The Godfather Presidency

American Thinker ^ | 24 Aug, 2025 | J.B. Shurk

[MtnClimber]

When the FBI visited Deep Stater John Bolton early Friday morning, a line from The Godfather crept into my mind: “Today I settle all family business.” Surely I wasn’t the only one who hoped cable news would soon be reporting similar raids at the homes of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Brennan, James Comey, Jim Clapper, Susan Rice, and all the other co-conspirators responsible for the Russia Collusion Hoax, the Ukraine impeachment, the Hunter Biden laptop cover-up, and all the fraudulently predicated criminal investigations into President Trump and his associates.

Alas, Bolton was the only fish dumped out of his sanctuary bowl for the time being. Still, with the farcical half-a-billion-dollar civil fraud judgment against Trump recently overturned and the Supreme Court slowly but surely ruling in his favor on a host of executive orders intended to streamline the federal government, I feel as if we’re getting closer to a time when a great deal of “family business” will be settled swiftly.

That thought sparked another thought: President Trump’s entire governing philosophy has a lot in common with some of the better wisdom from the Godfather movies. Consider some of these jewels from Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola:

(1) “Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.”

Does it drive you nuts that Trump seems to quickly forgive people who wrong him? He lets left-wing “journalists” interview him. He gave Hillary Clinton a pass for illegally transferring highly classified government documents to a private and unsecured computer server. He even considered Mitt Romney — a “man” who repeatedly stabbed him in the back — for the position of secretary of State!

At the same time, though, Trump has no problem rumbling with those he brings near. After all, he made Bolton his chief national security adviser before firing

[MtnClimber]

“Revenge is a dish best served cold.”

[Oscar in Batangas]

You don’t land ALL the fish on one boat ride.
The wheels of justice may grind slowly, but at least they’re starting to turn.

[Jumpmaster]

Outstanding article.

[CharlesOConnell]

This was all on the occasion of Nixon facing impeachment, ultimately for the crime of going after Soviet spy Alger Hiss. Hillary Clinton should be executed for treason. This is from Geoff Shepard on Tucker Carlson, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCnUHIGvDVY While working on the Senate Watergate Committee, for which she was fired for cause, she had been dispatched to receive a special report produced by four constitutional scholars, at different institutions, the top people in their field, to answer the question, "Is a President responsible for the misbehavior of his subordinates?" To which the answer was no. And Ms. Rodham was sent to get the report. Which promptly disappeared while in her custody. Now the court of some six or so Judges convened en banc was stacked all by "liberals" so that Nixon, who didn't need to resign, saw that they were gunning for him for misbehavior by his subordinates—but weirdly, at the center of the unauthorized Watergate break-in were CIA men. So Hillary is the worst villain, who would still be tyrant if this country hadn't ducked a bullet with Trump in 2016.

[stanne]

He goes from fish to Churchill then to Mario Puzo. Trump certainly does not follow the mafia model of leadership.

Mario Puzo was a fiction writer. He showed how the mafia operates. I learned from that and from growing up around mafia princesses and their families in the 70s how the mafia operates. I found the Clinton’s and Obama easy to understand around that model of leadership and behavior.

The idea of keeping one’s enemies close is what Trump does. Anyone can look to my comments back to around 2018 to see I have noticed this is what Trump’s choices resembled. He didn’t study the 1971 fictional Vito Corleone at Wharton or in his growing up in a business family.

This was described in Spirit of Sun Tzu in The Art of War that understanding your enemy is vital for victory. Understanding the enemy is also a Christian tenet

It is used by the us military. It was used by the founders, one can argue

Trump does not operate on revenge. The Wall Street journal was yammering about this yesterday.

When the US DOJ rounds up these criminals they are all going to be Trump haters.

Trump is never going to say, ‘no you’d better not bring this guy in for sharing top secret info he hates me. Vocally. Publicly. In his public actions. The press will accuse me of acting in revenge

He won’t do that because, as stunning as it is to people, still, Trump does not care what the press says. Think about it. Trump didn’t rely on favoritism from the press for any of his success. He doesn’t need the press to like him or to not lie about him

These perp walks and raids might resemble movie scenes, the mafioso, when the mafia thrived in NYC, occasionally acted like heroes, but their philosophy was always based on flimsy morals, ever changing morals, like those of their wives, and revenge, power, greed, intimidation, strut, narcissism.

Trump just is not mafia or mafia-like

but Trump’s decisions will always follow the constitution. The mafia did not. His tenets follow the spirit of the development of the Constitution. It sounds anthemic but watch. It’s true.

[DownInFlames]

I’d like to see all the cos-conspirators involved in this have their houses raided at 4a at the same time.

[TalBlack]

Surely I wasn’t the only one who hoped cable news would soon be reporting similar raids at the homes of …”

My first thought was of a slight niggle of unease forming in the minds of Hillary et al..

[enumerated]

You’re right. President Trump allows himself to be vastly underestimated, intellectually, but he is what we used to call a statesman, out of respect - before ‘state’ became a dirty word.

Regarding the purity and wisdom of his patriotism, he’s right up there with Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, John Adam’s and the like.

[stanne]

What you said is correct. It goes right past 98% of people.

Watch as it changes.