Trump Pardon of Jan. 6 Rioters Was To Keep MAGA Money Coming In

[REUTERS]
I wasn’t the least bit surprised about Trump’s blanket pardons of the CRIMINALS who carried out an insurrectionist RIOT on January 6, 2021 at our nation’s Capitol. They were after all called by Trump to DC, wound up to carry out the attack via a rally on the national mall across from the WH by a series of speakers including Trump himself. All to prevent the counting and certification of the Electoral Votes – for Joe Biden. It was just one part of a multi-pronged criminal plan Trump took part in to hold on to power. The only thing that surprises me is that some people are actually surprised at the scope of what Trump did.
However it’s done. I take no solace in Trump having “only commuted” the sentences of some of the worst of the criminals while issuing full pardons to the vast majority. If you’d like an accounting of all that you can check out Wikipedia on the matter. It lists some key figures who received clemency or commutations. It also notes that the order directs DOJ to dismiss pending cases against defendants currently facing charges. With prejudice.
As to the question of “Why?” or “How could he do it?” the answer is simple. MAGA money. As in appeasing his MAGAs so they will keep donating to him and buying his crap merchandise. Ok, so there’s an additional benefit. Keeping his MAGAs happy means keeping them jacked up to threaten political folks including Republicans. The fear they create is quite useful for Trump.
However I think Trump has long been known to be a purely transaction person. His entire public personae was built on being a ‘dealmaker” after all. His true talent was in convincing the masses that he was way better at deal making than he actually was. However conservatives had put decades of effort into ‘dumbing down’ the country and Trump can identify and ‘work” suckers as well as any con-man/grifter in history. Once he entered elective politics my how the money flowed in! Best of all for him is our corrupt political fundraising system. I’ve explained before how easy it is to turn PAC/SuperPAC money into a personal slush fund. There’s no shortage of politicians who have already or intend to retire with one hell of a nest egg when those entities are dissolved.
MAGAs, including and especially working class ones have donated to Trump. And bought his MAGA gear. Some have shelled out hundreds, even thousands of dollars. I swear sometimes it seems like since Trump came along there are fewer people hogging the counter in front of the cashier at convenience stores scratching off batches of lottery tickets and trading in a winner for more tickets! That money now goes to Trump. Hats. T-shirts. Covfefe Mugs. Trumpy Bears. An ever more expensive list of items like his ‘trading cards”, sneakers and so on. I suspect some of that money started drying up.
If you’ve paid attention there has been grumbling the past four years about Trump not having pardoned the J6 insurrectionists. Some 1500 pled guilty to their crimes or were convicted in jury trials. NOT ONE got a sentence as long as they deserved to get, but over the past year or so as some of the higher ups like Tarrio and Rhodes were convicted sentences did become more severe. As a result, during the campaign Trump indicated he’d do what he failed to do before leaving Office in 2021 – pardon the people he increasingly touted as “peaceful” protesters, ‘Patriots’ and even as the election approached “Hostages” – in part to conflate them with actual hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza.
It was a message aimed directly at MAGA. An actual apology? From Trump? Oh hell no. He is “perfect” in every way. Has been his entire life. However he knew he’d screwed the pooch on this issue AND that without his MAGAs he’d lose the election. Worse, he was looking at going to jail. So he promised them he’d do what he didn’t before and let everyone off the hook. Damn if it didn’t do the trick. The MAGAs believed that THIS time he’d keep his promise. Recently however there was some serious rumbling when talk started from Trump people of “case by case’ to separate out those who’d committed ‘acts of violence’ and it seemed to be growing louder.
I wrote a while back that now that Trump has his “tech bros” and major media moguls working feverishly to not just give him loads of money but become his very own Putin-like band of Oligarchs Trump no longer needs his MAGAs. Many of us believe he won’t leave the WH until he’s forcibly removed (by who?) or carried out in a body bag. At best it’s hard to see the GOP allowing a free and fair election and if he declares the Constitution is wrong and creates some “wrinkle”, some ludicrous argument like he did with ‘Presidential Immunity’ SCOTUS will give in. That’s why I thought (and still do) when it comes to elections/staying in Office Trump no longer has any use for his MAGAs.
They will learn a bitter lesson about how little he cares about them via his policies. However human nature is such that people are loathe to admit, even to themselves that they’ve been played as a sucker. Like all con artists Trump knows this and he’s better than most at exploiting it. He doesn’t need their votes anymore, and given the billionaires lining up to toss millions in bribes (sometimes far more) his way Trump doesn’t need his MAGA’s money anymore either. But he WANTS it nonetheless. He enjoys seeing how the suckers keep paying and paying. It brings him considerable joy in fact.
Trumpy fully intends to keep shearing his MAGA sheep again and again. And he’s got “bigly” plans for those with a whole lot more money than the average MAGA. He’s got some serious extorting planned for them! Like the average rank and file MAGA goober a lot of very well off people including millionaires are going to learn there are strings attached to those tax cuts Trump says he will give them. Well, that’s a longer topic to cover.
The main thing is that we are told there was a key meeting over these pardons with people Trump supposedly pays attention to telling him to take his time with a certain batch of the criminals. That whole case-by-case thing for the worst offenders so as to not put Republicans over on Capitol Hill on the spot. Reportedly Trump snapped and issued a ‘Screw it – we’re pardoning everyone’ edict. Again I’ll say he’s no longer concerned about MAGAs votes. He IS however covetous of their money. Also as I noted he needs them to stay amped up so that they will instill fear in elected Republicans.
The amount of MAGA money that comes in will tell Trump how much support he’s got out there. That’s of value to him as his level of crazy goes from whatever is beyond batsh*t insane. He might well have lost his grip on MAGA nation had he not done what he did. And finally keep this in mind: Trump issued full and complete pardons to damned near everyone. That means full restoration of rights including voting rights and the ability to buy guns as that MAGA Shaman guy just bloviated about. However Trump did in fact hold back a little.
I noted that with some of the worst he granted ‘only’ commutation/clemency. That’s his hole card. If MAGA support starts to wane, down the road he can issue even a-holes like Tarrio and Rhodes full pardons. Yes it would generate outrage BUT it would energize the hell out of MAGAs. And bring in a flood of still more MAGA money! I say count on that happening at some point. If donations start to go down and Trump faces political pressure he’ll go for the twofer. Pardon that handful of felons still left that didn’t get full pardons and as a result get a big injection of MAGA money and activism too.