{"id":1856,"date":"2025-04-08T16:26:06","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T23:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/?p=1856"},"modified":"2025-04-10T13:48:29","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T20:48:29","slug":"trumps-liberation-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/trumps-liberation-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s Liberation Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump has named April 2<\/span>nd<\/span> as \u201cLiberation Day\u201d to mark his initiation of comprehensive tariffs against America\u2019s partners in international trade. Thereby he claims to have <\/span>liberated<\/span><\/i> America. But, contrary to his intent, these tariffs will undermine America\u2019s central role in a world economy where free trade and the American dollar have long reigned. America, instead, will no longer be a free trade advocate, but a trade pariah preying on tariffs paid by its own citizens who will indeed be \u201cliberated\u201d from their hard-earned money.\u00a0 As a result, he will have changed the course of America\u2019s role in history. Instead of a beacon for democratic values, America will be a pariah amongst its trading partners and at the expense of its own citizens and our tripartite government. He has consistently fought the other co-equal branches of government in his attempt to assume or suppress their legislative and judicial authorities while expanding his executive functions beyond their Constitutionally defined parameters. Is President Trump simply opposed to our American democracy? Whose liberation is Donald Trump declaring? Is it the \u201cDonald\u201d against the world, including the country that elected him President?\u00a0 He advances his self-serving initiatives with incessant lies and predictions of dire outcomes. Truly, Trump\u2019s <\/span>liberation<\/span><\/i> day is <\/span>his <\/span><\/i>day of triumph, not ours. How then can we revere this man as our President and \u201cleader of the free world?\u201d\u00a0He is a twice impeached President found guilty of 36 felonies and sexual assault by a jury of his peers, that is, average American citizens. \u201cWe the people\u201d have already liberated him from prison by electing him to the Presidency. Is that not enough <\/span>liberation <\/span><\/i>for this deviant?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s briefly review his well-documented background. As a young man, he inherited his father\u2019s real estate empire and ran it into multiple bankruptcies. He even bankrupted a Las Vegas Casino, defying the principle that \u201cthe house never loses.\u201d Nevertheless, he did manage to build a real estate empire with investments from Russian oligarchs\u2014for American banks were loath to deal with a client of such poor financial acumen. But he did attract Russian oligarchs anxious to launder what was stolen from the Russian people. Buying multiple condos and estates and then reselling them was a lucrative business for both the oligarchs and the Trump real estate business. He regained his lost wealth and became well known as a \u201cplayboy\u201d or \u201cman about town\u201d in New York. By the late 1980\u2019s he was even touted as a future Presidential candidate. At the same time, he was also <\/span>labelled<\/span><\/i> as a \u201cRussian asset\u201d\u2014which did not then connote something sinister. Perhaps, it was Trump himself who inspired that label since he profited from Russian investments (as confirmed by his son) and claimed he felt more welcome in Russia than in New York. He said so in an address before a Russian audience during the Miss Universe Pageant he had brought to Moscow. At that time, he dearly wanted to meet President Putin. Years later, while a candidate for the Presidency, he again stated his desire to meet Putin and pitch his plan to build a Trump hotel in Moscow. To sweeten the offer, he even promised a top floor executive suite just for Vladimir.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As President, Trump has often touted how he felt more at ease with dictators, like Vladimir Putin or Kim Jung Un. He even consulted with Putin privately, in contrast to previous Presidents whose contacts with world leaders were monitored and recorded. And he received private letters from Kim Jung Un that he called \u201clove letters.\u201d His recent threats to Canada, Mexico, Panama, and Greenland do mirror the threats Kim Jung Un made against South Korea and Putin\u2019s threats to the NATO countries of Europe. While Kim Jung Un rattles South Korea with military exercises and rocket launches, Putin invades Ukraine and threatens the NATO countries of Europe with nuclear war. Does not Trump\u2019s recent threats to nearly defenseless allies align more closely with Putin\u2019s and Kim Jung Un\u2019s behavior? \u00b9<\/span> Further, his affinity for dictators has been well evidenced. Consequently, it cannot be said that Donald Trump is hiding who he is.