This is new and different. It’s “Bad” things for Trump Day. It’s also another surprise compared to what we’ve learned to expect from him. He really is getting old and realizing that. First, “I want to go home”, then the chatbot saying Biden won the election, and now this. He gave up.
His lawyers told the judge they are dropping the appeal for Trump to get back the money he was forced to pay E. Jean Carroll for the first case, as well as the appeal in the case, to be dismissed with prejudice, meaning he cannot change his mind and try again. The bigger, second defamation case for $ 83.3 billion has been taken up to the Supreme Court to see if he’ll keep that money. Knowing SCOTUS, they’ll rule in his favor, dammit.
Trump has not been doing well for the past couple of days. Should we be concerned? Unlikely. He always has something up his sleeve. But he may choose to slow down after he does the insane rally schedule for Republican candidates. That’s not a bright idea for a man who only sleeps in naps and is 80 years old. If he sees MAGA members at each stop, being as we know, he feeds off the energy from the crowd; he’ll probably get through the rally and then be exhausted. Maybe that would force him to get some decent sleep. (Think of all the insanity the Secret Service will have to do for his jaunts. Oof.) He is not the same person with the same energy he had in 2023 and 2024.
If you compare Trump through the years, starting back with the Obama “birther” nonsense, you can see how much he’s changed. His age is showing. The erratic sleeping and naps cannot sustain him as they did way back then. He refuses to admit it, but he has to know. “If this were Biden … ” We won’t get into people publicly telling Biden to bow out after a debate where he had the flu and was jet-lagged. Still holding a huge grudge about that.
No one is telling Trump to step down. No one wants to lose their cushy positions. No one wants to risk him turning on them. They know damn well they should call the 25th Amendment on him, but they won’t. That cushy job, y’know. They can’t be certain JD Vance will keep them in their current positions. But Vance isn’t exactly the smartest guy, and he might not want to disturb the status quo. The devil you know and all that.
Maybe Trump will make it to the end of his term. At that point, it should be blatantly obvious as to whether or not he could even try for another term, illegal as that would be. The question is, will he have any sort of a mind left, or will it be more like come and go? There are people this writer has known up to age 106 and being perfectly coherent until the day they passed, and others that went downhill in their 70s. That was painful. But the point is that he could go on or go gone, and there’s no way to predict it right now.
How about a little bit from Raw Story:
A 2023 jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan in the mid-1990s and for defaming her, and awarded her $5 million, ABC News reported. After the Supreme Court declined on June 29 to hear Trump’s appeal, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered the money released on July 8. “In the last analysis, defendant has been stalling this case for years,” Lewis Kaplan wrote. “It is time for him to ‘do equity‘ and pay the judgment.”
BOOM. That was the moment Trump had to have known he lost. He couldn’t avoid it anymore. His legal avenues slammed shut. There is more information in the Raw Story article, of course. Nevertheless, E. Jean Carroll finally got her money for her first case. It should be interesting to see where she sends it. Women’s shelters and legal assistance would be good. And back on topic, Trump gave up. Whoa.
Friends, I know everybody begs you for money. I promise you that, of all the outlets bugging you for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest-working. We’re a bunch of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. But the rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the ability to continue our quest to tell the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
When you think about it this is stunning. Asking that the appeal be dismissed with prejudice? This is a guy who has lost even at the SCOTUS level and keeps coming back for another try on the same thing. If there was an award for abusing the legal system by wasting its time Trump would be the all-time winner. That’s what makes this so stunning.
I predict Roberts et al on SCOTUS don’t want any part of ruling on the other Carrol case. Thomas and Alito might think differently but my bet is that most GOP appointees hope Mother Nature will finally do her job and Trump will die from one of a number of health problems he clearly has rendering the case moot. It’s a lot more money sitting in that escrow account so Trump probably will keep fighting at least for a while. One wonders if after the election when weeks of news will be about what he will face from the new Congress that during the holiday season when the public has other things to focus on he might quietly give up on that case too – if Roberts has indicated at least three Justices will join Democrats and rule against him. Don’t think for a minute that with THIS administration and THIS SCOTUS there is communication on some cases.
Anyway, I find myself daring to hope Trump might just give up in general given his deteriorating health. People who are gravely injured, or ill survive (or not) only by summoning the will to live. To fight on. If Trump loses his will it’s not a stretch to think he might retreat into himself and give up hope on life in general. He knows damn well that no one, save maybe Natalie Harp actually loves him. Even in her case it’s more from cult-like delusion than actual love and in the rare moments he’s admitting hard truths to himself Trump knows that.
If Trump loses the will to fight on (and he’s fighting on so many fronts now) I truly think his days will be numbered. That’s why that handful of sycophants in his circle keep cheerleading. With him gone, even if Vance keeps much or most of Trump’s team come 2028 they are toast too. Perhaps even earlier if as I think it becomes clear during the primaries that Vance (and Rubio) don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting the nomination. If YOU were a viable candidate would you want any of Trump’s people working for you? The folks who’ve served him, at least in his second term will forever be tainted with his toxic orange hue. Even in the private sector the bulk of them will have trouble finding work. That’s why they put so much effort into propping him up and convincing himself he’s the greatest person (including their Jeebus) who ever lived.