Despite what you may think after watching me spend about 7 1/2 years suffering the sins of the damned covering Trump, I am not a Masochist. I’ll take pleasure over pain every day of the week. And as such, I have no interest whatsoever in sitting through a two hour Trumper tantrum from a ballroom in Mar-A-Lago. But what I do want to do is to see at least some of his febrile ranting. because at this moment, Trump is under more dire pressure than at any other time in his life, and how he handles this could spell his survival or doom.
Because as I have written, today was a total debacle for Trump. And in this moment, if he can get anybody to carry it, this speech may well be his last, best chance to speak to his base, and rally them around him.
I want to see his demeanor, even if just for a bit. Trump is at his best when he is freewheeling, throwing shit out left and right at the top of his lungs, and revving his base up with epithets and racism. And never does Trump need that more than mow. While Trump went into today wanting to look heroically defiant, what he actually came across as looking like was supremely pissed but compliant.
I can’t tell you how damaging that photo today of Trump sitting at the defense table, scowling up at an empty judges desk while his lawyers did lawyer shit was. After all, this is The Mango Messiah we’re talking about, the colossus of a movement. And there he is, sitting there like a mob capo, a scowl on his face while he waits for his arraignment to begin. How is this possible?
About 15 minutes ago MSNBC noted that Traitor Tot had begun his bitch fest at Mar-A-Lago. With the volume thankfully muted they showed Trump standing behind a podium surrounded by American flags. He was speaking, apparently through a teleprompter.
Wong, wrong, wrong! Trump chained to a teleprompter puts his base to sleep. What his base craves is the unchained Trump, blustering and posturing, saying the things that nobody else would dare to say. And never have they needed that fix more than now. Asl yourself, why hasn’t Trump called for protests in the streets the last five days? Because they’re not showing up, that’s why. Trump is mentally shaky enough without that humiliation.
Which forces me to ask a simple question, and it’s a serious question. At this point, is Trump even capable of being Trump anymore? Don’t scoff, just think about it for a minute in the context of what we saw today.
Trump has lived for 76 years without ever being held personally responsible for anything he has done. Which left his narcissistic ego with a feeling of invincibility. But earlier today he had to empty his pockets, be formally arrested, be fingerprinted, marched into a courtroom by uncaring warders, and arraigned. Man!, talk about a shot to the hull at the waterline.
But here’s my point. If is was just this one specific instance, Trump’s ego shield could just chalk it up as a political witch hunt! to get him, and sell that hard to his base, who would lap it up like cream. But that isn’t the case, and Trump knows it.
Today Trump had the most humiliating day of his life. As I said, he could write one off as a fluke. But it isn’t a one off, and Trump knows it. By all reporting, in the first two weeks of May, it may be Fulton County DA Fani Willis who obtains sealed indictments against Trump, possibly for RICO charges. And Trump will have to go through todays whole humiliating arrest, processing, arraignment process all over again. And once again in full view of the cameras.
But wait! There’s more! It may not even take that long. basically at any moment, DOJ Special Counsel Jack Smith could pop up out of nowhere and hit Trump with sealed indictments for the Mar-A-Lago documents case. And that would mean having to go to Washington DC, and once again submit to the arrest, booking, and arraignment process, again in full view of the cameras.
And just for the cherry on top, sometime in September Trump becomes a defendant in a civil case from the New York Attorney General who can, if she goes balls-to-the-wall, strip him from being able to conduct business in New York state, his home base. And then let’s throw in the possibility of Jack Smith unveiling superseding indictments stemming from the January 6th investigation.
And that’s not even counting the possibility of a whole plethora of civil lawsuits from all of Trump’s outstanding lenders, wanting to immediately call in all of his outstanding loans under the fraud clause of their contracts, which has already been violated by his company having been found guilty of criminal fraud charges.
Look, under the best of circumstances Trump has the attention span of a newborn puppy. Today was with no doubt the most humiliating day of Trump’s life. And even Trump can’t manage to hide and mask the fact that today’s humiliation is about to be repeated at least two more times. How much damage can the narcissistic ego of a 76 year old man take? And what happens when he finally blows?
If I’m the GOP, I’m in full blown panic mode. Trump is going to be convicted in New York. But the trial is tentatively scheduled for June of 2024, right in the lead up to the conventions. The simple fact of the matter is that Trump. Can’t. Win. In. 2024. But it’s equally true that right now only Trump can win the 2024 primaries. What does The Pottery Barn say? You broke it. You bought it.
