Trump as his own Sejanus
and is killing the GOP to prove it.
Donald Trump recently got into a tiff with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis last week.
Not so much a tiff, but more of a minor meltdown on Trump’s part. Mostly because DeSantis and his inner circle have been testing the waters for a presidential run in 2024. DeSantis went from being the Former Guy’s favorite governor to earning Trump’s invective name-calling.
That was spackled over yesterday and Trump quickly let it be known that Mitch McConnell was still his number one GOP target.
That’s not to say that John Thune, Mike Rounds, Mike Pence, et al. are off the hook. It just means Trump is a classic bully — one victim at a time.
Most of the cultism criticism of Trump stems not from his picking out enemies from the political Left, but from his penchant for picking them from within the Republican Party.
Which brings us to Lucius Aelius Sejanus, better known as Sejanus. He was the prefect of the Praetorian Guard during the reign of Emperor Tiberius Caesar. More importantly, he was Tiberius’ friend, confidante, and chief political henchman. Hundreds of Romans were executed or killed because Sejanus convinced Tiberius that they were disloyal, were trying to depose Tiberius, or more often than not because they posed a threat to Sejanus’ influence over Tiberius.
Most former Presidents carry a great deal of influence over their parties. Some eschew it for pragmatic reasons, but others try to leave their ideological imprint. Losing standard bearers usually have enough realist sensibilities not to try at all.
And yet from Pence to McConnell to Desantis to next week’s GOP Drusus Julius Caesar1 the messaging from Donald Trump is “No Republican better get in my way”.
Sejanus made himself so indispensable that Tiberius could not imagine ruling Rome without him. Donald Trump, who lost the popular vote twice, has placed his imprint so deeply on the GOP that it cannot function with him or without him. That’s the benefit of playing both ruler and political henchman.
Don’t despair. Tiberius had Sejanus executed for conspiring to depose him.
Tiberius Caesar’s son, who was died on September 14, 23 A.D. Many Romans, including two of its most respected historians, suspected that Sejanus murdered Drusus by poisoning him.