WASHINGTON: Banks, corporations, and business leaders are joining Big Tech and social media in cutting ties with Donald Trump and extremist Republicans in the final days of his Presidency as he winds down four turbulent years in the White House as the disgraced leader of a discredited "MAGA" movement.
An increasingly isolated Trump headed out Alamo, Texas on Tuesday to celebrate 400 miles of border wall completed in his four years in office even as the walls closed on him on the social, political, and business front for his role in inciting violence. But a defiant Trump maintained that his speech which is credited with igniting passions was "totally appropriate" and the move to impeach him for insurrection is causing "tremendous anger."
"For (Democrat leaders) Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to continue on this path, I think it's causing tremendous danger to our country, and it's causing tremendous anger. I want no violence," Trump warned, even as the FBI and law enforcement authorities geared up for a possible second round of attacks on the US Capitol by white supremacists and MAGA extremists.
As the Democrat-majority US House of Representatives gathered to vote on a resolution asking Vice President Mike Pence invoke the 25th Amendment to boot Trump out of the White House even though only about 200 hours remain of his Presidency, Deutsche Bank and Signature Bank, his biggest lenders, cut ties with him for his alleged role in fomenting MAGA violence.
Morgan Stanley, AT&T, Marriott, and Dow among others said they would stop political donations to members of Congress who voted against certification of election results, while some others, notably Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, and FedEx said they are freezing contributions to both parties pending review of the events that transpired last week when a Trump-incited MAGA mob stormed the US Capitol.
Trump himself was reported to have blamed "Antifa people" for the violence in a phone call with Republican leader Kevin McCarthy amid disarray within the GOP split between hardcore Trump supporters and moderates. Given the overwhelming evidence, which included Trump, his sons, and his minions urging the MAGA mob to march on the Capitol to "fight like hell" and "take back America," even Republicans are finding it hard to defend the President. Several have indicated they may support his impeachment if he does not resign before January 20th.
Trump met Pence for over an hour at the White House the first time after the storming of the Capitol where a bloodthirsty MAGA mob wanted to hang the vice-president for not supporting the defeated President's effort to steal the election. Amid signs that Pence would not support the Democrats demand for him to invoke the 25th amendment, despite slights from Trump, the White House said in a statement the two had a "good conversation...reflecting on the last four years of the administration’s work and accomplishments."
They also reiterated that those who broke the law and stormed the Capitol last week do not represent the America first movement backed by 75 million Americans, and pledged to continue the work on behalf of the country for the remainder of their term," the White House said.
Pence has said through aides that he intends to attend the Biden inauguration on January 20; Trump has declared he will not. There are also reports that Trump's daughter Ivanka may go against her father's wish and attend the swearing in.
The FBI and local law enforcement meanwhile is on high alert against a possible return to Washington by MAGA extremists and white nationalists wanting to disrupt the inauguration. US agencies are warning of armed protests in all 50 states in the days leading up to the Biden inauguration, particularly if Trump is removed from office before that.
It is hard to fathom what is happening on the ground or in MAGA minds and Trump country given the Covid-19 restrictions and social media clampdown against extremists. Some militia groups that called for a return to the capital on January 17 and after have not been heard from since, as authorities are rounding up suspected troublemakers. Twitter has culled more than 70,000 accounts associated with the far right QAnon conspiracy theory following US. Capitol riot and Amazon has shut down Parler and other right wing echo chambers.
Scores of MAGA extremists who stormed the US Capitol portraying themselves as "patriots" have been arrested in aggressive if belated enforcement of law and order. Some are recanting on their belief and some are on the run. More than 15,000 National Guard and law enforcement personnel are being deployed to secure the US capital ahead of the Biden inauguration.