Fear over reaction to Trump being jailed for contempt is giving him WAY too much power. Let’s say for the sake of argument that Trump (finally) gets tossed in a jail cell even if only for one night. Will there be an uproar? Sure. Will it be “bigly YUGE?” Maybe, but maybe not so much. However, the OMFG from so many including talking heads and legal pundits is I believe way the hell out of proportion. You’d think listening to some speculation it will be thermonuclear if Trump gets put in jail. Or at the very least there will be HUGE protests, riots that would eclipse the Jan.6 attack on the Capitol and the streets would run red with blood. To which I say get a f**king grip!
Here’s where things stand. According to reporting, including this article from NBC News judge Merchan found Trump guilty of yet another violation of his gag order:
Judge Juan Merchan, who on Monday found that Trump once again had violated a gag order that bars him from disparaging witnesses or the jury, warned the ex-president could face jail “if necessary” for further violations.
Now again, there have been a bunch of articles and also discussions on news shows in the past few weeks about the possibility of Trump being jailed for criminal contempt. To be fair some of it has been measured. Talk of how the judge prefers not to jail Trump, even acknowledging from the bench Trump seems to want it. The fact is that while Trump has had a bit of success making his Manhattan criminal trial into a circus the judge has things moving along at a steady, even crisp pace. The fear is that even a short time in jail for Trump for contempt would disrupt that. And there’s talk about the logistical problems (?) of jailing someone like Trump. (I’ll get to that)
However, there’s also been more than a little commentary both written and spoken about the “explosion” jailing Trump would create. If I had money to invest it would all be in fainting couches and smelling salts. I wasn’t kidding about how some people in the news (and political) world are beside themselves with predictions of an apocalypse if judge Merchan decides (as he should) that for the good of the rule of law Trump should go to jail for at least one night like ANY OTHER criminal defendant who acted like Trump would have happen. There are journalists and pundits shuddering. Fearful to the point of curling up in the corner in the fetal position. Or doing Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now impersonations:
Get a freaking grip! Trump will explode but the “mushroom cloud” won’t be nuclear fallout but rather ketchup on the walls of Mar A Lago, or Trump Tower or wherever. There will be outrage in the MAGA cult, fueled by Fox and much worse RWNJ news outlets. So what? I’m not dismissing the notion of protests because there might be some. With each criminal indictment and arraignment massive preparations were made because Trump called forth MAGA and you know what? Those “massive” protests, every one amounted to a fart in a whirlwind. Trump’s farts in court probably have more effect by lingering in the air longer and with more intensity.
Don’t get me wrong. There are real threats out there. Deranged Trump supporters capable of and willing to engage in actual violence. Actual threats have manifested into actual attempts at violence towards those willing to hold Trump accountable. Those would ramp up if Trump were to spend even one night locked up in a jail cell. There might even be some protests numbering in the hundreds of MAGAs (vs. the pitiful numbers we see so far) that could turn violent. That’s quite real. However, even if there were larger ones and they went on for a while guess what? The earth will still keep turning, the sun will come up each morning and as when mother nature deals severe blows the skies clear and we wind up seeing beautiful sunrises.
Huge, awful events have taken place in recent history, and going back thousands of years. The terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israel and Israel’s ongoing over-the-top response punishing Palestinian civilians for the actions of a Hamas govt. Netanyahu installed and funded. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and massive ongoing war crimes. Yet the world keeps turning and the sun comes up and we keep going along. The Capitol Riot. We’re still dealing with the aftermath but the earth has still kept turning and the sun comes up each morning. Same with 9/11. Same with the disaster of Trump’s Presidency.
Back when I was young/growing up we had massive riots over the war in Vietnam, awful state and local govt. action taken against those who protested for civil rights including beatings, jailings and even lynchings. We saw leaders like RFK (the REAL one, not the P.O.S. son of his currently running for President) and Martin Luther King assassinated. Before that, we had Bobby’s older brother JFK, a sitting President assassinated! Through all that the world kept turning and the sun kept coming up each morning. We got through it. Just like we got through Watergate and Nixon.
We saw not one but two World Wars in a span of three decades that cost over a hundred million lives. Bad as COVID was, a hundred years prior we had a global flu pandemic that killed far more people. We went through a literal civil war, and the assassination of the leader who led us through it, preserved the Union and managed to get slavery abolished via Constitutional fiat. The world kept turning and the sun kept coming up in the east every morning.
We’ve gotten through all that and so much more. Natural disasters including some from long ago that nearly wiped out life on this earth. Ice ages. Super-volcano (like the one under Yellowstone) eruptions, asteroid impacts like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs. The world has kept turning and life found a way to move on. Granted, not sometimes the way we would have preferred, or as quickly as human beings would like. But the human lifespan is less than a hundred years. That’s not even a blink of an eye in geologic time.