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The men he admires are dictators who have absolute power and an unmitigated desire to extend their power and influence over neighboring countries. Also, it should be noted, that neither North Korea nor Russia offers a standard of living comparable to either the United States, South Korea, or the free European states. Dictators care less about the people they govern, than the wealth and power they amass in the office. Given this thoughtlessness, is it any surprise that Trump would saddle the American people with tariff taxes that raise the cost of living while decreasing the taxes of his American oligarchs? Trump\u2019s <\/span>persona<\/span><\/i> is consistent with this characterization of 20<\/span>th<\/span> century dictators and explains why the questions raised in the opening paragraph are so painful, however relevant.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The more imperative question, however, remains unanswered. That question is simply how we will recover from Trump\u2019s \u201cliberation\u201d and rebuild a democracy and an economy that works for everyone, not just Donald Trump and his so-called oligarchs. Remember Jefferson\u2019s declaration that we are all born equal with unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We Americans are <\/span>not<\/span><\/b> subjects, but free citizens with equal rights. As such, we must liberate ourselves from Donald Trump and his dreamscape of absolute power over us and the institutions Congress legislated to serve our health and well-being and insure our future as the free citizens of a democracy. Eliminating DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) programs, abortions, Medicaid, the Department of Education, and reducing the services of the EPA, CDC, FEMA, Social Security, weather forecasting capabilities and so many other government agencies is not the function of a <\/span>democratic <\/span><\/i>government, but of a dictator who serves his own interests rather than those whom he should serve. So how do we liberate ourselves and our nation from a wannabe dictator? <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This question reminded me of Hannah Arendt\u2019s preface to her book, \u201cBetween Past and Future.\u201d Like the French resistance to the German occupation in World War II, we Americans find ourselves at a decision point in our history\u2014a moment in time when we must define\u00a0who we are and thereby determine our future. That moment for French resistance fighters Arendt defined as a \u201ctreasure\u201d wherein an <\/span>epaisseur triste, \u2018<\/span><\/i>the <\/span>sad opaqueness<\/span><\/i> of a private life centered about nothing but itself\u201d was transformed by \u201can aspiration of freedom . . . because they had become \u2018challengers,\u2019 had taken the initiatives upon themselves and therefore, without knowing, or even noticing it, had begun to create \u00a0that public space between themselves where freedom could appear.\u201d We Americans created that public space many times in our history beginning with John Adams who organized a revolution and won the appointment of George Washington as the general who recruited, trained, and led American freedom fighters to victory. Then, representatives of the newly freed colonies came together at\u00a0the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia to define the structure of a democratic government. They were inspired by \u201can aspiration of freedom\u201d and had become the victorious \u201cchallengers\u201d over a dictatorial regime. That moment in history created our Constitutional Democracy we call America. <\/span><\/p>\n

This now is our moment in history to join forces, challenge a wannabe dictator, vote his dupped Party out of office, and preserve American democracy for our heirs.<\/span> We dearly need to preserve our treasure<\/em>–that is the values expressed in the Preamble of our Constitution and the tripartite government defined in its Articles.\u00a0 That treasure, if lost, may not ever be reclaimed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

__________________________________________________<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b9<\/span> The similarities between the world views of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are addressed in some detail by a previous blog, i.e., \u201cThe Import of a Trump\/Putin Alliance<\/a>.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0 That blog was published on July 4th, 2024, and is too accurately predictive of the future we now are so regrettably experiencing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump has named April 2nd as \u201cLiberation Day\u201d to mark his initiation of comprehensive tariffs against America\u2019s partners in international trade. Thereby he claims to have liberated America. But, contrary to his intent, these tariffs will undermine America\u2019s central role in a world economy where free trade and the American dollar have long […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-domesticissues","category-foreignpolicy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3UqUK-tW","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1856"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1860,"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856\/revisions\/1860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}