Trump Ready to Repeat History

Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it. ~ Edmund Burke

Trump's wee hour tweets this morning recalls the fall of two characters from history.

The Tapes

James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press! ~ Trump, May 12, 5:26 am

Trump threatened the former FBI director with tapes of his conversations, implying Trump repeated the profound mistake of Richard Nixon and recorded his private conversations.

First, I find it unlikely that Trump could successfully threaten Comey who has dealt with tougher pieces of shit than Trump. Second, those tapes will eventually be subpoenaed Trump will claim there never were any tapes which will bring charges of obstruction of justice.

Why would Trump tape his conversations? Nixon did it because he was an egomaniac who expected the tapes would be proof of the legacy of his greatness. Also, some have speculated he intended to use them to blackmail others.

While Trump might have been thinking blackmail, as in the tweet above, I suspect his prime motive was so he could listen to them later and revel in his masterful ability to humiliate the people he is talking to.

The Bunker

Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future "press briefings" ~ Trump, May 12, 5:07 am

When Germany's Lebensraum war against Russia started going south, Hitler retreated to his bunker in the Wolf's Lair. The man who led his country into a world war with his soaring rhetoric stopped appearing in public and stopped making speeches. He disappeared almost entirely from the public.  Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels would fill the gap with narrated film clips of a silent Hitler.

Trump is thinking about going silent to the media and communicating solely using written statements. There would be photo ops where reporters who ask questions will be arrested, but communications to the public will be limited to short written statement. No questions allowed. No explanations given. This remind me of the dystopic TV series, The Prisoner.