Shakespeare and Trump
William Shakespeare anticipated a Trump-like scourge almost half a millennium ago when he wrote the play “King Henry VI.” A famous line from such, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers” (Part II, Act IV, Scene 2) is apropos today as Trump and his followers fight to overturn the legal election of 2020 which President Biden won by over 7 million votes (over 4 percentage points) and 306 to 232 Electoral College votes. It wasn’t even close, folks.
Yet, Trump and his followers continue to back the Big Lie, which brings us to why Trump and his followers probably believe that they need to “kill all the lawyers” and especially the judges, if the election is to be overturned.
The famous line was uttered by “Dick the Butcher” a rabid follower and believer in the anarchism Jack Cade. Shakespeare’s description of Jack almost 500 years ago fits Trump today. He is the “head of an army of rabble and a demagogue pandering to the ignorant” seeking to overthrow the government.
Shakespeare and Trump recognize that the first thing a tyrant must do to eliminate freedom, destroy democracy and imprison the opposition is to kill all the lawyers. In Trump’s case, he and his followers would also need to kill all the judges that sit on federal and state courts that have consistently and constantly ruled against Trump’s unmanly and unpatriotic whining about election fraud that simply doesn’t exist.
Trump and his bumbling followers and lawyers have lost 86 lawsuits and counting in multiple states including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin as well as numerous federal courts including the Supreme Court, contesting President Trump’s loss.
Many who dismissed the lawsuits were Republican judges appointed by Trump. The vast majority of cases were dismissed as frivolous, without merit and shams. Many of the attorneys representing Trump have subsequently been disciplined, fined or barred from practicing law. While many politicians, congressmen and Trump can and do lie constantly, lawyers and judges are held to a high standard which most have honored. Thus the need to kill them off.
Trump has gone on record accordingly. He faults the U.S. Supreme Court with its three justices whom he appointed, for failing to take up his campaign’s election claims.
“I needed better judges. The Supreme Court was afraid to take it,” Trump has said. “It [Biden’s win] should have been reversed by the Supreme Court. I’m very disappointed in the Supreme Court because they did a very bad thing for the country.”
Just as Trump reveled in his followers’ attempted insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, something tells me he is an admirer of Jack Cade types. This is ironic as I sincerely doubt that Trump has ever read any Shakespeare or taken in any of his plays.
However, it is apparent that Trump knows a thing or two about Nazis and Adolf Hitler. His first wife Ivana reportedly said that he kept a book of Hitler’s speeches near his bed.
Recent books have highlighted Trump’s admiration for Hitler/Nazi accomplishments. Perhaps Trump views of lawyers and judges is similar to Adolf Hitler, who asserted, “I shall not rest until every German sees that it is a shameful thing to be a lawyer.”
When the history of this turbulent time is written, Trump and Trump’s Republican Party, many of whom are disgraced lawyers, will be remembered as Jack Cade like fellas.
But the vast majority of lawyers and to date, all the judges, both state and federal, will be remembered for honoring their oaths and support to the various state constitutions as well as the U.S. Constitution.
It is such honorable men and women who will be remembered and honored in the annals of history. Trump will be packed off to the garbage heap of history as one of our nation’s biggest, and most definitely, sorest losers of all time.
Tom Muri retired as a military JAG Officer in 1996. He is from Whitefish.