Trump had the “fear of G-d” put into him by the proceedings today. He knows (as close to bone deep as he is capable) that he’d better watch his mouth/writings after the judge told him the rules. Aaanndd he’ll probably forget (I figure within the next week) and start feeling comfortable and start up again.
Unless someone opens another case/front for him to deal with……..heh heh…………..
He can’t do that. He didn’t. Attacked Bragg, attacked the judge, attacked the judge’s family (who would be off-limits to any good mob boss).
I expect him to shrink into an evil insect as did Jack Nicholson in Witches of Eastwick. He transformed from Richard Corey, the rich man about town, into the real creature behind the masks. Karma is a harsh mistress. I did see several networks, including CNN, broadcast his delusions across amerikka. I wonder if the judge caught how quickly his instructions were violated? I guess we’ll find out.
You, and me and countless others have speculated on the possibility of once someone FINALLY takes the plunge and indicts Trump the cracks in the dike/dam will begin to break up into holes. And real life examples prove the results of all that pent up water suddenly being let loose are devastating. More than once I’ve thought about the dam scene from Force 10 From Navarone. I urge you to watch the whole clip. For a bit more context, the two officers played by Harrison Ford and the late Robert Shaw (this was his last movie – it’s said his time on location caused the illness that led to his death) go down inside to the bottom of the dam with a couple of large bags of explosives – taken from tank mines stole from a German depot. Realizing they are out of time and the large attack across that highway bridge is starting they choose to set the timer for thirty second, assuming the blast will be so huge it if doesn’t kill them instantly the water rushing in under high pressure that deep down in the small tunnel will. So they casually walk away. Meanwhile, up on a hillside the enlisted guys (Carl Weathers and Edward Fox) wait and watch. “Miller” (Fox) is the one who’s an explosives expert and since Shaw’s character was the one who thought maybe hitting the supports with millions of gallons of water might do the trick. “Miller” was delighted with the idea, but knowing his shit (“Yes, your engineers are experts in building things. I’m an expert in blowing them up”) knew the amount of whatever two men could carry wouldn’t do the job right away. But properly placed in a few minutes it would cause a major hole at the base of the dam leading to collapse of it. He just didn’t let anyone else in on that fact.
When the explosion takes place it can be heard on the hillside and when nothing seems to have happened Weathers character starts ripping on him. Miller says “Give it time. it’ll work.” Sure enough as you see it did. Ford and Shaw’s characters are pissed when they realize they are still alive but by the time they make it out in all the confusion and meet up with their guys on the hillside all is well. And that bridge the Germans were going to mount a major invasion across collapses due to the force of the water, with tanks and men tumbling down into the torrent of rushing water.
THAT is my hope, that we will see the legal equivalent of the scene below happen to Trump and MAGA.
Today, the levee broke.
I think the beauty of the case is, it seems to be his lying that is catching up with him. Falsifying business records is a form of lying. I just think it may be perfect justice.
Donnie was in a no-win situation last night.
You’re right, he’s a dead fish reading off the prompter.
But his lawyers can’t let him free-ball it for fear he’ll make his case(s) worse.
The big question is how many MAGA supporters will find Trump the Victim, with his constant demands for more cash, far less appealing than Trump the Tough Guy “fighting” for their interests. At some point, even his biggest fans will conclude he’s a loser.
Just a petty little pleasure, I wanted to share. When Trump was entering the court room, the guard in front of him opened the door, did not hold it for Trump, and the look on his face, when he had to grab the door for himself to keep it from hitting him made me laugh out loud!
Hey Joe, you forgot that one critical explosive article. Trump didn’t get his “MUGSHOT”. Bragg and the judge opted to skip that procedure. Now for any normal criminal this would be a gift from God. Now when I first heard about this they were trashing Bragg and how stupid he was and how he fcked up Trumps booking. They had all kinds of crap 💩 going on. But slowly the script started to emerge. Bragg didn’t get a mugshot of Trump. Well who would need one. Only one idiot on this planet that looks that stupid. But that one guy that goes on Saturday night live is pretty close only he ain’t near as tall. But no, the truth comes out that Trump already had posters waiting for the mugshot to be printed. He had a whole ad campaign set up. And the boys in the band pissed all over his ad campaign. Costing Trump millions in donations. It just doesn’t get any better. I love it.
Brilliance at its best: PERSON, WOMAN, MAN, CAMERA, TV.