BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JAN. 14, 2019) — Is Donald Trump a traitor? That’s the question at the heart of the FBI probe into the President, an inquiry taken over by Robert Mueller. It’s a large question, as outsized as Trump himself.

Short answer, based on the hard evidence thus far: No. That said, the final determination must wait until Mueller releases his findings. Then an entirely different set of questions will be raised boiled down to one: Was Mueller able to conduct a fair and impartial investigation?

Donald Trump has throughout his career cast a large shadow, one that alternately provides welcome shade and blocked the disinfectant of sunshine. He is the living equivalent of the fictional Charles Foster Kane as depicted in Orson Welles’ film epic Citizen Kane. What ever you say about him is true, even the lies. Somehow they will prove true. You love him. You hate him. He fascinates. He enrages. Recent national politics has never seen his ilk. It may never be the same. It’s an ilk that, like your first martini, becomes an acquired taste. First sip produces a recoil. Second and beyond will make you settled for life, for or against.

Trump is God’s gift to the “new” media, dependent as it is on a relentless, 24/7 news cycle that carves the day into instant, microsecond “updates.” Trump has made more journalists and media personalities lazy than the open bar at a bank’s Christmas party. They don’t have to work for stories. The President hands them out like M&Ms on trick or treat in his tweets, words, actions and  reactions.

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It’s curious the FBI began its probe in secret only after Trump fired James Comey. Was this revenge launched by FBI staffers who were later summarily dismissed for cause? Then Mueller stepped in to examine the questions: Was (is) Trump a national security risk? Did he betray the strategic interests of America? Did he obstruct justice? How much influence has the Kremlin had in our domestic and foreign affairs? Did we pull out of Syria simply to appease Russia?

As THE PLANET reminds everyone, no hard evidence has been produced thus far. If it exists, Mueller is sitting on it or has yet to find it. Until the hard evidence comes forth, the probe cannot be judged. It will prove either to be a witch hunt in a land where monstrous trees come alive and give nest to vultures or justified in the “amber waves of grain” that harbor America’s founding ideals. Anyone who jumps in with a settlement before that wears his or her predispositions too obviously.

Over the weekend, Trump launched a characteristic barrage against the New York Times for the paper’s speculative piece on the FBI inquisition. Trump also blasted the FBI and Comey. He eschews the mild, diplomatic, “correct” language of national politicians, but so what? He achieves what most communicators find hard to convey, and that’s as close to 100% understanding of the sender’s message as the limits of human language allow (for nitpickers, we say “human” language because many animals and even insects communicate at sophisticated “linguistic” levels). More power to him.

Comey responded to Trump’s tweets by quoting FDR: ” … judge me by the enemies I have made.” Would Efrem Zimbalist Jr. have come up with something so lamely clever? That’s as believable as the President saying the White House is not in chaos or that newbie congresswoman with the Islamic-sounding last name wanting to be taken seriously while calling the President a “motherfucker.” We have entered a new era, one even beyond satire.

Let justice not partisanship decide if Trump is innocent or guilty.

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“Depth is great — until you have to use it” — Marv Levy, true until Bill Belichick turned it into a truism.

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

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