Forget The MAGAts-- Will Trump's Disastrous Trials And Verdicts Get Him Into Hot Water With Normies?

"A Window Into His Soul"

Can there be any doubt that Trump pushed Romney’s niece out of the RNC chair and is replacing her with two sock puppets: Michael Whatley, who stole the chairmanship of the North Carolina Republican Party and Lara Trump, who… well, Lara Trump. He wants to make certain that he’ll get no resistance or opposition of any kind when he tells them what he wants.

And so far he owes nearly half a billion dollars in fines and legal fees. Everyone knows what he wants. Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (R) put it right out there on Twitter yesterday:

CNN reported that Señor T’s “way of doing business is a window into his soul. So his devastating loss Friday in a New York fraud case that threatens the empire on which he built his art of the deal mythology encapsulates more than a legal defeat. It offers a character study of the behavior, beliefs and worldview that define the DNA of an irrepressible figure and unchained force who is again tearing at American unity, institutions, democracy and the rule of law as another contentious election looms. A trial, which Trump tainted with histrionics and contempt for the judicial system, and Judge Arthur Engoron’s final, stinging judgment, revealed four foundational codes that explain Trump’s tumultuous path through a life that he simply sees as an endless stream of business and political deals he must close.

• Trump thinks rules are for other people. He will always break them in seeking more wealth, more attention, or more votes.

• If reality doesn’t get the ex-president what he wants, he conjures a new one.

• Trump is compelled always to fight— even when stepping back would be smarter.

• And when accountability finally arrives, he sees justice as an act of persecution by his enemies.

"Let 'em Eat Blini" by Nancy Ohanian

“Evidence,” wrote Stephen Collinson, “never swayed Trump before and will not now, despite his crushing defeat. Whenever he loses, he just doubles down with a bigger falsehood— in this case that a fair legal process was simply a political attack by President Joe Biden. ‘All comes out of the DOJ, it all comes out of Biden,’ Trump said. ‘It’s a witch hunt against his political opponent, the likes of which our country has never seen.’ … Trump’s belief that the rules are for others defines his business and political life. It’s essential, for example, to his claim now before the Supreme Court that presidents enjoy absolute immunity and cannot be prosecuted for their actions after they leave office.”

Trump’s propensity to simply alter truth and fact transferred easily from the business world to politics. It emerged hours into his presidency when he declared he had the biggest inaugural crowd ever despite photos proving the contrary. And his greatest fraud rests in his lies that he won the 2020 election and that the Constitution gave him the right to stay in power despite his defeat. The con-game of plucking a number out of the air to vastly over value his Trump Tower triplex is not that much different, after all, than calling Georgia election officials and asking them to “find” votes so that he could overturn Biden’s victory in the key swing state.

In his book, Never Enough, author Michael D’Antonio shows how Trump was taught by a demanding father and teachers that he needed to be “a killer” and that winning “was the only thing.” This explains his relentless willingness to fight, his never-ending legal crusades and his fervent desire at 77 years old to win back power after a humiliating election loss that nearly wrecked American democracy. Yet this refusal to ever admit defeat also appears to be leading Trump into dangerous legal territory.

The former president’s fight at all costs legal strategy seems to be coming unstuck. “Trump is unique in that he stubbornly thumbs his nose at our justice system and finds himself in legal turmoil,” said Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor and president of West Coast Trial Lawyers. “Sometimes it’s better to cooperate with authorities or to settle a civil lawsuit rather than fight a losing battle.”

For Trump, the battle itself and the act of breaking rules are the point of existence itself, even when they lead him into legal and constitutional peril. His flawed philosophy that in business and life, it’s all about closing one more deal, means that even crushing defeats like the 2020 election and his fraud trial cannot change him.

“I don’t do it for the money. I’ve got enough, much more than I’ll ever need,” Trump wrote in The Art of the Deal. He added: “I do it to do it. Deals are my art form.”

On Saturday, Dan Pfeiffer, Obama's former communications director, asserted that what needs to be done now is to make the verdict(s) matter to voters. He suggests three things we all should do, to whatever extent me can:

1- Be Clear About What Trump Did: Ultimately, Trump was found guilty of lying to banks and insurance companies to line his own pockets with hundreds of millions of dollars. 

2- Connect it to the Kind of President Trump Will Be: I would like to believe that electing someone found guilty of fraud (and sexual assault) would be a non-starter, but I fear we will have to make the case that his past transgressions tell a story about the kind of president Trump will be. Here’s one way to make the case:

Can we really trust someone guilty of massive financial fraud and banned from doing business in New York to protect consumers from corporations that price-gouge, Wall Street banks playing fast and loose with the rules, and Big Tech companies hoarding our data and exploiting our children? Trump cares more about lining his own pockets than helping you make ends meet.

3- Make it Part of a Larger Narrative: Trump’s legal troubles should be disqualifying, but to make them stick, we must connect them to a larger narrative about Trump. Here is one suggested way to do it based on polling from Navigator Research.

These investigations were conducted by law enforcement professionals. The decision to bring the indictments were made by career prosecutors and approved by a jury of Donald Trump’s peers. No politician is above the law, not even a President or a former President. A jury will render a judgment in each case, but Donald Trump cannot and should not return to the White House. The record is clear: he is more focused on protecting himself, helping his rich, politically connected friends and punishing his enemies than lowering costs, raising wages or protecting your family.

This verdict is a reminder that Trump is more politically vulnerable than the prevailing narrative suggests and that it is imperative to frame this election as a choice between a decent, experienced man who cares about you and a chaotic criminal who only cares about himself. We must take the opportunity to make that case every time it arises.

Now if Biden would just stop selling Netanyahu genocide tools!