America was created as a constitutionally limited republic for many reasons, one of which was to be governed by “we the people” rather than the political dynasties so prevalent in Europe, from where most early Americans and patriots emigrated.

These political dynasties all have in common wealth, sometimes earned legitimately, but more often through inheritance or through the selective use of their political power for which they were remunerated via obscure pathways.

American dynasty names are familiar – Kennedy, Bush, Cheney, McCain, Clinton – just to name a few. These families believe they are entitled to power and wealth simply by virtue of their last names. Political office is their right, regardless of what they do with this power, and they band together in opposition to any challenge to this power.

Despite being of different political parties, they are actually far more similar than different. It is like a group of country club kids creating two baseball or basketball teams, one wearing red shirts, the other blue shirts, but at the end of the game, the shirts come off and the kids all have a fine dinner at the club, then return to their mansions along the golf course, often next door to each other.

This entitled class is known as the ruling class, the establishment, or the elites. It is like the country club where you can’t enjoy the perks of membership without an invitation from existing members.

As George Carlin observed,

It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it. They don’t give a f*** about you. Because the owners of this country know the truth: it’s called the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.

I am not in that club, and neither are most readers of this column. Club membership is not solely based on wealth as billionaire Donald Trump is not in the club either. Nor is Elon Musk.

But before he entered politics, Trump was most certainly in the club, a darling of American elites, posing for photographs with presidents, celebrities, and athletes. He hosted a wildly popular television reality show and was a frequent guest of Oprah and other liberal club members.

When he came down the escalator at Trump Tower in June 2015 announcing his improbable candidacy for the presidency, his club membership was put on probation. At first the elites thought his candidacy a novelty, a joke on America, a scheme to sell books or promote his celebrity and television endeavors. He was a regular on Morning Joe, yucking it up with Joe and Mika.

But he soon started challenging the ruling class on his way to securing the Republican presidential nomination, and his club membership was quickly revoked. President Trump gave one of his most significant and prophetic speeches in October 2016, a month before he was elected President. He started with:

Our movement is about replacing a failed and corrupt political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American People. There is nothing the political establishment will not do, and no lie they will not tell, to hold on to their prestige and power at your expense. The Washington establishment, and the financial and media corporations that fund it, exists for only one reason: to protect and enrich itself.

These words defined his campaign, presidency, and post presidency years, replacing a failed and corrupt ruling class. Donald the dynasty slayer continues this day to rack up trophies over his fireplace mantel.

He started with the Bush family, branding the presumed 2016 GOP presidential nominee as “Low Energy Jeb,” leaving him to squander $130 million on his three earned delegates. Trump angered the Bush family, including two former US Presidents, over his brash criticism of their tenures in the White House, and then sending their legacy Jeb to the dog house.

This past May, salt was poured on the Bush festering wound when Trump-endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton beat Land Commissioner George P Bush, Jeb’s son, in a GOP primary runoff for the nomination as the Republican candidate for a US House seat. The margin of victory was 68 to 32 percent, almost a 40-point shlonging, similar to another election this past week.

Last week, another club member, Rep Liz Cheney, was primaried out of the GOP nomination and almost certain successful House election by Trump-endorsed candidate Harriet Hageman, 66 to 29 percent, similar to the Bush slaying in Texas a few months earlier.

Several weeks ago in Arizona, Trump-endorsed Kari Lake defeated McCain Family-, Mike Pence-, and Arizona Republican establishment-endorsed Karrin Robson for the GOP nomination for Arizona Governor. Robson spent $18 million while Lake spent less than $4 million, demonstrating that Donald the Destroyer doesn’t need money to slay ruling class dragons.

Hillary Clinton, from another dynastic family, lost the presidency to Donald the Slayer in 2016, and may face “Durham the Slayer,” a Special Counsel appointed by Trump’s Attorney General to investigate Spygate and illegal weaponization of the justice and intelligence agencies to further her political ambitions.

Charlie Kirk tweeted an astute observation regarding Donald the Slayer’s collection of scalps,

After 55 years, January 20th, 2023 will mark the first time since 1967 that no member of the Cheney, Clinton, McCain, or Bush family will hold elected or appointed office in the federal government of the United States of America.

This is what Trump meant by draining the swamp. Lastly are ten Republican House members who voted to impeach President Trump, eight of whom are now vanquished from the US House. As USA Today begrudgingly reported,

Four of these 10 Republicans have lost the primaries, four have chosen not to seek reelection, and two made it through their primaries and are running in November’s general election to keep their seats.

This led Trump to post on his Truth Social account,

Truth Social screenshot

Others may meet a similar future fate, including Mitt Romney, Mitch McConnell and other NeverTrump establishment Republicans. Trump will bide his time and strike when the moment is right. He currently holds no political office and is not a candidate, but he still is a major political force. Is this unfinished business for Trump or part of a larger unrevealed plan?

Donald the Slayer spelled this all out when closing the above-mentioned 2016 speech,

We will vote to put this corrupt government cartel out of business. We will remove from our politics the special interests who have betrayed our workers, our borders, our freedoms, and our sovereign rights as a nation. We will end the politics of profit, we will end the rule of special interests, we will put a stop to the raiding of our country – and the disenfranchisement of our people.

Trump is on a roll, along with tens of millions of MAGA/America First hoi polloi, perhaps more powerful out of the White House than in the center of power. This raises the question of who is really running the country. Donald the Destroyer is only getting going, and as he likes to say, “The best is yet to come.”

Brian C Joondeph, MD, is a physician and writer.

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