Question: what is the living space for each of us? more intimate and secretthe most vulnerable because it is precisely there that, alone in front of our reflection in the mirror (and almost always in the merciless hours of awakening) we are forced to show ourselves every single day in all our most fragile and shameless nudity?
If your answer is: “the shower” or, in any case, any of the various accessories in the bathroom at home, in the vicinity of which we measure ourselves and our innermost needs every day, due to urgent and biological needs, you are already in the right position to grasp the deepest meaning of the news that yesterday, far from unexpected, but shocking nonetheless, shocked America. Because right there, in her shower – or in what, for all of us, is the most sacred temple of privacythe bathroom in the house – the thugs of the “deep State”, of the Deep State (FBI agents, in this specific case), to give a Donald J. Trump and to the United States of America something that, in the 247 years old history of the country, never had happened before. That is: the impeached by a president by federal justice. Or, more exactly: the indictment of a former president and – with Trump almost always everything doubles – of an almost certain next presidential candidate for that half of US democracy that goes by the name of Republican Party. (For the record: the barrier of “first president who ended up on trial”, Trump had already broken for his part a few months ago, when a judge of New York he had accused him of about thirty crimes connected to the “hush money”, the “silencer money” he secretly and fraudulently paid to a porn star with whom he had had an extra-marital affair. But it was, precisely, a state crime, not a federal one.)
Unheard of? Inadmissible? Unacceptable? This and much worse than this. Because as he pointed out yesterday, at the height of indignation, the highest representative of the Republican Party, lo Speaker della House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, “unconscionable”, inconceivable – democratically inconceivable, far beyond raped privacy issues – is that a sitting president (Joe Biden) impeach what, in all likelihood, will be, in November next year, his rival in the race for the White House. Isn’t this what happens in Russia by Vladimir Putin or in the most ramshackle of Banana republic?
Bene. Here ends the joke. Or rather – setting aside the paradoxical-farcical side of the story – here begins the real exposition of the last act of the perennial tragicomedy experienced by the United States of America at the time of Trump. Because this is, in fact, what the “henchmen” of the “deep state” penetrated into Palace of Mar-a-Lago, Florida, they found in Trump’s shower. Not images of his nakedness, not intimate and horribly Adamic secrets, but state secrets. Military secrets. Or rather: documents of all kinds, but a lot often “top-secret”, piled up by the tens of thousands in large cartons or, in some cases, even scattered on the floor. And this not only in “private” places par excellence, between the bathtub, the water-closet, the shower and the sink of the very numerous bathrooms (at least thirty) of the gigantic Trumpian mansion, but also in the more playfully public spaceslike the big one ballroom. Cotillons and state secrets. This, apparently, is what Donald Trump has generously offered in recent years to the illustrious guests at his pharaonic parties…
Nor predictably, in this already tragically extravagant context, moments, or rather, real entr’actesunparalleled Trump comedy. The most (tragically) fun? Perhaps the one – reported by very credible testimonies – which, in July 2021, sees former President Donald Trump, for the occasion on the golf course of Bedminster, in New Jersey (one of its properties), waving under the nose of some visitors secret documents relating to a possible attack on Iran (all, it seems, to counter the words of the Joint Chiefs of Staff chair, Mark Milleywho, according to leaked news, was claiming that he had been responsible for blocking a nuclear attack against Iran already decided, in a day of discontent, by the incumbent president).
In 49 and truly shocking pages – shocking for reasons opposite to the “unconscionable” listed by the Speaker of the Chamber – lo Special Counselor, Jack Smiththe man who conducted the investigation, listed and divided the papers found in Mar-a-Lago into four categories. documents relating to defense strategies and weapon systems; nuclear programs; vulnerability analysis in front of possible attacks on the US or its allies by foreign powers; retaliatory plans against those same attacks. And his conclusions were very clear. There were no possible alternatives. A myriad of evidence and clues have revealed that Trump knowingly violated, in at least 37 different ways, the laws of the nation, including those made to protect it against espionage. And, given these premises, not calling him to account in a trial would have been one – yes, “unconscionable” – violation of the equality of citizens before the law and the rule of law.
And now, what will happen? Making predictions is, in this context, rather risky. But everything suggests that the next presidential race will really be between an unpopular incumbent president it’s a even more unpopular rival (unpopular but supported by the Republican Party with the passion that, as a rule, it reserves for objects of worship) ended up on trial (indeed, under processes because others and even more serious are those still open). And this is not due to the decision of the aforementioned incumbent president, as falsely and with very laughable indignation claimed by McCarthy, but due to a series of crimes which, together with the law, seem even defy logic. Why did Donald Trump first steal and then keep those documents hidden? Out of a sense of omnipotence? Out of habit of impunity? Out of self-centered stupidity? Or for something worse?
We will see. In the meantime, this is what Trump’s shower has already revealed, indeed, confirmed beyond any reasonable doubt. American democracy – proverbially the oldest in the world – has urgent need for a plumber (of which, moreover, no trace can be seen). Because in those parts it’s really – let’s pass the metaphor – it’s raining in the wet.