A hundred, even a thousand years is nothing. If only in fits and starts and sometimes with setbacks things get better. This country’s own short history is an object lesson in that fact. We have a long ways to go and have had some huge flaws but bit by bit over time we’ve made progress towards the lofty ideals on which we were founded – that we are all created equal and have certain inalienable rights. The United States I should add isn’t the only country that has made progress, usually as haltingly as we have towards what things should be like. People the world over have always wanted some pretty basic things. Some security of having reliable living conditions. Food and shelter. Their kids having things better than they had it. There have always been bad, greedy and even evil people but there have always been more of the former and that’s why progress gets made, if agonizingly slowly.
Yet as I write this there’s this huge fear about the damage jailing Trump for contempt might cause. Even if there’s a cost and for some it’s far too dear the earth will still turn and the sun will keep coming up in the east each day long, long after all of us are dead and gone. This fear of what will happen gives as I’ve aid Trump FAR more power than should be the case. I for one refuse to accept that we can’t deal with his and MAGAs tantrum and overcome it. And pretty goddamned quickly.
Locking Trump up needs to be done. And it CAN be done and it won’t be nearly as big a deal as some make it out to be. The linked article cites Mike Lawlor on the prospect of Trump being sent to Rikers (he noted their experience with other high profile people including currently Trump’s CFO Alan Weisselberg:
Trump would immediately be placed in protective custody for his own protection, Lawlor said, meaning he would not be permitted to mingle with the rest of the prison population.
“He’d have no contact with anybody but corrections officers and members of his Secret Service detail,” Lawlor said. “The people at Rikers have lots of experience dealing with high profile prisoners, including vulnerable, elderly people like Trump.”
I enjoyed Lawlor’s pointing out Trump would have to go through regular intake including stepping on a scale and getting his actual height and weight measure! Which would be a public record that could be looked up on the website! Now that would make for some fun facts but Lawlor goes on to address more substantial matters:
Having Trump behind bars would not be an extra burden on his Secret Service detail, Lawlor added.
“The main job of a Secret Service detail is to protect a former president from being harmed or kidnapped,” Lawlor said. “Having Trump confined to a prison setting would, in some ways, actually make their job easier.”
The linked article cites another expert:
“The larger issue” is where the Secret Service would be, given that they are armed,” said Martin F. Horn, a professor emeritus at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who once served as commissioner of New York City’s correction and probation departments.
Most likely, Horn said, Trump would be taken to what’s called the West Facility, where there would be room enough for the ex-president and his security detail and no other inmates to contend with.
Still, having to ensure the safety of a former U.S. president behind bars would be an unprecedented assignment for the Secret Service, a spokesperson for the agency told NBC News.
As I said, giving in to fears of Trump inciting MAGA violence gives him power he shouldn’t have. And I say F**K THAT and F**K HIM! Yes, it hurts to lance a boil or a blister but once it’s done with a bit of proper care things quickly heal and all is well. I see tossing Trump in jail as the perfect means of lancing the Trump/MAGA boil. Get it over with. Deal with the mess, treat the wound and move on.
And stop giving Trump power by giving into fear.
Well 💩-45 has eroded presidential norms during and after (as in, never done before…🤦🏻♂️), and has just been a criminal who never faced the music. So… eff him and his minions (not the cute yellow ones to be clear). & eff their feelings. Sometimes feels cavalier to say “sure let’s see what happens if his deranged followers…”. But after awhile can’t just let things stifle everything and everyone. Law and order sound great just like lock her up: time for some folks to see consequences of FAFO.
Considering the number of MAGA protesters outside the courthouse, I think all the doomsayers of the press are wrong! Its like predicting an F5 tornado, and all that happens is that Traitor Tot farts!
Asa always, the press are just trying to milk it for all it’s worth.
My opinion is that it would be a tremendous mistake to give him that donation avalanche. He wants to be jailed he already using the threat for campaign purposes. It would be never ending talking points for the maga nuts. We gain nothing from him spending the night in the courthouse jail.
As I noted in another article some time ago, I’m not sure if Trump could actually get any donations. Many states have laws that PROHIBIT criminals from making money from their criminal actions (whether being jailed on contempt charges during a criminal trial reaches that level is something for the courts to decide–but, in the meantime, Trump wouldn’t be able to fund raise over the jailing) and ANY money that’s raised by a criminal is supposed to go to his victims.
Now the RNC might could do it but the RNC would probably be enjoined from using any of those funds for Trump’s campaign (since that would still be allowing the criminal to profit from his crimes).
As for Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sites, well, the people setting up those efforts have guidelines (most notably a “goal” should be established but there are also issues involving potential fundraising for people in jail).
He’ll be jailed in NYC. Who on earth thinks there will be a super duper crowd of New Yorkers demanding his immediate release? NYC is not exactly magat central and I still haven’t seen many magats carrying on outside the courthouse yet…or really any at all quite frankly.
trump is loathed across the country, this is true, but I doubt he is more loathed anywhere in the U.S. than he is in NYC. I sleep pretty soundly at night hoping he’ll be jailed, knowing nobody will be saying boo to a goose about it in NYC. Maybe, just maybe, if his cult members see that his ass can be sent to the pokey just like everyone else, they’ll realize they’ve been bamboozled big time, he is not the giant he says he is, and some of them will come to their ever-loving senses. Stranger things have happened.