The Trump-Biden co-dependency

Donald Trump is thrilled to be back in the limelight. Picture: AFP.

As the Robert Mueller report into Donald Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia (which found no collusion with Russia) wended its way toward publication, one thought became hard to resist: The absurd overkill of the Mueller task force’s armed raids on Trump associates Roger Stone and Paul Manafort in the preceding months had been the special counsel’s way of buying credibility for the no-collusion finding he knew he would soon be delivering.

The same suspicion pops into mind after the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago. The government’s most important secrets are highly technical and would have little value or meaning for Mr. Trump. On the other hand, every love note from a foreign leader is necessarily treated as restricted when it arrives though it contains no valuable secrets.

A Secret Service agent in front of Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. Picture: AFP.

As I pointed out years ago in the Hillary Clinton email case, while officials have a duty to obey rules about handling government information, the value of government secrets is grossly exaggerated.

Whatever was in the boxes, if Mr. Trump knew about their contents at all as he was chaotically vacating a presidency that he pretended for two months he wouldn’t be vacating, he likely saw priceless souvenirs to be framed in a future Trump hotel or presidential shrine, testifying to his place as the greatest president since Lincoln (as he modestly rates himself).

Sure, maybe Chapter 43 of the Trump follies will be the one chapter where media hysteria isn’t disproportionate to the end result. It seems unlikely. If the Mar-a-Lago raid turns out to be a Mueller-like down payment on a Justice Department failure to find the Jan. 6 crimes that many Americans are lusting to see Mr. Trump prosecuted for, one collateral cost is Mr. Trump’s extreme delight at being returned to the centre ring of the American political circus — and also the extreme delight of his co-dependents, Joe Biden and the Democrats.

US Attorney-General Merrick Garland gave permission for the raid. Picture: Getty Images.

Mr. Biden’s party has given America something to talk about (and talk about and talk about) besides inflation, crime, racial and gender panic, and Mr. Biden’s low approval ratings — none of which were working particularly well going into the midterm elections that are barely 2½ months away.

We shouldn’t underestimate the secret delight of Mr. Biden himself as he looks toward 2024. His best ticket back to the nomination despite his age, lousy polls and an unprepossessing record is Mr. Trump being the likely Republican nominee.

Mr. Biden has said as much himself several times and he means it. And nothing helps like the astonishing concatenation of DOJ-FBI inquiries bearing the public ceaselessly back to the battlements of yesteryear however much voters might wish to move on from the bizarre, technicolor fights of the Trump era.

The Trump classified-records controversy percolated quietly with the National Archives for months and only now detonates in the public’s face, with the FBI in the middle of it, setting aflame much well-earned neuralgia in various parts of the electorate (not all of them on the right).

The Justice Department continues to pursue Jan. 6 rioters and undoubtedly promises many more months of searching into every possible angle by which Mr. Trump and his associates might be criminally implicated in those events.

Though some readers resist the knowledge, the Justice Department and FBI also have been investigating the influence peddling of Hunter Biden at least since December 2019. Merrick Garland, the attorney general, has assured the press the matter is being handled professionally and without political favouritism. Given emails, texts and witness testimony in the public domain, perfunctory questions at least will have to be asked about President Biden’s possible tax or other liability related to Hunter’s dealings, especially if a GOP-led House is conducting its own investigation.

Russian analyst Igor Danchenko goes on trial on October 11 over the Steele dossier. Picture: Getty Images.

Elsewhere in the Justice Department the John Durham team continues to investigate the government’s handling of Trump-Russia allegations originating with the Hillary Clinton campaign, including the upcoming and fortuitously timed Oct. 11 trial of Steele dossier source Igor Danchenko, an indirect employee of the campaign who is charged with lying to the FBI.

More may be coming from Mr. Durham, and we don’t know how much more.

Add it all together — the Trump documents and Jan. 6 investigations, the Hunter Biden-related investigations, the Clinton campaign-FBI-Russia collusion investigation — and, golly, our Justice Department and FBI will be dragging us back, Michael Corleone-style, into the Trump wars whether we like it or not as 2024 approaches.

Polls show most Americans don’t like it, don’t want a Biden-Trump rematch, don’t want the baggage of these two old men dominating our politics for the next two years and possibly far beyond. But arguably two people do — Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden, who otherwise would find history and the electorate running away from them at flank speed.

The Wall St Journal