What's really funny about this Story is that Trump was the sort of Jamaica Estates failson who probably thought he had the power to have people executed:
Trump, along with then-first lady Melania Trump and their son, Barron, were all taken to the underground bunker for a period of time during the protests spurred by the police killing of George Floyd as protesters gathered outside the building. Bender writes in the book, titled "Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost," that Trump, in the days following his time in the bunker, held a tense meeting with top military, law enforcement and West Wing advisers, in which he aired grievances over the leak.
"Trump boiled over about the bunker story as soon as they arrived and shouted at them to smoke out whoever had leaked it. It was the most upset some aides had ever seen the president," Bender writes.
"'Whoever did that, they should be charged with treason!' Trump yelled. 'They should be executed!'" the book reads.
The party of law and order, folks. So much for due process and the rule of law.
What this late-breaking anecdote reveals is that the whole "Bunker Bitch" thing really did happen and it so badly unhinged Trump that the senior staff and cabinet should have held meetings to remove him from office under the 25th Amendment. Of course, the people working for him just ignored the problem, set about avoiding eye contact with this drug-addled and deranged maniac, and they all collectively further betrayed their country by wishing the problem away.
The press used to have it so good. Something like this would happen and eleven or twelve people would immediately leak it to some harried journalist who was getting calls from other people trying to leak the same story.
Anyway, it's another symbol of our institutional rot. We used to have a presidency like this and now we don't. I don't believe we sufficiently understand the absolute necessity of ensuring nothing like this happens again. Someone who gives right-wing America the same cruel content is going to come along and coo in the ear of the working media and they'll fall over themselves sucking up to a new Daddy Dictator. The simple fact is that we haven't learned anything and history is going to repeat itself.
When that crueler, slicker guy actually does have someone executed, chances are it will probably be a journalist.
