Like Caesar, Trump Faces All Or Nothing Proposition

The 2024 U.S. presidential election is looking ever more like America’s version of "crossing the Rubicon."

Indeed, it bears a striking resemblance to the original one from which the expression comes.

In history, the Rubicon was the river demarcating the boundaries of ancient Rome, which Julius Caesar famously crossed with his army — an act that caused a civil war ultimately resulting in the fall of the Roman Republic and establishment of the Roman Empire ruled thereafter by Caesar’s successors.

Ever since, the phrase "crossing the Rubicon" has come to mean making an irrevocable decision from whence there is no return.

In truth, however, Caesar was given little choice in the matter.

The Roman Senate, inhabited by the aristocratic class, were both fearful and resentful of Caesar's ever-increasing power and popularity amongst the common people and of the threat he posed to the elites and their self-enriching system, and they decided that he must be stopped by any means necessary.

Caesar was ordered by the Roman Senate to disband his army in Gaul and return to Rome, where they had effectively barred him from seeking the consulship again — the highest office in the land — and were planning to prosecute him as an enemy of the state, where given their control over the legal process, he would be convicted.

By crossing the Rubicon with his army, Caesar defied the Senate and so declared civil war.

But if he had surrendered his army, his life and legacy would have been destroyed by his powerful enemies.

Crossing the Rubicon therefore represented an all or nothing proposition — not just for Caesar personally, but for Rome as well.

America is presently confronted by a similar scenario, with Donald Trump, former U.S. president, and current leading contender for the Republican Party nomination, cast in the role of Caesar.

Trump is currently faced with no less than four serious criminal cases brought against him by his own powerful political enemies.

And like Caesar, these charges threaten Trump with the distinct possibility that he will spend the rest of his days in a prison cell, and his wealth, his legacy, and everything he has ever worked for will be taken from him.

Also like Caesar, it is highly unlikely that Trump will receive a fair trial, but instead ones where the result is already a foregone conclusion — a fact made comically clear when the indictment in Georgia was posted before it was even decided.

Further, the clear purpose of these charges is to destroy Trump as a political opponent rather than any notions of justice.

This is made plain by the fact that they came precisely after Trump emerged as the overwhelming Republican favorite for the presidency.

Likewise, the charges are being justified as necessary to "save democracy" just as the Roman Senate’s actions against Caesar were.

Of course, far from saving democracy, they served only to ultimately topple the Roman Republic, and one now wonders whether the same will be true for the American one.

For like Caesar, the only real chance of survival Trump has now is to reclaim the presidency — to in effect become king or be killed.

By contrast, for Trump’s political enemies it is the opposite.

For if Trump manages to win the presidency again, they will face retribution, and deservedly so, perhaps in the form of their own legal trials.

Indeed, Biden for one is already facing his own potential legal issues, stemming from his wayward son and his many purportedly shady business dealings.

And though they are not currently being pursued aggressively, that will surely change if Trump returns to power.

Moreover, many of the charges now levied against Trump could just as easily be levied against others.

For instance, those who cast doubt and sought to undermine Trump’s 2016 election by claiming it the product of Russian collusion.

A bogus assertion that they subsequently used to try and remove Trump from office —staging what some may call in retrospect an attempted coup.

A Trump victory therefore poses an existential threat for Biden and others, and so they must stop it at all costs.

To that end, they are already using un-democratic means, with the criminal cases rigging the presidential election by making it exceedingly difficult for Trump to mount and sustain an effective campaign. And now some are even arguing that Trump should be banned from seeking the presidency all together

What more will they do to stop Trump from winning?

Or what will they do after he does?

In the end, the Roman Republic fell not just because of Julius Caesar, but because it had been rotted and corrupted from the inside.

It was already dead; Caesar simply drove the final nail into the coffin.

Time will soon tell whether the American Republic will, or even should, survive its own Rubicon.

Or whether the die has already been cast.

Lee Steinhauer is a strategic policy and political consultant known for his book "The Art of The New Cold War: America vs China. What America Must Do to Win." Lee is a frequent guest on Fox, Fox Business, Newsmax, and a published policy and opinion writer for numerous media publications. Read Lee Steinhauer's Reports — More Here.