleeding is done — and Trump is twisting the knife

Donald John Trump has done more damage to the United States of America than any foreign adversary in history.

As sure as I am typing this, Trump is a traitor to his country, the most dangerous man in the world, and any person in government who is still supporting this wreck of a human being is aiding and abetting the most sustained attack on this nation in our 250-year history.

Since asking for and getting Russia’s help to undermine our elections, Trump’s attack on America and our vote is now into its 11th year. The Civil War, which up until Trump was the longest sustained internal assault on our nation, lasted but four years.

And lest you think it is folly or hyperbolic to compare the two, then ask yourself what happens if Trump prevails in his war on America. Knowing the chilling answer to that question, ask yourself this one: Why isn’t Trump’s 11-year attack on America and its terrible repercussions reported this way, and given the weight they deserve?

Understand: Trump is a warmongering maniac, and convicted felon, who currently has the United States Senate, Congress, Supreme Court, U.S. military, tens of thousands of armed and masked, murdering jackboots, and fully 70 million Americans happily under his little thumb. Anybody who thinks he is going to give up that power because of something as trivial to him as a vote, just hasn’t been paying attention to this long war.

I have seen far too many people I respect, and many more I don’t, who believe Trump’s attempt to commandeer the airways Thursday night to spew his lies and threats as just another desperate act of a desperate man.

What have they been watching the past 11 years that we haven’t?

Because I saw it far, far differently. I saw it as yet another lever he is showing us he will readily pull to knock the floor out from underneath us while leaving our country hanging by the deadweight of its inaction to be rid of him.

I am reminded of something a colleague of mine, Chauncey DeVega at Salon, has repeated to me during our many chats the past few years. It is constantly ringing in my ears: “The monster has been unleashed, and he has no guardrails.”

When are we going to stop underestimating this monster and the most dangerous person on Earth since Hitler?

Trump is no better than the authoritarian maniacs who have come before him — people who he admires, by the way — and there is no doubt in my mind that we haven’t even seen the beginning of the worst of him.

He is a racist, lawless degenerate who believes America exists to serve him, and so far not near enough has been done to prove him wrong. He has taken a wrecking ball to our vote, our environment, our government, women’s rights, human rights, and a list of good and decent things so long it could fill three pages of space here.

Our vote is the only thing that can stop him, and he is making it painfully clear he knows this, and will do everything he can to stop it.

Before Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden by more than 7 million votes … before he challenged the results of that loss in court and lost 43 times … before he tried to shakedown a Georgia election official during a phone call heard by the entire world … before he publicly called out poll workers and threatened their lives … even before his violent attack on our Capitol on January 6, 2021, to overthrow the election … Trump staggered in front of a microphone in the East Room of the White House just hours after polls had closed across America, commandeered those networks, and proceeded to hatch the Big Lie.

While our vote was still being counted, Trump did his best Mussolini impression and pronounced to the American public that: “We did win this election,” and that the counting of our vote was “a major fraud on our nation. He then added this, “So, we’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Just two days later, when it was clear all that vote-counting was going to result in his loss, he accosted his nuclear-powered cell phone, blasted into Twitter’s cesspool and sent out this screaming tweet: "STOP THE COUNT!"

He wasn’t done, because he never is, and followed with this Stalin-esque projectile vomit:

"ANY VOTE THAT CAME IN AFTER ELECTION DAY WILL NOT BE COUNTED!"

Can we stop right here and consider this for a minute, please?

By now his hoards had marched upon election offices in Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania. They menaced poll workers — true public servants — under the encouragement of the outgoing President of the United States, a true enemy.

That’s when the attack was officially launched. That’s when nobody — much less our FBI — should have been surprised by what was to come on January 6.

People forget this, because it was ultimately lost among the sea of lawlessness that has followed since. Trump gave the game away for what would follow, because nothing scares this grotesque liar like the truth, and the truth was America had decided that one term was enough.

On Thursday night, five-and-a-half years removed from the most coordinated attack on this nation since the Civil War, Trump addressed the nation in his angry, slobbering way to up the tempo of his attack on America. To their credit ABC and NBC did not air it, though they did stream it live, where most people get their information these days. Will they do the same thing when Trump invariably pulls this again in November if the results aren’t what he likes?

I’d bet against it.

It is telling of course that Trump didn’t want to talk to Americans about how badly he has failed us. His lies and grievances, as always, were more important.

Our economy is failing, prices are spiraling out of control, he has gotten us into a war he has no idea how to get us out of, our White House and surrounding grounds are piles of rubble, and we are laughingstocks of the world.

His popularity is at an all-time low, but even that doesn’t concern this malignant narcissist, because he has surrounded himself with immoral, broken phonies like Stephen Miller, who whisper sweet nothings in his ear.

Power is the only thing that interests him, and he has amassed a helluva lot of it ...

I have not typed all this to bring you down, but to try to FINALLY open other people’s eyes. I know that all of you except for the anti-American trolls reading this piece are fully aware of the stakes of November’s elections.

But it is as clear as day to me that far too many people, like those who trivialized Thursday’s anti-American speech, still don’t.

What’s left of our damn media continues to underplay the biggest story in American history, this 11-Year War, and I am not convinced a disorganized Democratic Party which managed to so thoroughly mangle the 2024 elections, understands this battlefield covered with Republican landmines. One needs only look at their tired, uninspiring leadership to draw that sad conclusion.

That means it is up to us, the voters who terrify the monster, to hold the line, and somehow win November’s battle for the right to stay in this long war.

That’s a lot to hang on people who have been defending this country every damn day for the past 11 years — patriots who have proven they have the courage it takes to stay in there and pay attention to this madness.

You could have quit, but here you are.

Your physical and mental health have suffered. In too many cases your friendships and families have been torn apart. But you stay and fight because you understand the stakes — right from wrong.

Truth from lies.

This week, yet another innocent human being was shot dead in Maine by Trump’s masked ICE thugs ….

Trump is going to do everything he can to make sure November’s vote has no effect on his powers. If he can’t stop the vote entirely, he will make casting that vote as difficult as possible.

This will most certainly happen, and if you can’t tell us what can be done to prevent it, then at least have the decency to admit that we have been right about him and his revolting party all along.

It has been a long 11 years …

D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here, and follow him on Bluesky here.