His biggest problem is that he is probably a lot less useful to Putin and his oligarchs now, and I’m guessing more governments are going to be scrutinizing Trump’s properties to see who’s buying and leasing them.
Trump Putsch
To pardon them would have tied him to their failures with no future benefit to himself. He used them, they failed, and that was the extent to which he gave a shit about them.
I’ve been impressed by the fact that when it looks like they might suffer consequences the insurrectionists start making excuses like a middle-schooler caught without a hall pass. From the article:
None of them that I have seen continue to shout “Give me liberty or give me death!” like they did before being caught. I just can’t imagine the radicals of the 1960s like the Black Panthers, SDS, Yippies, or Weather Underground not making political statements justifying their cause rather than whining “Not me!” The Proud Boys should be proud of what they did, not pissing themselves in fear.
Regrettably, I think that people have short memories. It will be good to have Biden as president because we won’t have someone throwing kerosene on the bonfire, but that doesn’t mean the energy behind the coup is necessarily disappearing.
In fact, I can already kinda see where the next Trump might enter. The first high-profile right wing talking head or political figure who openly acts as an apologist for the Capitol Hill mob could very well turn out to be the next Trump. If Sean Hannity or Tucker Carlson comes on the air and says “I don’t think the Capitol Hill protesters are insurrectionists; in fact, they are patriots!”…then that guy will claim the Trumpist mantle. Yes, there will be advertiser boycotts and he’d face other repercussions – for a few weeks.
Trump will regret that he didn’t pardon the rioters. He will see that as his biggest mistake. Someone else will fill that void, and he’ll just be an ex-president with mounting legal problems and declining street cred.
That’s the way it might have seemed in real time, but it would have, once and for all, consummated the marriage to extremists, which might seem like a bad thing now, but if the GOP is not going to shake itself of the white nationalists – and it won’t – then that would have been the smart move (for Trump).
I believe Rush has already done so.
Trump is not that circumspect.
MAGA was a proto-authoritarian movement that wasn’t always sure just how far it should go in attacking democracy; MAGA 2.0 will be a lot more certain about the extent to which it should go. They will wage total war against our institutions, and they won’t wait until the last possible moment to do it. They will learn from their mistakes, which makes them dangerous.
For anyone not interested in watching this excellent video, here’s the gist of it:
Beau lists 14 accomplishments of Trump, 12 positive and 2 negative (positive from a Trump supporter’s view), gets us to agree that yes, those are his accomplishments, and then hits us with “those are the 14 characteristics of Fascism.”
This guy should have just sat down and shut up. Oops, he’s in jail now!
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/alleged-capitol-rioter-gave-himself-away-by-yelling-trump-2020-on-plane
According to the New York Times, things got very dicey at the justice department in the days before the insurrection. Trump wanted to fire the a.g. replace him with a civil attorney and go after forcing Georgia to overturn their election.
The last 2 paragraphs just say it all.
As a citizen just following the news things were nerve wracking, I can not imagine the pressure, anxiety, and stress those in the government felt during the previous administration.
The above post suggests one more data point for Biden to touch upon as he detrumpifies the trumpswamp: He needs to fire the DoJ attorney in question in the above. I’m going to post this in the Unfucking the Clusterfuck Extricating us from the Imbroglio thread too.
Welp, looks like Doctor Crazy has been arrested:
Simone Gold, 55, is facing charges of entering a restricted building or grounds, violent entry and disorderly conduct, records show.
Gold, an outspoken advocate for the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus, told The Washington Post she had gone to the Capitol and is the person depicted in police bulletins carrying a bullhorn on the Capitol grounds.
Another article I read said she’d been fired from her job as an ER physician after this event mentioned in the above article:
America’s Frontline Doctors, a group she founded, in July spoke outside the U.S. Supreme Court to criticize the pandemic lockdowns. The group has been widely discredited for spreading disinformation about the coronavirus and unproven treatments, and social media platforms have removed its content.
“I do regret being there,” Gold said.
Horseshit. Like all the others, you regret getting held to account for your actions.
Excerpt from a Washington Post story, observing some background noted in charging papers for one of the primary insurrectionists:
During the attack, he was getting messages containing active guidance on lawmaker locations from someone inside the building.
Authorities have evidently accessed the social-media profile where these messages were being exchanged and have copies of the texts and the sender(s).
This is confirmed as a genuine conspiracy, folks.
Thank you, senegoid.
We’ve traced the call, and it’s coming from inside the House!
Also:
You know the saying “photos or it didn’t happen”? These people are saying “photos and it STILL didn’t happen.” 
Denying reality – SOP for conservatives in general and MAGAts in particular.