Americans will remember the Russia-gate scandal (How could we forget!?) and what it meant for American politics and public discourse. Remember discourse? On the 8th of August the FBI raided Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago in search of classified documents. Often after a raid like this a Grand Jury indictment would follow. So, has Trump been trumped by this raid, did he bait the FBI or is it yet another attempt by the Washington establishment to pre-empt another run for the presidency by Trump? We’ll have a look at all that here.
Over the term of Trump’s presidency we have looked on this site at various events regarding Trump. The last time we looked at him a future run for the White House looked rather doubtful. And already we can see the establishment seeking to oust him from the possibility of even running again. We’ll get to why shortly. But first, we have a look at the astrology of the raid and then a look into the near future for the Teflon Donald. We have the following info regarding the raid itself:
“On August 8, 2022, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, the residence of former U.S. president Donald Trump in Palm Beach, Florida. The search warrant was based on a complaint by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), authorized by Merrick Garland, the United States Attorney General, and approved by a magistrate judge. The order was unsealed and released a few days after the search and showed that the FBI is investigating Trump for three possible federal crimes: removal or destruction of government records; destroying or concealing records “with the intent to impede, obstruct or influence” federal government activity; and violations of the Espionage Act regarding unauthorized retention of national defense information.”
The chart of the raid is below (bigger), and then we will look at Trump’s chart with directions and transits:
The big stand-out in the chart is the partile conjunction of Orcus on the Ascendant in the 12th house, also square to the MC. Orcus is the planet of ‘instant karma’ and takes on a disciplinary role in any chart. This indicates one of two things regarding the purpose of this raid, or both – vengeance and corrective measures by the people conducting the raid. Trump supporters would no doubt choose the former, while Democrats would likewise choose the latter. It is all a matter of ‘saving our democracy’ to liberals, you see? This Orcus factor is already an indication that the raid was not the result of baiting by Trump. But when we stand back and look, we can see many factors at play. We will see why as we go along here.
The next stand-out is the applying t-square by the Sun with the Mars/Uranus apex conjunction and Saturn opposition. That was more combust 4 days after the event when the warrant was unsealed. At that point Mercury had transited to the Ascendant of the raid chart, and to Orcus as well, communicating the purpose of the raid to the public. That t-square is a very tough ad potentially violent combination, showing also the potential for a hasty if not disastrous decision taken by the DOJ and FBI.
The t-square just mentioned is central to the chart, as is the Orcus/Asc conjunction, seeing further that the Sun is involved in the t-square. The three houses involved – 6th (services/police), 9th (courts, Justice Department) and 12th (crimes, hidden things, karmic responsibilities) – reflect the seriousness of the event, and that it was a legal matter involving the police.
The 12th house placement of the Sun is of especial importance here. The Sun in a mundane figure, such as this one, represents leaders, especially the chief executive – FPOTUS in this case (Former POTUS). Trump supposedly had classified materials (also a 12th house matter) squirreled away in his basement and various other parts of his residence. Trump was not there at the time of the raid. He and his family watched the proceedings from New York via the security cameras at Mar-a-Lago.
The Mars/Saturn square in the t-square shows frustration of ambitions. The raid was conducted during a Moon wobble, further showing frustrations and Saturn was at the bending of the nodes, showing ruptures in relationships. The latter is magnified by Uranus and Mars at the north node – all at the apex of the t-square, showing the suddenness of the event, the quarrelsomeness, and the potential for disputes. On the whole, the combination of the three can lead to violence, but none was in evidence at that event. Again, Trump wasn’t there. But the raid has brought forward his litigious nature, as well as his desire to win at all costs.
Moving on to his chart, then, we have the following directions and transits during the raid, below (bigger):
At the time, transiting Jupiter was activating a direction of Saturn to Trump’s Neptune, hence Jup=Sat/Nep: “The tendency to be upset or depressed easily, sensitiveness, narrow-mindedness, egoism.” Such a combination can also point to liver and lung diseases as well as excessive weight gain. Transiting Mars was in his 9th house a couple of degrees away from his MC, showing both quarrels due to wrong arrangements and legal disputes, with several of his troubles coming all within that week, as well as increased power to succeed in life’s trials, other factors lending help. In fact, other factors did help him.
At the same time as the Mars transit to his MC, there was a Neptune transit sextile Trump’s MC and trine his natal Venus/Saturn conjunction. This served to rally his supporters, who called the whole affair yet another witch hunt against Trump. Never one to miss such an opportunity, Trump has played this to the hilt, given his Mars/Ascendant conjunction in Leo. Mars/Ascendant in Leo is the ultimate drama queen. It is also the great avenger of personal slights and insults, which is how he saw the raid.
If Trump ever wanted an event to garner support for another run at the presidency, this would qualify, as it has further galvanized his supporters against the Democrat ‘Libtards’. In fact, the media and the Democrats have been inadvertently trying their hardest to get Trump back in the White House. What the raid and reaction to it has done instead is to further split the nation. Regarding his reaction and what might eventuate from it, we have the following:
“[Trump] claimed to be the victim of “lawlessness” and “political persecution” by “Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024.” The federal raid of the former president, which indeed appears to be unprecedented, surprised Trump in its thoroughness. “They even broke into my safe!” the former president lamented.
