Not content to allow the pot to simmer, Donald Trump’s FBI raided the Fulton County Board of Elections. This was after an attempt to cool off the situation in Minneapolis by simply changing the messenger without adjusting the message. To attempt to rewrite history by stubbornly claiming he won the 2020 election, he further imperils his Presidency. For one thing, states control their elections, and these results were certified in Georgia with a Republican Governor and Secretary of State. To top it off, he uses Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of Intelligence, who tried to outdo Kristi Noem by appearing like an “incognito super sleuth,” but was recognized right off the bat.

As with Richard Nixon, whose obsession with White House leaks morphed into the Watergate scandal, Trump cannot let certain things drop. If Nixon had tapes, the President has Truth Social. Instead of concentrating on the economy and pursuing a coherent foreign policy, he goes down rabbit holes. He has plenty of them, from Greenland to the uncertain situation in Venezuela to the dollar’s instability. Successful policies counteract bad news; propaganda is only successful if the events are favorable.

Incidents of disorder only leave the impression that Trump is increasingly erratic. Lyndon Johnson, in 1967, besieged by demonstrators, began to undermine both the Civil Rights and Anti-War Movements covertly. Operation Chaos brought the CIA into domestic affairs, something specifically forbidden in its charter. Gabbard, who, up until now, had tried to change the direction of foreign policy, was, for her trouble, frozen out of planning the Venezuelan action. She was apparently shuffled from Caracas to Atlanta. Last I looked, Atlanta is in the United States, and Gabbard’s authority is nil domestically.

Again, Trump seems bent on turning an irritation into a full-blown crisis. His use of extrajudicial means eerily resembles the 1850s, when Kansas was forming a territorial government and holding elections. Unfortunately, interlopers from Missouri, led by David Atchison, a pro-Slavery Senator, entered Kansas to vote for a favorable slate. Free-Soilers fought back, and a small civil war ensued. Over time, it was discovered that the Pro-Slavery men voted for people whose names were in the Cincinnati, Ohio, city directory. Seizing documents without a broad consensus casts doubt on whatever they might find or claim to have discovered.

This, like Minneapolis, only served to galvanize public opinion against not only slavery but the Democratic governments led by Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan. The party also began to splinter. At this time, it does not seem that the Republican Party will be divided, but Trump tempts fate. This Fulton County imbroglio is just another nuisance. MAGA, however, might, given that Trump, their supposed working-class hero, has become the darling of Mar-a-Lago.

Trump does not appear to be inclined to make any changes. He has become the symbol of plutocracy, even suing the IRS for 10 million dollars.

If this is retribution, it is not in the name of the people.