Einstein, the Bomb and Trump

Commentary

The unlikely confluence of Albert Einstein and Donald Trump

I recently finished watching the Netflix docudrama, Einstein and the Bomb.

(Here’s a link to the trailer):

The film culminates with the development and dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945. Although Einstein was not directly involved in the Robert Oppenheimer-led Manhattan Project, it was his most famous discovery in 1905, “E equals mc2,” which led to the concept that atomic energy would someday be unlocked.

Why was the world’s greatest physicist, perhaps the world’s greatest mind, the man whose work paved the way to the utilization of atomic energy, not a participant in Oppenheimer’s project?

By August 1939, a month before the outbreak of war in Europe, recognizing the potential power of a nuclear weapon and fearful that Nazis would develop that weapon first, Einstein wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt about the need to accelerate the US development of a nuclear bomb. Einstein continued writing to Roosevelt, recommending further steps in the development of nuclear warfare. Despite his expertise and encouragement, he was not allowed to participate in the Manhattan Project because the U.S. Army Intelligence office denied Einstein, a well-known pacifist, the security clearance needed to work on the project; he was deemed a “potential security risk”

Even if you haven’t seen the Academy Award nominated film, “Oppenheimer,” you probably already knew the outcome of the Manhattan Project.

And Einstein? He regretted his involvement in the creation of nuclear weapons. In an interview with Newsweek magazine he said “had I known that the Germans would not succeed in developing an atomic bomb, I would have done nothing.”

So, what does any of this have to do with Trump?

At the end of the film, Einstein is quoted,

“They elected Hitler after he made his shameful intentions clear beyond the possibility of misunderstanding.”*

Does that quote make the connection for you? If not, allow me to elaborate.

*In slides at the beginning of the film, the filmmakers make clear that “THIS FILM IS BASED ON REAL EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF ALBERT EINSTEIN. ALL WORDS ARE HIS OWN, EITHER SPOKEN OR WRITTEN DURING HIS LIFETIME.”

In preparing this story, I accessed three recent articles, of the literally hundreds, regarding Trump’s intentions should he be elected president for another term. The three sources are Rolling Stone, The Washington Post and the Canadian Broadcast System News.

Every Awful Thing Trump Has Promised to Do in a Second Term

by Ryan Bort, Rolling Stone

• He will indict Biden and his other political enemies
• He will round up, intern, and deport undocumented immigrants
• He will send the military to the border
• He will invade Mexico
• He will round up the homeless and send the National Guard into cities to fight crime
• He will bring back the death penalty in a big way
• He will make stuff more expensive by taxing all imported goods
• He will reevaluate America’s participation in NATO
• He will roll back all of Biden’s climate progress and reinvest in fossils fuels
• He will construct “freedom cities” filled with flying cars
• He will try to overhaul the education system in the MAGA image
• He will torch the First Amendment by going after non-MAGA media
• He will legally delegitimize trans Americans
• He will pardon the Jan. 6 rioters
• He will gut the federal government and take unprecedented control of what’s left

Trump and allies plot revenge, Justice Department control in a second term

by By Isaac Arnsdorf, Josh Dawsey and Devlin Barrett, Washington Post

• Establishing “Project 2025,” a group developing plans to invoke the Insurrection Act on his first day in office to allow him to deploy the military against civil demonstrations.
• Using the Justice Department to investigate onetime officials and allies who have become critical of his time in office, including his former chief of staff, John F. Kelly, and former attorney general William P. Barr, as well as his ex-attorney Ty Cobb and former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Mark A. Milley.
• Vowing to appoint a special prosecutor to “go after” President Biden and his family.
• Drafting plans to dispense with 50 years of DOJ policy and practice intended to shield criminal prosecutions from political considerations. 

Trump could be U.S. president again. Here’s what he plans to do if he wins.

by Alexander Panetta, CBC News

• Vengeance: It’s a recurring theme in the platform. On his first day in office, Trump says he’d appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Biden and his family’s revenues.
• Firing civil servants: Trump allies want to overhaul the tederal bureaucracy. They’re already working to replace civil servants with more like-minded ones.
• Transgender care: Trump wants to curtail gender-affirming care for minors. He wants hospitals and doctors cut off from federal health funding if they participate in transitioning treatment for minors.
• Death penalty: Trump used to muse to aides in private that drug dealers should get the death penalty. Now, it’s part of his platform.
• War on drugs – literally: When he was president, Trump inquired about the possibility of firing missiles into Mexico to destroy drug labs, according to his former defence secretary. Bombing Mexico is now becoming an increasingly popular idea among Republican candidates.
• End birthright citizenship: Trump would end citizenship rights for children born on U.S. soil to undocumented parents – a radical change in interpreting the Constitution’s birthright citizenship clause.
• Homelessness crackdown: Trump says he would force homeless people off city streets. He would ban urban camping and offer violators two options: receive treatment and rehabilitation in newly constructed encampments, or face arrest.
• Punishing tech: Trump is angry over how he and members of his campaign were treated on tech and social platforms during the 2020 election. Now, he wants to see them punished.
• End racial equity programs: Trump would cancel programs aimed at race and gender equity created by Biden, citing those aimed at non-white farmers and restaurant owners.
• Restore an old presidential power: He would fight for more presidential control over the federal budget. Remember Trump’s first impeachment? It started with him withholding military aid for Ukraine, previously approved by Congress; he was pressing the Ukrainian government to investigate the Biden family’s business dealings.
• Investigate pharma companies: In a seeming nod to anti-vaxxers, Trump has promised a presidential commission into what’s driving a rise in childhood ailments. He mentioned autism and a number of other ailments, and while listing several possible causes he appeared to specifically single out pharmaceutical companies.
• Re-evaluate NATO: Under Trump, the current president’s frequent extolling of U.S. alliances would seem like a distant memory. Last time he was in office, Trump derided those allies as deadbeats and reportedly talked to his own staff about leaving NATO.
• Ukraine: Few nations will be watching this U.S. election as closely as Ukraine. Trump constantly criticizes U.S. efforts to defend the country against the Russian invasion. He says he’d demand compensation from Europe for the massive amounts of military hardware the U.S. has delivered. He’s called for pausing Ukraine funding for a variety of reasons.
• Rattling the new NAFTA: Trump is hinting he would ignore a recent ruling under the dispute system of the new North American trade pact, raising questions about the stability of the agreement and whether it will be reliably enforced.
• Restoring pre-Biden policies: He would pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord, again. He probably couldn’t undo Biden’s landmark climate law funding green energy, which requires an act of Congress. But some analysts believe he could sabotage its implementation.

There you have it, all you Trump-supporting Einstein’s out there*. Are we going to elect Trump after he’s made his shameful intentions clear beyond the possibility of misunderstanding? Or, after reading all this, are his intentions still not clear enough, still not shameful enough, for you to withhold a vote for him? Are they not enough to foretell the existential threat to the American democracy a second Trump term would engender? Does he actually have to use his so-called “Presidential Immunity” (over to you SCOTUS) to shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not face any consequences to change your mind? Or, is even that not enough?

*Yes, I know there are few, if any, “Trump-supporting Einstein’s” reading Around the Block.” But if you know any, send them this this story. I’m sure it will spark a deep, thoughtful conversation with them.