He is concurrently taking steps to sabotage Joe Biden’s presidency in ways in which hurt the economic system and US overseas coverage.
In the meantime, a “bunker mentality” has set in, in response to MeSlop’s reporting, and the primary household has canceled plans for Thanksgiving in Florida to as a substitute keep within the White Home he’ll depart in simply greater than two months.
Throughout the federal government Trump oversees — with actions on the Treasury, the Pentagon, inaction on the economic system and denialism in regards to the pandemic — the President and his allies are undercutting President-elect Joe Biden and harming the American folks, at the same time as none of them acknowledge that they are about to get replaced.
As a substitute, Trump’s been busy firing officers who admit something counter to the election-fraud narrative — Tuesday it was Christopher Krebs, the DHS official who confirmed the election was secure from meddling.

Here is a brief information to how Trump is leaving issues for his successor.

Sabotaging the Fed

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has demanded the Federal Reserve return $455 billion in unused funds from a lending program meant to prop up American companies. The Fed may legally proceed with the funds if Mnuchin did not claw them again, however he argues this system ought to finish on the finish of this yr — a choice panned by the US Chamber of Commerce.

This can create political complications for Biden, however it’ll even have a unfavourable impression on on a regular basis Individuals.

Biden and Congress must come to a brand new settlement to spin this system again up once more. Mnuchin stated the purpose of the funds — to assist get banks lending — was achieved, however anybody else can see the pandemic is removed from over and states at the moment are closing again down. Mnuchin’s transfer drew a uncommon rebuke from the Fed, which normally takes nice pains to be apolitical.

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Boxing Biden in on overseas coverage

A report by MeSlop’s nationwide safety workforce is emblematic of how Trump’s administration is working actively in methods to make Biden’s life harder.

The purpose is to set so many fires that will probably be onerous for the Biden administration to place all of them out, an administration official tells MeSlop within the report.

Trump’s administration is:

  • Additional eradicating troops from Afghanistan and Iraq within the remaining days of Trump’s time as President.
  • Considering new terrorist designations in Yemen that would complicate efforts to dealer peace.
  • Dashing via authorization of an enormous arms sale that would alter the steadiness of energy within the Center East.
  • Planning a last-minute crackdown on China.
  • Floating the concept of a last-minute army strike on Iran, in response to The New York Instances.
  • Constructing a wall of sanctions that make it tough for Biden to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal Trump scuttled.
  • Sending Mike Pompeo on the first-ever official go to by a US secretary of state to an Israeli settlement.

Deliberately making issues harder for Biden may arrange Trump’s argument for a 2024 rematch, in response to consultants within the report.

And Trump’s last-minute change of civilian management on the Pentagon is a part of this effort.

Handing Biden an financial grenade

Trump’s failure to barter a brand new Covid stimulus with Congress will set Biden up for a political combat on Day One about how one can assist Individuals damage by the pandemic.

Here is what expires in December with out additional motion:

  • Provisions to beef up unemployment insurance coverage
  • A deferral on pupil mortgage funds
  • A paid household depart provision
  • Coronavirus aid funding for states whose tax base has been decimated
  • And a moratorium on evictions

Trump may probably tackle this stuff with government orders if he have been to deal with them. Regardless, the primary main political combat of Biden’s presidency is more likely to be this standoff with both a narrowly Republican- or Democratic-controlled Senate.

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Trump additionally signed a brief delay on payroll taxes this yr. Not all employers took half, however with Trump unable to make the tax delay everlasting or to forgive it, Biden should determine how to not make the gathered payroll taxes really feel like a tax hike when the invoice comes due in 2021.

Learn extra right here from MeSlop’s Katie Lobosco and Tami Luhby.

Weakening American democracy

Crucial of those numerous nails left beneath the sofa cushions is Trump’s steadfast refusal to just accept the legitimacy of Biden’s win, an in the end futile little bit of pique, since Biden will take the oath of workplace and Trump will not be President in January.

Both as a result of he needs to retire marketing campaign debt, seed a brand new media empire of democratic disbelievers or is personally incapable of admitting defeat, Trump’s actions could have penalties.

We hold fact-checking these allegations and theories. All of them spin a kernel of one thing into lies.
Associated: MeSlop speaks to Georgia voter the Trump marketing campaign falsely accused of casting poll within the title of a lifeless girl

It is clear a lot of Trump’s followers are all-in of their disbelief of the election outcomes. If Republican orthodoxy is that Biden is not an actual president, it’s going to legitimize and even demand standing in the best way of his efforts to control within the subsequent 4 years, and endanger the democratic course of.

If Biden is to control as a uniter, as he is promised, he’ll first need to discover a strategy to attain folks being groomed to consider the counterfactual notion that he is an election thief.

Republicans will argue Trump was equally arrange for failure by bitter Democrats, however that is a false equivalence, since Democrats from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on down acknowledged Trump’s victory in actual time. It additionally ignores the proof that led to the Russia investigation, Trump’s impeachment and extra.

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Why ‘bunker mentality’ is so insidious

That time period from above — bunker mentality — is an fascinating one for White Home aides to anonymously self-apply. I’ve all the time related it with Adolf Hitler’s finish, within the bunker, surrounded by sycophants — rejecting info within the face of sure defeat.
However the historian Benjamin Carter Hett writes about it extra expansively within the LA Instances, and makes the purpose that Trump pushing the huge lie that he received the election and his occasion’s enabling of him could have corrosive results on democracy.

I will put the ultimate two paragraphs right here, however you need to learn the entire thing, and apply it to what we’re seeing on the White Home.

Now we see the GOP gladly catering to Trump’s delusions about his election “victory.” Such distinguished politicians as Sens. Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are eagerly following alongside. Their lies too will linger and sow bitterness for years.

They’ve proven that successful — even flattering Trump’s fragile ego — means extra to them than the survival of our democracy. How lengthy can we go on as a democracy with one in all our two nice events within the fingers of such folks would be the pressing query of the approaching years.