Trump’s team is also none too pleased. People close to the ex-president reacted with a mix of horror, fear, and anger. Four sources close to Trump or who still work for him tell Rolling Stone that they’re concerned about what the Biden DOJ might do to him next. Two of the sources say it made them worried that it could make it more likely the notoriously mercurial former president acts out aggressively in ways that would worsen, not improve, his potential legal jeopardy and criminal exposure. “I mean, good God,” a person close to Trump said Monday night.”
We’ll come back to that, but there is more to Trump’s chart here. In addition to the transits, there are also other directions to consider. Directed Pluto has just come into orb of the square to Trump’s Saturn, which can produce a fanatical adherence to one’s principles once they have been decided upon. He hasn’t yet announced a run in ’24, but he might yet, especially if this event has hardened his feeling to do so. We also see directed Mars square his Pluto, which brings in the potential for ruthless behaviour, as well as the misfortune to have to suffer ruthless behaviour.
We also see a direction of the MC to Trump’s Sun, raising his public profile, directions of Venus to his Mercury and MC, also raising his profile and a direction of his Ascendant to a square with his Ceres, marking a turning point. If one had to answer the question, “Will he run again?”, these latter directions would suggest that yes, he will run in ’24. Many pundits had already assumed he would do so.
So, what exactly did the FBI find in his ‘beautiful home’? From the Wikipedia article on the raid:
“…26 boxes from the club, including 11 sets of classified government materials, of which four sets were classified as top secret, three sets were classified as secret, and three sets of papers were classified as confidential. One set of the documents was at the highest classification level: “top secret/SCI” (meaning top secret/sensitive compartmented information). The seized material included binders, photographs, and handwritten notes. Some documents were related to Trump’s pardon of his ally Roger Stone and some were related to the president of France. The property receipt, signed by Trump’s attorney Christina Bobb at 6:19 p.m. at the end of the search, showed that Trump possessed documents marked “TS/SCI” and another item labeled “Info re: President of France“.
The last linked item is of special interest, because it has called into question charging Trump with the Espionage Act. It would be an exceptionally bad idea to do so. That law was put on the books just over a century ago in order to stifle dissent against the government during WWI. “The Espionage Act, which was written 105 years ago to combat German saboteurs, is rarely used now to target spies and traitors. Instead, it’s used as a cudgel to silence whistleblowers, journalists, and occasionally a stupid former president.”
Trump was neither working for a foreign government, nor was he consciously doing harm to the US. Note the wording. Trump’s campaign slogan was MAGA – “Make America Great Again” – and he thought he was on the way to doing so, regardless of what one might think of him.
Charging Trump with the Espionage Act would put him in the same category as Julian Assange as far as the Espionage Act goes. It would be a trumped up charge (pun intended). What Assange did was to embarrass the Washington establishment – a mortal sin – and reveal American misdeeds abroad and at home. It’s called ‘journalism’. And many people thought Trump was an embarrassment to the America establishment. If they do charge Trump thusly (though doubtful) maybe the British embassy in the US would let him hole up there.
Jokes aside, charging Trump with spying for a foreign country is ludicrous. However, what the content of the documents reveal could land him with an indictment, which could seriously damage if not prevent another run for the presidency. That appears to be the intent of the raid. At least, that is what Republican and conservative commentators are putting forward. And on the Democrat and liberal side they are saying any litigation stemming from the raid while Trump may be stumping for office may disqualify him from running. What we see, regardless, is that Trump – or what he represents, more to the point – has the Washington establishment spooked, and on both sides of the aisle.
But there is another wrinkle here that most of us would never know, had it not been for this raid: Even though the documents were marked ‘Top Secret’, Trump had the authority to declassify all of them before he left office, which he most likely did. That said, and if true and he did so, the raid takes on the nature of a cover-up. There are executive orders that give the president the authority to declassify documents.
Going back to the chart for the raid there is a rather interesting little midpoint involving Neptune that throws further light on the raid itself – Nep=Mars/Plu: “Irreconcilableness or implacability, cunning and deceitfulness, the tendency to cause harm to others secretly and unobtrusively, (a disaster or catastrophe caused by water).” The bolded bits here are the most important. Even though Mars is trine Pluto in the chart, the midpoint has the same effect as was just quoted. Neptune is in the 7th house of the raid chart, that house representing the antagonists in the action – the FBI and DOJ. The raid has all the appearances of a pre-emptive action.
The press made a big deal out of supposed documents on nuclear matters (and here) and Macron, but that is a dubious story. More dubious than the nuclear documents is the one found on Macron, where the press is still trying to hang the ‘Putin puppet’ label on Trump. And there are questions regarding security at Trump’s premises and businesses. More likely is what is not being mentioned – documents relating to the Russia-gate affair, January 6th and Clinton. With those documents no longer in Trump’s possession it is harder for him to prove anything. Surely there would be copies of such documents in his possession somewhere.
