Back when he was a private businessman, Trump learned how to use law as a weapon. The lesson he took from that is that if your pockets are deep enough—and your conscience dull enough—it doesn’t matter that you are wrong. The other party will go broke before you will lose.
USA Today tallied the heavy-handed Trump litigation strategy back in June 2016. Over three decades, Trump fought 3,500 lawsuits—and faced 200 mechanic’s liens—mostly arising from disputes over unpaid bills. His strategy was to contest everything, and never quit: “The Trump teams financially overpower and outlast much smaller opponents, draining their resources. Some just give up the fight, or settle for less; some have ended up in bankruptcy or out of business altogether.â€
As president, however—and especially as a historically unpopular president—Trump has abruptly discovered that his old techniques no longer work. Worse: The old techniques now work against him.
The new bottom line: If you are famous enough—and disliked enough—it doesn’t matter whether you are right. The other party will become world-famous and super-wealthy before you can win.
I have looked and looked for an example of a sitting president suing anybody. It doesn’t seem ever to have happened.
I didn’t watch the Stormy Daniels interview, but from what I read she was very credible. Frum doesn’t address her allegation that she was threatened; he thinks she is entirely motivated by money. Whatever Daniels is about, however, Frum is right that Trump has lost part of his leverage. Further, any public official — especially a president — forfeits most rights to sue for defamation that a private citizen enjoys.
Trump is too thick to realize this, and his couple of third-string lawyers don’t seem all that sharp, either.
Greg Sargent wrote today,
President Trump has boundless faith in his ability to survive any financial, political, legal or public relations mess, by resorting to what philosopher Harry Frankfurt famously described as “bulls–––.†Time and again over the years, he has fallen back on his trademark tactics: bluffing with abandon; suing to overwhelm his antagonists with legal bills; fighting back as hard as possible, solely to dissuade future foes; flooding the media zone with confusion-sowing falsehoods; and, above all, never admitting to error, wrongdoing or deliberate lying.
But now, with Stormy Daniels speaking out about Trump — even as Trump’s legal team is falling apart, just as the Mueller probe is set to hit its climax — it’s hard to escape the sense that Trump’s titanic talent for bulls––––ing may be faltering in the face of the crush of events he now faces.
He doesn’t seem to have appreciated the fact that he’s lived his life as a cartoon character on the edges of popular culture, where he wasn’t under that much scrutiny. Now he’s the center of the world’s attention. And also the attention of Bob Mueller.
Trump continues to approach the Mueller probe as a P.R. problem — i.e., one that he and his allies can bluster their way out of in conventional Trumpian fashion — rather than as something potentially a lot worse. Remember, this comes just as Trump and what’s left of his legal team are trying to decide whether Trump should sit for an interview with Mueller. Trump has repeatedly said he relishes facing Mueller, and the lawyer advising caution — John Dowd — is now gone. Trump’s instinct to bluff and bluster his way through the Mueller probe is more likely to go unchecked — even as he is less likely to fully prepare for the very real legal perils an interview will pose.
In the words of the formidable Fran Lebowitz, “Everyone says he is crazy – which maybe he is – but the scarier thing about him is that he is stupid. You do not know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump. You just don’t.†If he is ever interviewed by Mueller, there will be no contest. Trump won’t be prepared. Trump won’t be able to bluff or bluster. Mueller will own his ass.
See also Jennifer Rubin, “There’s No Plan.”
Trump is crazy like a stupid fox – the one caught sleeping in the henhouse, with its head stuck in the fence. Sooner or later the rubes will have to allow themselves to figure out that they can’t all be Democrat plants. Or that God is like, really really double super secret mysterious or something.
Seems like Obama was on the mark with his saying in regard to Trump…."Reality has a way of asserting itself." Trump's dealings with the women who he has tried to silence is turning into a classic tar baby scenario. I'm waiting to find out that the hush money was provided from the Samaritan's Purse. Knowing Trump you can rest assured the money didn't come from his pocket.
Have you seen Cohen's lawyer? He's like a flashback to high school and the expression..You're talkin' out your ass, go shit and fall back in it, you clown!
I firmly believe Trump never intended to win until very late in the game, when his ego overcame his strategy of using the publicity to bolster his failing real estate empire. I mean, this boy has failed miserably at EVERYTHING he has set his stamp to. The only reason he has any money at all is because the financial people he deals with are stupider than he is (how smart do you have to be to make money in this country given a multi-million dollar head start?). I mean, he failed to make money in a CASINO… Let's face it, even Mitt Romney could make money with idiot bankers loaning him money they could KNOW he would never return.
Money people are not the brightest candles on the US cake.
It's a pincers move. Stormy Daniels is attacking him from below, Robert Mueller from above. Between the two of them, he'll be outed as an unfaithful thug _and_ a compromised crook.
When I met my public defender after the magistrate (quite generously) release me without bail or bond, a process between lawyer and client started that continued. He wanted to know the facts and the events and I know it was crucial that Tony would know everything he was curious about re me, my health, the flight, the landing, a ton of stuff.
I think Trump is bullshitting his lawyers on almost everything. If there were quid pro quo agreements with the Russians, Trump has not disclosed them to his counsel. His lawyers don't know if he sent Flynn with an offer to give Syria and Ukraine to Russia in exchange for support in the election. Sessions may have also been an intermediary and so might Kushner. Trump's lawyers don't know what Trump did, so they don't know what Mueller might have discovered.
The only defense is the one Trump himself has mounted. All the evidence is fabricated – all the witnesses are liars. I am King Trump and I must be believed regardless of the stinkin' facts. This may be why Trump can't hire a decent firm – they can't/won't mount a defense based on the abject denial of all the evidence.
It's not a good strategy – but Trump thinks it will work.
"This may be why Trump can't hire a decent firm – they can't/won't mount a defense based on the abject denial of all the evidence"
Doug, agreed, also maybe the fact that tRump almost always stiffs whoever he has hired might play into it as well! Why put up with the sullied reputation, the mockery, etc knowing you'll most likely have to go to court just to collect your fees?
He is manic, and smart in a venal way. But the narcissism overrides any good sense. Hence he goes with his gut and screws himself.
And his choice of lawyers, instincts playback , he's a one trick pony.
I once read a book that argued, convincingly IMO, that what brought down Nixon was the law, not politics. Nixon was not only very smart, he was a canny politician. He treated Watergate as a political problem, and probably would have prevailed if it had been. OC, the law is not an abstraction. No Judge Sirica, no Watergate; no Howard Baker, probably no impeachment. Nixon lost because the system won.
The Trump team, if you can call it that, may not be very savvy, but it knows that if the system wins, it loses. That's one reason for the attacks on the FBI and the so-called Deep State. They are pillars of the system.