Trump’s mugshot embodies a 'diabolic manipulator' and 'fascist' peddling 'rage': ex-labor secretary

Former United States Labor Secretary and Carmel P. Friesen Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California Robert Reich said on Friday that ex-President Donald Trump's immortalized Thursday mugshot from being booked at the Fulton County, Georgia jail is Trump's "thousand-word response to Wednesday night's Republican debate which he declined to attend."

Instead of offering coherent policy rebuttals to what eight of his rivals put forth in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Trump "timed his arraignment in Georgia for yesterday so that it — and this photo — would dominate Thursday's and Friday's news, rather than anything or anyone emerging from the debate," Reich writes on his Substack.

"But a defiant photograph isn't 'news.' It's a symbol, an image. Which is exactly what Donald Trump is," Reich contends. "He has no political platform, no specific policy agenda, no new ideas, and no plan for what he'll do if he gets a second term. He exists as a symbol for the anger, discontent, bigotry, and vindictiveness he has unleashed in America. He is as close to America has come to a fascist leader, who doesn't want his followers to think or analyze. He wants them only to feel."

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Reich recalls that after the criminally indicted amateur golfer departed the Peach State to return to his Bedminster, New Jersey country club on Thursday evening, "Trump's lackeys fell in line, expressing the defiance Trump projected in his mug shot. On Newsmax, Sarah Palin called for civil war. Fox's Laura Ingraham told viewers that Trump's arrest was proof that government officials are trying to 'take them out.' Fox's Sean Hannity said the Department of Justice will target Republicans 'until there's nothing left of the party.'"

That commentary, along with Trump's digs at Fox News after his police profile went viral, was "all brainless bile," Reich continues. "Of course he's angry. For the man who's all symbol and image and without substance, a photo like the following conveys a brainless buffoon. It must drive him crazy."

Reich notes, however, that "Trump is not a brainless buffoon. He's a cunning marketer, a diabolic manipulator of the public, a sly producer of his own daily reality show. His lead in the GOP's presidential sweepstakes has grown. He will almost certainly be the Republican candidate for president next year — even if he's in jail."

Reich thusly concludes that the only way to "deal with a fascist who doesn't want followers to think but only to feel rage" is for President Joe Biden and Democrats to "expose him for who he is."

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View Reich's column at this link.