A Paper Tiger

Critics said the president is testing out heavy-handed enforcement in Portland, a largely white city known as one of the most progressive in the nation, before moving on to more diverse cities. -- USA Today

Donald Trump is a paper tiger, meaning he's dangerous but weak. He's also at times, our best organizer. Sending his shock troops into Portland failed in its stated purpose but helped unify the city behind the protest movement which led to a resounding victory last night.

Current polls have Trump looking like a loser in November. Not just him but down-ticket Republicans as well. Control of the Senate is now up for grabs. He's not only running behind in the midwest battleground states, but he's being challenged and even falling behind in his own base areas like Texas.

Once several of his Republican allies started peeling off, his response has been to pretty much abandon all democratic means and resort to open violence and intimidation, flailing about wildly, and directing his point of attack directly at the growing protest movement and at the Democrats' base in the cities where the movement has taken its greatest hold. All that's just made things worse for him.

He's failed miserably at painting all opposition forces as "radical leftists", "anarchists", and "terrorists." His threats to use of federal storm troopers to "dominate" the protesters and exact retribution have come up empty.

"You have to dominate or you'll look like a bunch of jerks, you have to arrest and try people," the President told the governors in a June call from the basement White House Situation Room, according to an audio recording of the call obtained by CNN.

But far from dominating, his threats have fallen flat and have only broadened the resistance of local mayors and state officials and made him look even weaker. After being overwhelmed by militant protesters and the wall of moms in Portland last night, Trump's shock troops retreated back to their federal building fortress, but not before gassing the crowd which included Mayor Ted Wheeler who had joined protesters in the streets.

Wall of Moms

Wheeler, a Democrat, was among the 15 mayors, including Lori Lightfoot of Chicago, Bottoms of Atlanta, and Bowser of D.C. who wrote an open letter to the Dept. of Justice on Wednesday in which they condemned Trump for an “abuse of power” in deploying federal forces in cities.

After last night's setback in the streets of Portland, Trump made a call to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. A contrite-sounding Trump walked back his threat to send troops into Chicago.

Philly's progressive D.A. Larry Krasner echoed the mayors, agreeing to work cooperatively with federal officials but threatening to have uninvited Trump shock troops arrested if they attacked protesters

“Anyone, including federal law enforcement, who unlawfully assaults and kidnaps people will face criminal charges from my office.”-- Philly DA Larry Krasner https://t.co/aOLPMzWZo8 via @citylab

— Mike Klonsky (@mikeklonsky) July 22, 2020

Finally, Trump is even implying that he may not leave office when he loses the election. It would give me great pleasure to be among the grand army of citizens that escorts him and his grifter family from the White House.