In reading a recent op-ed by Frida Ghitis from CNN.com I'm struck by a thought. Her Op-ed is about the tide turning against Donald Trump. She says "Trump will end up crushed by either his bullying ways or by his loyal followers, with little support from the rest of the GOP." which leads me to the end of the film Runaway Jury.
For those wondering, Runaway Jury centers around two people Nicholas Easter and a mysterious woman named Marlee. Both clearly have skeletons in the closet as they try and sway a jury to find a gun company guilty after their product is used in a workplace massacre. On the opposing side is Rankin Fitch, a cold calculating man used to getting his own way. Fitch is wealthy, and he has no qualms about bullying others into doing his bidding. Or attempting to make them feel inferior, as he tries to do with Wendell Rohr, the attorney for the widow of one of the victims. I will try my best not to spoil it for those that haven't seen the film, but there is a scene at the end where Easter and Marlee confront Fitch in a cafe. Though Fitch is seemingly defeated, he tries to turn the tables, saying that Nick and Marlee in effect didn't accomplish anything and the money they received from Fitch in hopes of swaying the journey will become an addiction. That they wouldn't be able to stop and in the end, they'd actually have nothing. He screams the word nothing at Marlee and Nick as they leave, and the other patrons look on. Suddenly, it dawns on Fitch that he was the one with nothing. His self-assured nature that he could make anyone tremble, anyone bend to his will was gone. And it was he who was left with nothing.
Which brings me to Donald Trump, the disgraced former president of the United States. Trump looked at the oval office as his way to assert the ultimate power. In fact, he might have looked upon it as his way to dominate the world. It was achieving this office that he learned that his powers were limited by the framers of the country, men who knew enough that the power had to be curbed, curbed to prevent men like Trump who sought to pervert the office into their own source of limitless power over helpless masses. When he found that he could no longer makes others do his bidding, for they were bounded by the U.S. Constitution from carrying out his illegal edicts, he lashed out. The boiling point being January 6th, when reeling from a loss he could not accept, he opted to try and make people bend to his will. Bend to his will in a power grab not seen in this country by a person in his position since Aaron Burr. Trump unleashed a fury that cost lives and shattered the sanctity of the U.S. Capitol. And while Trump has some fringe media outlets that favor him, the public tide may be turning against him.
Which brings me back to the image of Rankin Fitch in that cafe. Sitting alone, his minions nowhere to be found. That could very well be Trump's destiny. A man who thumbed his nose at the law and hobnobbed with the likes of John Gotti (which by the way, was the genesis for Trump's war against the FBI) now finds his power fading, his cloak of invincibility shrinking. He lashes out, claiming he's the victim of some deep state conspiracy. And the dwindling number of believers he can rally to his side view themselves as his soldiers. However, it's just nothing than the last grasp of a man refusing to accept defeat.
When the true history is written, and the epitaph struck, Donald Trump's ranking on who was the worst president won't matter. It may not even matter that much that he tried to stage a coup in order to maintain power, doing so in the fashion that Castro might be proud of. In the end Donald Trump could serve as a cautionary tale for those willing to listen. That the goal of achieving the ultimate power comes at a price. Especially for those with evil desires, a contempt for freedom of speech and they who seek to make themselves into a messiah.
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