With his Leo rising and Mars on the Ascendant, Trump, being Trump, would want to know what the intelligence community had on him, or not. It’s a matter of face, you know? It would also be a matter of revenge, seeing he has Mars on the Ascendant. And if so, having those documents in his possession, now declassified, would be dynamite in a future run for the presidency. They would be rolled out for maximum effect. Such a bombshell would go far toward discrediting the Democrats into the future, as well as the FBI.
It is also clear what is going on with this raid because of the timing: midterms are just around the corner. The Senate races are particularly important for both parties because the Senate is essentially evenly divided. A Republican-led Senate would render the Biden administration a lame duck presidency. Liz Cheney, for example, just lost her bid for her GOP Senate seat in a landslide. She was strongly anti-Trump. Her opponent is a Trump favorite. That has happened in other states as well.
Neptune has a rulership over politics, politicians and plebiscites, and choices (7th house) are being made going into 2024 after the midterms are decided. Politics is all about perceptions and public opinion, all the domain of Neptune. Image counts bigly in politics. There is a strong smell of politics in this raid.
To round this out, looking at the transits and directions in Trump’s chart on 8th August, the raid was an attack on his character (Mars transiting the MC), but one he can now use to his advantage, to strengthen his image among his supporters, should he choose to run again.
Trump learned the legal ropes under the tutelage of the notorious Roy Cohn, whose philosophy was, when presented with a legal challenge, to come out swinging with a strong counter-attack. That is what Trump is doing now.
What this raid has done is to throw gasoline on the fire of an already divided voting populace in the US and it has hardened opinions still further on all sides. If he were to decide to come out definitely that he will run again for the 2024 election, the raid will only help him, unless the DOJ manages to embroil him in legal challenges for the next two years. It is clear the Washington establishment wants to keep Trump out of the race in ’24.
As to the question of whether or not he will run and if so would he win, we will leave that for now. We have already had a cursory look at it in other posts here. But a quick glance shows his chances of winning would not be the best. In fact he looks to be quite stressed and/or disappointed. That said, if his opponent is the race is just so terrible there is no other choice, then he could pull out a victory. But the chances look slim. If a week is a long time in politics, then 2+ years is an eternity. It is far too early to make any such firm projections. We have to get through the midterms first. The next POTUS administration, though, looks to be much more positive than the last two.
There are other considerations for Trump, too, if he were to decide to run. Given the pace of change in the wider world since he left office and the direction the world is going, the United States is going to be far more focused on domestic matters than it is on foreign affairs in two years’ time.
As with astrology of any sort, a chart must be read in the context of the environment and the times. Trump’s flagship initiatives have all sailed, at least in terms of foreign policy. Leaving the JCPOA in an attempt to weaken Iran and support Israel is now replaced by the Russian-Iran and China-Iran strategic cooperation agreements, attempts at rapprochement between the Saudis and Iranians, a strong Axis of Resistance (Hezbollah, Syria, Iran and Ansarallah), the US appearing about to re-enter the JCPOA because the need of low oil prices by the West. There is also the financial bypassing of sanctions between Iran and Russia, who have just made cross-border payments in their own currencies.
On the Chinese front five major and giant Chinese companies just delisted from the NYSE, with over 200 more soon to follow, a result catalysed by Pelosi’s gambit to Taiwan. Recent animosity between the US and China, ramped up by Trump, form the background for the Chinese move, a further move toward decoupling with the US. For the US, this will hurt a little, as well as hurting Taiwan. But more than that it sends a message to the US, to stop antagonizing China or relations can get much worse. Iran also trades with China unaffected by Western sanctions.
Trump’s harshness toward Russia (and yes, he was harsh instead of being ‘Putin’s puppet’) would be but a drop in the bucket compared to what has been piled onto Russia since the start of the Russian SMO. Russia, instead, is doing just fine. The West? – not so much. And Western Europe at least is now firmly in the pocket of Washington. There is little more Trump could do to try to coerce Iran, Russia, China or the Middle East, or Europe either, for that matter. And the Saudis have turned firmly toward the East, away from Washington. Remember, Saudi Arabia was Trump’s first stop overseas after he became President.
The only real affect Trump might have as President again would be in the domestic front. The rest of the world has moved on. By ‘the rest of the world’ we mean, like, around 85% of the world’s population. And there are great doubts in the US as to what he might do, as well as many fears, especially if he were to take a hard Republican line. Trump will be remembered for his COVID policy, with Operation Warp Speed and the rollout of the now despised mRNA Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, along with over a million US excess deaths and a wrecked economy resulting from decades of poor economic policies and then from COVID measures. He was known to be more focused on Wall Street (his economy) than he was on Main Street, despite what his followers might believe.
And to top all that off, Trump made some powerful enemies in the intelligence community and within the Republican Party, Democrats aside. This raid was the likely result. Judging by his astrology, his age, his physical condition and the way the world has moved on since he left office, maybe it just might be better for ‘The Donald’ to spend the rest of his days between Mar-a-Lago and New York enjoying his golf game, watching as his successors preside over what is surely to be a difficult transition for America – from the sole hegemon to just another country among equals.
Featured pic from Fox News