Recent press reports show that a veteran Democratic political operative played a large part in restarting the case against former President Donald Trump that the prior Manhattan district attorney, the Justice Department, and Alvin Bragg himself previously declined to prosecute. Matthew Colangelo is closely aligned with President Joe Biden and his former boss Barack Obama.
Colangelo was a senior official in the Biden Justice Department and filled a variety of roles in the Obama administration, as an economic counselor and then in the departments of Labor and Justice.
The appearance of yet another Obama–Biden deputy in the nearly seven-year-long and ongoing anti-Trump operation may help illuminate why precedent and protocol have been trashed for the purpose of charging a former U.S. president and the likely Republican candidate for 2024.
Trump’s opponents argue that the extraordinary punishment visited on him is commensurate with his extraordinary violations of political and social norms. But what if the norm-breaker at the center of the drama isn’t the 45th president of the United States but is rather his predecessor and his successor?
The idea that Trump is a uniquely malevolent figure in American civic life has motivated his adversaries from the start. Indeed, that was the point of Russiagate—to portray Trump as someone who was fundamentally disloyal to America, a traitor. Yet even a cursory look at his policies, as well as his demeanor, shows that he’s squarely within the mainstream of American politics and culture.
The economic nationalism he advocates was an article of faith of the Founding Fathers. His rough-and-ready populism is modeled after Andrew Jackson. His confrontational and sometimes coarse manner is reminiscent of Lyndon Johnson. Remember that Trump hosted one of the top TV shows in U.S. history for more than a decade, a difficult feat for anyone and nearly impossible for someone not tapped into America at its roots.
By Lee Smith
