Your family and mine and all other animals have agreed to forget their differences and live in peace and friendship from now on forever. Just think of it! I simply cannot wait to embrace you! Do come down, dear friend, and let us celebrate the joyful event.
~”The Fox and the Cock”/Aesop
This fable is often cited as the origin of the metaphor “a fox in the henhouse.” Under Donald Trump, the United States government can best be described as a nation of vulpine officials who now inhabit the chicken coops we call federal agencies, thus the title of today’s post. Consider the two most recent examples.
Example #1: As widely reported, Trump announced the Qatar government would gift a $400 million luxury Boeing 747-8 jet to the United States to replace the current plane that serves as Air Force One. At the end of Trump’s second term, the plane would be decommissioned and turned over to the Trump Presidential Library Museum Foundation. Keep in mind, “decommissioned” does not mean scrapped, and donating it to a museum or library does not automatically make it a permanent, non-functional exhibit.
To push back against bipartisan concerns about the transaction, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo explaining why the gift did not constitute a violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution. According to the New York Times:
Ms. Bondi had personally signed a Justice Department memo blessing the plan as lawful, although it had been drafted and cleared by lawyers in the department’s Office of Legal Counsel.
However, as pointed out prior to Bondi’s confirmation hearing last January, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, raised questions about potential conflicts of interests associated with the nominee’s previous employment as a registered lobbyist with Ballard Associates, including:
- Lobbying Congress on behalf of Qatar: As a FARA-registered lobbyist, Bondi lobbied Congress on behalf of Qatar, earning $115,000 per month.
Example #2: On Friday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a press release announcing it had reached a settlement allowing Rare Breed Triggers, a company that makes what they call a “forced-reset trigger,” more commonly referred to as a bump stock that makes a semi-automatic weapon fire at speeds closer to those of a machine gun, to resume selling this product. “Settlement” is a misnomer since there appear to be no conditions under which DOJ dropped the law suit. In support of the action, Attorney General Bondi added to the volume of Trump administration NewSpeak:
This Department of Justice believes that the 2nd Amendment is not a second-class right. And we are glad to end a needless cycle of litigation with a settlement that will enhance public safety.
I anxiously await the AG’s explanation of how Rare Breed Trigger contributed to “public safety” when the weapon of chose for a future mass shooting includes one of their “forced-release triggers.”
The press release did not include the following information. Trump White House counsel David Warrington, represented Rare Breed Triggers when it sued the federal government following a federal ban on this category of aftermarket modifiers that enhanced the lethal potential of semi-automatic weapons.
Which raises an interesting possibility. Were Qatari sheiks and the owners of Rare Breed Triggers that smart? In anticipation of a second Trump presidency, did they pull individuals into their sphere whom they believed would be part of the new administration? Did the Qataris see that far enough into the future when Pam Bondi refused to prosecute Trump University during her tenure as Florida to hire her as lobbyist? Did Rare Breed Triggers correctly bet that the man who represented Trump in the January 6 federal case might be the next White House legal counsel? If so, what can we learn from them?
“The Fox and the Cox” need not be an irreversible omen of things to come? We too often forget that the fox in Aesop’s fable does not carry the day. From his perch in a tree, the cock warns the fox there are two dogs approaching him. Thinking he has become the prey, the fox suggests that perhaps the hounds have not heard the news how all species will henceforth cohabitate in peace, and he quickly flees. The cock, having fabricated the presence of the dogs, smiles, thus the moral, “The trickster is easily tricked.”
The resistance to this unfortunate march toward American authoritarianism and oligarchy could also come out on top by emulating the cock, using the Trump administration’s own messaging to turn the predator into the prey. One example is the Newsweek report that, since neither of his parents were citizens when he was born, Secretary of State Marco Rubio would not be a U.S. citizen if Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship had been in place on May 28, 1971. Surely, Rubio is not the only such case. Where is the database of prominent Americans–scientists, orators and authors, artists, business leaders, educators, philanthropists–who, had Trump and Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem been in power at the time of their births, would be plying their trades in places other than the U.S., or worse, rotting in a foreign prison?
Aesop might phrase the challenge differently. Will this chapter of American history end with Trump as the scorpion who stings the frog because he is unable to overcome his true nature or the fox who is easily finessed because he lacks the foresight to see how his words and deeds can be used against him?
For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP