A lot of Republicans want Trump to shut up. They want to run on inflation, on border security, on whatever they can spin into an outrage against Joe Biden. But Trump keeps stepping on the message and making everything all about him.
In case you missed it, this happened yesterday.
Trump calls for him to be declared the winner of the 2020 election and be reinstalled as president, or for there to be an immediate do-over of the presidential election. pic.twitter.com/2jE643rpB1
— Ron Filipkowski ?? (@RonFilipkowski) August 29, 2022
From Huffpost: “Constitutional expert and Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Tribe quipped that if Trump is trying for an ‘insanity defense’ against the various investigations against him, ‘it won’t work.'”
That was shortly before noon. In the middle of the night — according to the timestamp, 1:46 a.m. eastern — Trump returned to the subject. After more incoherent FBI/laptop whining, the former president again wrote, “Declare the rightful winner, or hold a new Election, NOW!”
He never gives up.
In May 2021, by way of his now-defunct blog, he celebrated a poll showing most Republican voters “believe Donald Trump is the true president.” In June 2021, The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman reported that Trump “has been telling a number of people he’s in contact with that he expects he will get reinstated” to the presidency by August 2021.
Around the same time, CNN ran a related piece, reporting that Trump has “been asking advisers in recent weeks if he could somehow reassume the presidency this year after listening to farfetched suggestions from conservative commentators and allies.”
Sometime around September 2021, Trump allegedly asked Republican Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama to work on rescinding the 2020 results and “immediately” putting him back in the White House.
In October 2021, referencing a weird election conspiracy theory out of Arizona that has long since been forgotten, Trump wrote, “Either a new Election should immediately take place or the past Election should be decertified and the Republican candidate declared the winner.”
For reasons unknown, he’s apparently become fixated on this anew.
The reason unknown, I suspect, is that he knows the feds could be closing in on him this time.
Nikki McCann Ramirez at Rolling Stone reports that “Trump spent Tuesday morning feverishly sharing content from supporters on his social media platform Truth Social, posting or re-posting more than 60 times since early Tuesday morning, including content from QAnon accounts and the far-right message board 4chan.”
Molly Olmstead writes at Slate that “Donald Trump went on what can only be described as a meltdown on his social media platform TruthSocial.” Among the “crazy even for Trump” stuff was a QAnon claim that the military is investigating the FBI, CIA, and NSA. Again, it isn’t that mysterious why he’d want to believe that.
As Steve Benen reminds us, “The Justice Department warned last year that the former president’s delusional claims about returning to office could fuel more political violence from his most rabid followers. The Department of Homeland Security raised related concerns.” I suspect that’s exactly what he’s doing; he’s priming his culties to be ready to rumble at the first sign of indictment.
Fortunately, the reach of Truth Social is somewhat limited by the fact that Google Play won’t distribute its Android app.
But all of this ranting from Trump is throwing the Republican Party off its game. More sober heads in the party want to be talking about what they see as the failures of President Biden and congressional Democrats more than the 2020 election or even Hunter Biden’s laptop. (Frankly, if there were anything that incriminating on the laptop we would have heard about it by now.)
Some top Republicans acknowledge the growing angst and concern, as it’s become clearer that Trump may have been warehousing some of America’s most sensitive secrets in an unsecured basement — and even refused to turn them over when the National Archives and Justice Department tried to recover them. One top Republican fundraiser asked to describe the mood among donors, said, “There is enormous frustration.”
“The question is, is there willingness to express that frustration,” the fundraiser added. “I don’t know the answer to that. But there is real frustration, and with the exception of people who are too stupid to understand the need to be frustrated, it is nearly universal.”
Greg Sargent writes that the GOP seems to be ripped in half:
As Donald Trump’s legal travails deepen, a strange split-screen effect has taken hold throughout the GOP. On one screen, Republicans are increasingly anxious about revelations involving Trump, while concocting ever more inventive ways to achieve distance from them.
This captures an essential tension about this moment. Many Republicans apparently remain deeply convinced that Trump and his preoccupations are an indispensable source of political energy for their 2022 campaigns. Yet coming revelations about Trump might keep rendering that energy more toxic in swing states and districts.
A lot of the Republican candidates who won the midterm before the Mar-a-Lago document search didn’t have anything else to run on except how Trumpy they were. By the time we get to the general, that may or may not work for them.
First thought about FPOTUS declaring he won and he'll settle for a do-over is that it's a distraction from a specific discussion about what's in the stuff that has been released and what it indicates about his guilt. Of greater importance is that TFG snagged a reputable lawyer on the Espionage problem. This is out of his pocket – the RNC isn't paying. That the cheapest billionaire ever to bilk a contractor is paying suggests TFG has been told that he's in deep trouble.
Re Miss Lindsey – the objective is to prevent TFG from being charged. TFG does not know it but random pre-trial violence in support of FPOTUS looks really bad to a potential jury pool. TFG communicated to DoJ what might have been a threat saying he wanted to turn down the temperature – the anger of his followers – while he was stoking that anger online. It wasn't directly quid-pro-quo any more than Miss Lindsey's comment. I suspect if shot at, the FBI will shoot back – if an FBI agent is murdered the entire DoJ will unify behind getting a conviction.
