Trump biographers—including me—and many Washington journalists are telling America that (a) Trump will never stop his coup attempt, (b) there's no bottom to what he's willing to do, therefore (c) there's no final "victory" over Trump we can celebrate.

I hope America will listen.

Donald Trump is a profoundly damaged mind. Everyone close to him who gets escape velocity from his madness says so. Friends. Employees. Family members. Trump's pathologies make him an ongoing danger to America that Biden's DOJ and intelligence officials *cannot afford* to ignore.
Too many journalists wrote pieces tonight calling the SCOTUS decision in the Texas lawsuit a "fatal blow" to Trump's coup. Listen—the coup was never going to succeed and Biden was always going to be sworn in. The question is what the country will look like when (and after) he is.
So you have a man on a mission to destroy this country who has it within his power to do so and you think his pathological scheme will cease because of a court decision? The "coup" concept will unfold over as long a period as Trump needs for him to get what he wants: total power.
Lara Trump will run for the Senate in North Carolina, they say. Ivanka Trump is mulling a Florida Senate run. Donald Trump Jr. is mulling the Montana governorship. The GOP may be the "Trump Party" by 2024.

This is an ongoing effort to build an autocratic dynasty and end America.
Here's the good news: The Lincoln Project exists. And a few more Republicans—not #NeverTrumpers before now—will bolt from what Trump is doing now and will continue to do after January 6th. And Trump can't build on his base by much. So that's what we have to work with right now.
Trump will shortly announce a 2024 run—and is setting up at least 3 family members to run for president after him. He has terrorized one of the nation's two great political parties into abject subjugation. There's no Republican Party now—there's the Trump Party. We must see this.
Anyone in journalism who called out Trump for what he was in 2017 was attacked. The attackers were incredulous at the idea Trump was anything more than another pol with an agenda his critics detested.

Where are those folks now? Silent. Because now all America sees what Trump is.
I don't know how far off the exit ramp for all this is—how long it will take for America to survive it, given that there's no sign publicly that Biden understands what he's facing here. Right now I'm focused on my own off-ramp, because I can't keep writing these warnings anymore.
Trump campaign official Steve Cortes announced on Twitter that "the only day that matters" with respect to the Electoral College is January 20th—they don't even recognize January 6th as being significant. And if you think they'll stop on January 20th, you really don't understand.
The things we may soon see could be beyond belief: Trump calling Mar-A-Lago the "Southern White House" and forming a shadow cabinet. Widespread calls for secession. Calls for impeachment of Biden with doctored evidence. It'll be neverending—an effort to make America ungovernable.
I know Biden's team reads this feed, as I know who follows my feed. My message to them is frankly this: imagine you're about to come to power in a nation dealing with a seditious insurrection that's using advanced, asymmetrical post-internet tactics few in government understand.
Joe Biden doesn't need to become something he isn't—he's always going to want to be a uniter, and that's a good thing. But his mindset must be tinged with realism/pragmatism to a degree we're not seeing or we'll all get whiplash when the DOJ/USIC publicly acknowledge this threat.
PS/ One thing among many I give Biden credit for: making a former national security advisor his top domestic policy adviser. Folks wondered about that pick—including me—just due to of Rice's area of expertise.

I now think it's a very good sign that Biden has a sense of his task.

More from Seth Abramson

(THREAD) To understand the second impeachment of Donald Trump, we must understand the words that preceded and augmented his January 6 incitement of insurrection. This thread unpacks four key speeches—Don Jr., Giuliani, Mo Brooks, and Eric Trump. I hope you'll read on and RETWEET.


1/ If you haven't yet seen my analysis of Trump's January 6 "incitement to insurrection" speech, you can find it at the link below. This thread will look at four shorter—but deeply consequential—speeches just before Trump's, all by Trump allies or family.


2/ DONALD TRUMP JR.

Trump Jr.'s speech on January 6—which ended less than an hour before his father incited an insurrection—is one of the most inscrutable of the day, because its beginning includes some promisingly responsible rhetoric. Then it descends into madness and chaos.

3/ "I'm looking at the crowd here, and you did it all [congregate here] without burning down buildings! You did it without ripping down churches! Without looting! I didn't know that that was possible!" Within 2 hours of his speech, Don Jr.'s audience would be looting the Capitol.

4/ So obviously Don Jr.'s opening is ironic to a historic degree, but this isn't the first time we've heard this rhetoric from him. He habitually ignores right-wing violence because he knows that his chief rhetorical canard—which marries progressivism and violences—gets applause.

More from Trump

Long thread: Because I couldn’t find anything comprehensive, I’m just going to post everything I’ve seen in the news/Twitter about Trump’s activities related to the Jan 6th insurrection. I think the timing & context of his actions/inactions will matter a lot for a senate trial.

12/12: The earlier DC protest over the electoral college vote during clearly inspired Jan 6th. On Dec 12th, he tweeted: “Wow! Thousands of people forming in Washington (D.C.) for Stop the Steal. Didn’t know about this, but I’ll be seeing them! #MAGA.”


12/19: Trump announces the Jan. 6th event by tweeting, “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” Immediately, insurrectionists begin to discuss the “Wild Protest.” Just 2 days later, this UK political analyst predicts the violence


12/26-27: Trump announces his participation on Twitter. On Dec. 29, the FBI sends out a nationwide bulletin warning legislatures about attacks https://t.co/Lgl4yk5aO1


1/1: Trump tweets the time of his protest. Then he retweets “The calvary is coming” on Jan. 6!” Sounds like a war? About this time, the FBI begins visiting right wing extremists to tell them not to go--does the FBI tell the president? https://t.co/3OxnB2AHdr

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