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OPINION

The President of the United States is above the law…well, more precisely…Donald Trump is above the law. The man occupying the White House is a convicted felon…34 times. Likewise, a jury concluded that Trump sexually assaulted and defamed E. Jean Carroll, awarding her $5 million…and another $83.3 million when he defamed her again.

Trump, his adult sons, and former aide Allen Weisselberg, were found liable for a years-long scheme where Trump fraudulently reported the value of properties to either lower his tax bill or improve the terms of his loans…all with the intention of inflating his net worth. Trump cheated the people of New York out of more than $355 million.

Last September, New York appeals-court judges seemed sceptical of the case against Trump and sympathetic to his arguments. Now that he’s president…the U.S. Supreme Court has by and large decreed he is immune from prosecution for any crime while in office.

Trump falsified business records as part of a scheme to pay hush money to women who said they’d had sexual relationships with Trump. Even though guilty…Trump was given an unconditional discharge…that is, a judgment without justice.

Both the State of Georgia and the U.S. Department of Justice filed charges against Trump and 18 others alleging a conspiracy spread across months and states with the purpose of stealing the 2020 election.

District Attorney Fani Willis was removed from the case by a Georgia Appeals Court, citing her relationship with a former special prosecutor on the case. She appealed, but the case’s future is murky at best. Likewise, the four federal felonies in connection with Trump’s attempt to remain in power after losing the 2020 election…have been dismissed.

(DON THOMPSON / iNFOnews.ca)

Trump - through stacking courts…including the highest court in the land - will likely never spend a day in prison or suffer any penalty. But the civil matter with E. Jean Carroll will probably cost Trump - or the fools who back him - based on a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court decisions that lawsuits against sitting presidents can proceed if they do not involve actions the president took while in office.

As disgusting as the lack of justice is in any Trump cases, it is the silence or outright support of Trump by virtually every Republican at every level of state and national government.

Nearly nine years ago, as Trump ran for president the first time, he bragged: "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK? It's, like, incredible." Yeah, it’s incredible…and stupid…but I wouldn’t bet against him getting off from his videotaped murder of someone on Fifth Avenue.

Who’s going to oppose him? Not the Department of Justice…not the Attorney General…not Republicans in Congress…not the U.S. Supreme Court.

Last week, Trump pardoned more than 1,500 criminals…many guilty of felonies…like seditious conspiracy and assault.

Vice President JD Vance announced days before the inauguration that "If you committed violence that day, obviously you shouldn't be pardoned." Even Trump said, “I’m going to do case-by-case, and if they were non-violent, I think they’ve been greatly punished.”

But as Trump’s days got crowded with work a couple days before becoming president (sarcasm intended), according to insider staff, Trump simply said, “F -k it: Release 'em all." Big deal…just another lie.

So, felons like Tyler Bradley Dykes, who was serving 57 months for stealing a police riot shield and twice attacking officers…is free. Dykes gave a “Sieg Heil!” (hail to victory!) salute during the attack, quoted Adolf Hitler before the attack, and participated in a training for a neo-Nazi group.

When Dykes, who was discharged from the Marines for “participating in extremist behaviour,” was serving a five-year sentence for his actions in the racist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, when the sentence was imposed.

There are hundreds more…like Andrew Taake and Christopher Quaglin, both sentenced for attacking and injuring dozens of Capitol Police officers. They now have no criminal records…wiped clean with a pardon from a criminal president.

Donald Trump has been about vengeance his entire life…he states it…without remorse. He told me - the first time I met him 45 years ago - that “getting even” was the best part of doing business.

Trump’s actions - large and small - reflect his penchant for vengeance. In the first few days of his new presidency, he cancelled security protection for Mike Pompeo, Brian Hook and John Boton, foreign policy advisers who served during his first term in office that he thought were disloyal to him…not the U.S. Constitution.

The Biden Administration cautioned that all three former advisers were under threat from Iranian operatives. Trump, of course, was unswayed…they had done him wrong…and in his view deserve whatever happens.

Can America live through four more years of Donald Trump…and survive? Neither I nor anyone else can answer that question really. Only time will tell. Meanwhile, Americans have to re-define things we all took for granted…freedom, justice, democracy.

It’s not going to be an easy four years.

— Don Thompson, an American awaiting Canadian citizenship, lives in Vernon and in Florida. In a career that spans more than 40 years, Don has been a working journalist, a speechwriter and the CEO of an advertising and public relations firm. A passionate and compassionate man, he loves the written word as much as fine dinners with great wines.

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