Today, he's posting and re-posting like a bot including stuff from Q-kooks and 4Chan. So he's pitching to the most insane, extreme, and potentially violent factions he can reach. The new lawyer may have a shorter term of employment than Anthony Scaramucci, "The Mooch." I predict that possibility because the new lawyer is not gonna want to prep a legal defense while TFG is encouraging "Trial by Combat."
Just my opinion, but Miss Lindsey was asked to say what he did. Until TFG gets a promise from DoJ that no criminal charges will be filed, TFG thinks violence against the feds is his best defense. Problem: charges have not been filed so the cult is waiting either for action by the feds or instructions from Dear Leader. And Dear Leader can't get too specific or too obvious or it will be included in the trial. So he's screaming "Do Something!" as loud as he can, but he can't tell them what.
Garland will probably move slow – and the pressure on TFG is building. That means TFG may declare soon, formally. If he does it before the mid-terms, that will force the GOP candidates to declare fealty or try to establish distance. The election focus changes to TFG, not the economy or gas prices, or the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Of course, the RNC may hire a hit man to eliminate the problem before he declares his candidacy.
RNC GOP wants Trump gone, but only if they can blame Democrats for it. IMO, they are fine with the way things have been going recently, because they can claim that all the judicial forces bearing down on Trump are acting as puppets for Biden & Dems. GOP can actually afford to lose the midterms (their Federalist Society hacks on Supreme & District Courts will block anything which would threaten the profits of their Donors), so they're playing the long game while Democrats continue to approach every election as The Most Important In History.
By 2024, Trump will be irrelevant, one way or another; he's lost FOX, and they will redirect the "attention" of his Mob toward other "leaders" (DeSantis, etc). Yes, a dead Trump would be *very* convenient for the RNC GOP; he could no longer cause problems for them, and they could quickly win back the loyalty of his Mob by putting him right up there with Reagan as (ugh) Greatest Presidents Ever.
And yes, they would blame Trump's demise on Democrats; the theories would be silly but effective.
I'm not sure that the RNC GOP is ruthless enough to directly have Trump killed, but if they are, I'd expect a pharmaceutical approach rather than a "Second Amendment Solution".
"Ok, FPOTUS (Failed POTUS) tRUMP, you're telling us you want to be crowned soon?
But if we can't arrange that, you'll wait until we scramble up another election.
Hmm…
Sounds doable.
Maybe after Labor Day.
First, let's get your measurements.
And lucky for you, here, we have the very finest lines of emperor's clothing.
Are you LGBTQ, FPOTUS tRUMP?
No? We didnt't think so.
So, for manly-men like you, we have here what we call our 'straight-jackets!'
Here, let's put one on.
Look! It's a perfect fit!
Ok boys! Bring the gurney! He's all secure. Send him to Hannibal Lecter's old cell in the mental institution. Put in that mouth-guard, and be careful! He's a tricky devil!!!"
Whodathunk someone THIS stupid and ignorant could topple the world's oldest democracy?!?!?
Hmm…
In thinking about this further, maybe tRUMP's trying to get away from any legal repercussions and responsibilities by claiming he's insane.
If tRUMP said he's insane, that might just be the first thing out of his mouth that I'd believe.
Which probably means that I shouldn't believe him, it's a trick!
Because tRUMP's slipperier than an eel in a barrel of olive oil!
I've read that Truth Social is a dismal failure.
I'm thrilled that he's going off the rails, the public mood has shifted, and all of this has the potential to sink a number of maga candidates like a 100 pound boat anchor. Even if the indictments don't happen till next year, the psychological pressure is clearly driving him nuts and he's too stupid to shut up about it.
That laptop is so compromised one would have to resort to eld-english descriptions of the world's oldest profession to describe it, barely.
I'm actually having fun cataloging the hysteria tropes they're pulling out of the nether-spaces dating a hundred years or more. Fergodesssakes, Tucker was going on about Freemasons the other day; the christians killed 'em off two hundred years ago.
The desperation is getting so deep it's starting to stink …
Not sure if you saw it, but TFG posted on his account, "Why are people so mean?"
https://uproxx.com/viral/trump-truth-social-why-are-people-so-mean/
The metaphor of the week award goes to the Gulag:
Many people consider elusiveness as a high-level intellectual skill, and a sure indicator of what might be called 'street smarts'. For sure he deserves idiot savant credit in that ability. An insanity defense is not an option, as this claim requires inability to participate in his own defense. He has shown incredible ability to participate, just that his defense tactics tend to be illegal, immoral, and unethical. He stays out of jail, but one cannot say the same for his lawyers.
Meanwhile, the red state blues continue. The F*POTUS grabs all the headlines while the biggest city in Mississippi goes without useable water. A crisis, decades in the making, the press is calling it. No chance of a blue shift there. When will republicans discover that government has real jobs that need done. They continue to run on the defective government platform. The home of the Blues and Muddy Waters, give their musical artists an ongoing wealth of inspiration. They have more than plenty to be blue about. You can read about it after page three if your newspaper is that big anymore.
An impressive piece of writing. I enjoy reading your content, it's very interesting. I will certainly bookmark this site to come back for more valid content. Keep it up.
Wording Vibes
Daily Poems
Tech
Job Seekers
Vagal Reply