Imagine if Watergate had been more than just a scandal. Imagine if Nixon got away with it. I don’t mean no one finds out; I mean he beats the justice system, and the only people held accountable are his co-conspirators, Republicans who were sucked into the vortex of loyalty, sacrificing their principles to protect a man who manipulated the levers of power to his own advantage.

Donald Trump stands on the cusp of possibly beating his alleged criminal participation in the January 6 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol—blatantly defying evidence and mocking the very concept of accountability. If he wins back the White House, he can end all federal investigations and charges against him with a wave of an executive order.

Trump isn’t just seeking a return to the White House, however, he’s intent on obliterating the facts and the truth itself, and his co-conspirators are his Republican allies, many in Congress. His goal is to finish what he started four years ago, to tear down the institutions the United States has relied upon for nearly 250 years. He wants to grind down public trust in everything—from our medical institutions to our system of justice, even suggesting “retribution” against his enemies.

In an ultimate act of treachery, Trump wants to erase the Constitution itself. In December 2020, Trump posted:

“With the revelations of massive and widespread fraud and deception in the 2020 Presidential Election, I hereby demand the immediate suspension of the Constitution.”

Two days later, Trump denied his own statement: “The Fake News is actually trying to convince the American People that I said I wanted to ‘terminate’ the Constitution. This is simply more DISINFORMATION & LIES.”

Despite Trump’s attempt to parse his language, you cannot suspend or terminate the U.S. Constitution. Both parties condemned his words as an attack on the Constitution.

In a new twist, House Speaker Mike Johnson has suggested that the House may not certify election ballots from the upcoming election. Certification is a ceremonial process that is not open to change. You might want to revisit vice president Mike Pence’s actions taken on January 6, 2021, Mr. Speaker.

Nonetheless, in 1971, the Department of Justice, once home to individuals Nixon himself nominated and who held him accountable for conspiracy, is now dismissed as “weaponized” by a Democratic president and his allies. Even the CDC, trusted for decades, was branded unreliable because its facts don’t align with the narrative Trump pushes.

The Greek playwright Aeschylus said, “In war, truth is the first casualty”:

Trump falsely claims that a “deep state” had been working against him alleging that government officials were conspiring to undermine his presidency.

Trump continues to falsely claim that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from him and that widespread voter fraud occurred, despite numerous court rulings and investigations finding no evidence to support his claims.

Trump made misleading claims about the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, asserting that it would “disappear.” In an interview with Bob Woodward from the Washington Post journalist’s book Rage, Trump acknowledged downplaying the threat of the virus. In an audio recording, Trump told Woodward, “Now it’s turning out it’s not just old people, Bob. But just today and yesterday, some startling facts came out. It’s not just old, older [people], young people, too, plenty of young people.”

Most shocking of all, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene—one of the worst natural disasters of the year—Trump, showing no empathy for the victims, falsely claimed that “all FEMA money, billions of dollars, has been spent on housing for illegal migrants.”

Despite telling thousands of lies, the former president continues to bask in the adoration of his acolytes who are willingly sucked into the vortex of deceit, trading moral integrity for blind loyalty—even at the expense of democracy. For more than four years, the country has been entrenched in a war over facts and truth at the cost of a deeply divided nation.

After Richard Nixon’s resignation, democracy had triumphed.

Facing multiple legal charges, Trump admits to nothing, raising the unsettling question—can democracy prevail once more?