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Donald J. Trump and Eliot Ness: The Chicago Way
When the brilliant screenwriter David Mamet described “the Chicago way” in The Untouchables (1987) in a meeting between Chicago beat cop Jim Malone (Sean Connery) and Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner), the audience instinctively knew Malone was right. Taking liberties with that superb dialogue, here is how Jim Malone would tell Big D how to handle the media and The Swamp:
Malone: (talking privately in a church) You said you wanted to get The Swamp and the mainstream media. Do you really want to get them? You see what I’m saying is, what are you prepared to do?
Trump: Anything within the law.
Malone: And then what are you prepared to do? If you open the can on these worms you must be prepared to go all the way. Because they’re not gonna give up the fight until one of you is gone.
Trump: I want to drain The Swamp and make the media report the truth! I don’t know how to do it.
Malone: You wanna know how to get the media and The Swamp? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. They send one of yours to the hospital, you send one of theirs to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way. And that’s how you get the media and The Swamp. Now do you want to do that? Are you ready to do that? I’m offering you a deal. Do you want this deal?
Trump: I have sworn to drain The Swamp and reform the media with all the legal powers at my disposal and I will do so.
Malone: Well, the Lord hates a coward. Do you know what a blood oath is, Mr. Trump?
Trump: Yes. I took one when I was sworn in on January 20, 2017.
Big D’s performance in his first 18 months makes it clear that he takes his blood oath seriously. He is at times egotistical, vain, brash, crude, and anything but gentle. The tough New Yorker is also a workaholic problem-solver who bristles at delay and excess process.
In other words, Donald J. Trump is the perfect foil for those in the media who degrade our politics and our culture. He’s also the antidote for the do-nothing politicians and the know-nothing bureaucrats who control The Swamp.
Big D is the only one of the 17 candidates who sought the 2016 Republican nomination who is thick-skinned enough to withstand the avalanche of personal slurs and hysterical rants by media types angered by the defeat of their preferred candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Big D has not sent anyone to the morgue yet, but he has met the media and The Swamp on the field of battle. He has called them out as no other politician in recent history.
The Swamp dispatched the top management at the FBI and DOJ to destroy Big D as a candidate. As a fallback “insurance policy,” Brennan, Clapper, Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Rice, Power, Rosenstein and other high-ranking Swampsters began a phony counterintelligence probe enabled by FISA warrants issued under false pretenses, all culminating in the appointment of Robert Mueller as Special Counsel. Mueller staffed his office with Strzok, Page, and lawyers who were Clinton supporters and contributors.
So far, The Swamp has failed to bring Trump down. The IG report has exposed the illegitimacy of the Mueller appointment, but like Captain Ahab, Mueller continues to pursue Big D to the ends of the earth.
The mainstream media has buried reports and stories about Trump’s successes: North Korea negotiations, the massive tax cuts, the booming economy, elimination of stifling regulations, appointments of conservative judges, and confronting China for its theft of American companies’ intellectual property and its purposeful trade imbalance. They’ve sensationalized the tragedies at the Mexican border, vilifying Big D for policies that are much the same as his predecessors.
Utilizing “the Chicago way,” Eliot Ness finally got Capone. Big D has implemented his personal version of “the Chicago way” to fight The Swamp and the media. The conflict has not been elegant or high-minded, but Chicago cop Jim Malone would be proud.
Published in Politics
Waal, I’m not at all a fan of Trump, the person, but I approve of much that he has done as President; especially nearly all of his appointments.
In my book, the greatest asset he brings to the Presidency is the fact that he is not a politician. That drives the Establishment (political and media) mad, and they don’t know how to react.
I’m really amused that they are stunned when he doesn’t often consult with the “experts.”
If Trump had never been elected we never would have learned how corrupt the FBI has become.
Hes our Grant, and he causes lots of casualties on both sides.
Chicago: A Novel. It’s the best novel of its type since George V. Higgins died.
I want to see the President drain the swamp. First, he needs to get rid of any black hats with power. What is the next step?
Yes. “We can’t spare this man – he fights.”
“Big D” is “thick skinned”? The juvenile who Tweets about the world being unfair every time he feels personally put upon about anything, and whose difficulty distinguishing between sound policy and personal triumphs has everyone- even those who applaud him finally taking off the gloves with the NoKos and telling the old line “international relations” cabal to go pound sand- worried that he has given away the store to Kim?
I agree that Trump is willing to take off the gloves with media- that does not mean he is smart about it, and it especially does not mean that he is thick-skinned. In fact, his battles with Legacy Media (which has behaved even more disgracefully than usual since January 2017) are driven by perhaps the thinnest skin to occupy the office since Carter.
Hillary was more than their preferred candidate , she was their God, many had been waiting 25 years for the great moment of her ascension.
The media has finally ripped off the mask off their phoney claim of objectivity
According to the media Democrats say things, Republicans ‘claim’ things, Trump ‘lashes out’