Trump's minions brought him down

The astounding toll of a minor mob

A million women marched on Washington the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017.  More than 500,000 demonstrated in Washington at the Moratorium to end the war in Vietnam in the fall of 1969.  The crowd attending the March on Washington in August of 1963 at which Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech was estimated at 250,000.  All of these demonstrations by hundreds of thousands were successful in furthering their causes.  The March on Washington contributed greatly to the concluding push that culminated in the passage by the Congress of the Civil Rights Act two years later.  The women’s march galvanized opposition to Trump which resulted in the Democratic gains in the mid-term elections and ultimately, to Trump’s defeat at the polls in 2020.  The Moratorium is widely considered to be a turning point in opposition against the war that led to a gradual withdrawal

What is truly remarkable about the events of last Wednesday is that it took only a few thousand rioters to bring Donald Trump’s five year juggernaut to its knees.  The best estimate I can find for crowd size at his speech on the mall behind the White House is 10,000, although one story reported that because there was no aerial photography allowed – apparently on Trump’s orders – the crowd size was difficult to estimate.  I found no estimates of the size of the crowd that assaulted the Capitol, but there were reports on television that it was in the thousands.  Similarly, I’ve seen no estimates of the number of rioters who made it inside the Capitol to loot and steal and do damage to that hallowed building.  But from watching videos taken inside the Capitol during the looting, I would say that it couldn’t have been more than a few hundred thugs and punks who actually breached the doors and windows and achieved entry.

Think about that.  There were only a few hundred of them inside the Capitol, and they were, to a man and woman, devoted Trump supporters and as all-white a crowd as I’ve ever seen.  As we now know, they came ready to do damage and worse.  Some carried firearms.  At least one was arrested carrying Molotov cocktails.  Several were photographed wearing combat-style helmets, bulletproof vests, carrying police flexible handcuffs.  We now know that they looted offices of sensitive paperwork and laptops containing sensitive classified information.  In the course of their rioting and looting, one woman was shot by a Capitol policeman, and one Capitol policeman was beaten with a fire extinguisher and killed.  (Three other rioters died of a heart attack and other medical emergencies.)

The mob was encouraged to attack the Capitol by Donald Trump himself, and because he was found to have incited the violence which followed, Twitter permanently suspended his account on Friday night, ending instantaneous access to his 88 million followers.  For Trump, it may as well be a death sentence.  Already there are quotes from insiders saying that the loss of his Twitter account is worse for him than another vote to impeach him.

He has himself to thank, of course.  Trump has spent the last five years telling endless lies and destroying norms and pushing the envelope of what has long been considered acceptable political behavior, not only by a president, but by anyone.  But Donald Trump can also thank the few thousand yahoos in MAGA hats and camo pants and tactical helmets and crazed Trumpian regalia including fur capes and painted faces and exposed, tattooed torsos, all of whom responded to his incitement to violence with an attack on the bastion of democracy that is the United States Capitol.

I’m sure there will be reports in dollar amounts about the cost of the damage done, but the greater harm they did is incalculable – to the reputation of this country, to the processes of democracy, to the soul of our nation, and to the individual souls of our citizens. 

But the one to whom the most damage was done was Donald Trump himself.  He flexed the muscle of his fame and his notoriety and his Twitter feed and his worshipping followers, and he brought himself down.  He has lost everything important to him but golf.  He is finished.  He is done. Tonight he is gone from Twitter, and soon he will be gone for good.