Trump’s stupid, insulting rant at the judge who will be sentencing him in a few days may not have been the dumbest thing Trump said this week. Possibly even dumber was something he said at his Fox News “town hall” Wednesday night that is getting less attention. But you can read about it at The New Republic. Tori Otten writes,
Donald Trump says it’s OK that he got paid by foreign governments while he was president because he was “doing services” for them.
Trump participated in a Fox News town hall Wednesday night instead of the Republican primary debate. At one point, he was asked about a recent congressional report that found he made almost $8 million from nearly two dozen foreign governments during his first two years in office.
“You know, it sounds like a lot of money. That’s small,” he said.
He then said that it was fine he had received so much money because it was payment for accommodation at his various clubs and hotels.
“I was doing services for them,” Trump explained. “People were staying in these massive hotels, these beautiful hotels.”
“I don’t get $8 million for doing nothing.”
The Constitution, of course, says that presidents may receive nothing from foreign governments or monarchs for any reason, without the consent of Congress. Trump never asked for permission. And he clearly doesn’t grasp the principle behind the clause.
But back to yesterday’s courtroom outburst, which I’m sure you heard. This might have made sense if it were a jury trial, but it ain’t. This was real stupid. If I were Judge Engoron I’d be considering how much of a lesson Trump needs to be taught.
But of course the Stupid of the Week, possibly a Stupid for the Ages, was the immunity argument offered to a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this week. The lawyer in this case, D. John Sauer, is probably not stupid. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. He got his law degree from Harvard. This suggests he has a brain in his head, somewhere. But then he also served as Solicitor General of Missouri and Deputy Attorney General for Special Litigation in Missouri, I have long suspected there are microbes in the water in Jefferson City that eats people’s brains. I can’t say I remember Sauer from when I was living there, but the state is so infested with political wack-a-doos you need toads flying out of your ears to be noticable.
But assuming Sauer is not stupid, one suspects that the argument he offered to the D.C. Circuit was Trump’s idea, and Sauer by now has realized there is no arguing with Trump. Sauer must expect some serious money from this gig to so seriously fry his reputation as a lawyer. At least the episode has generated some amusing memes.
Earlier this week George Conway wrote for the Atlantic that Sauer had walked into a trap. I suspect Sauer knew the problems with the argument all along. His choices were to talk into the “trap” or resign as Trump’s lawyer. The only one who didn’t see the trap was Trump, and it appears he still doesn’t see it.
REPORTER: Do you agree with your lawyers that you could not be prosecuted if you ordered Seal Team 6 to kill a political opponent?
TRUMP: A president has to have immunity pic.twitter.com/ntLHSCDBF8
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 11, 2024
Of course, we’re talking about a grown man who thinks magnets don’t work if they get wet.
Trump wouldn’t be the first person who cannot understand the difference between “breaking the law” and “enacting policies I don’t like.” But he should have learned the theme song from the old Baretta teelevision show — don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.
Trump and his followers really believe that they should be able to kill. His grandiose ego has never been held to account for anything, and so this belief is completely sincere. He also believes this is a winning strategy, that court rulings are only temporary set backs.
You have to look to history for guidance on the Emoluments Clause that prohibits receiving gifts from foreign governments and/or monarchs. When Thomas Jefferson was returning from sevice as Ambassador to France, before he ran for president he received a gift of a jewel-studded snuff box. So it was a small (in size) but valuable gift that Jefferson wanted to keep. He asked for permission from Congress.
Re Trump's reaction that it's such a small amount to a person as rich as he but I'm gonna keep the money says it all. Trump expects that visitors who want an audience with his royal flatulence should bring a bribe. But to shut up the liberal vermin, pay it by spending lavishly at my property. There's a quote from Trump about how he likes the Saudis because they buy his properties. That's the definition of why the founders wrote the Emoluments Clause in the first place.
The entire GOP seems to have coalesced around the idea that law and order has very little to do with the crime and everything to do with how connected you are. Trump's defense(s) in various legal problems is to claim that "they" are dirty. "They" refers to anyone who will hold Trump accountable, prosecutors, the judge, court staff, and witnesses. There's an unspoken, "too." at the end of the accusation: "They're doing it too!" Which is almost an admission of guilt for the crime coupled with the defense that others have done it (or worse) and gotten away with it so you can't hold me to account. There isn't a legal defense that other people got away with it so I can. The question is whether what you did was a crime.
There's some "scandal" about the GA prosecutor and potentially some improper relationship she allegedly had with somebody in the prosecutor's office who may have been hired improperly. Yada, yada, yada. I suspect it's 99.9% fiction but at this time, I don't care. If the prosecutor in GA was in an improper relationship with a male goat, it does not affect Trump's guilt or innocence one bit. Trump is on trial for what HE did or did not do. The prosecutor has to prove the state's case. THAT'S the issue, not the failures, real or imagined of the prosecutor and/or staff. If it turns out to be true, it's betwen the voters and the elected prosecutor.
I suspect the rumor about the GA prosecutor is fake because a co-conspirator made the accusation. The truth is always a valid defense against libel. But if it's a lie and if you have deep pockets, you can get nicked for 100 million in a libel/slander suit. The rumor would get more traction if Trump made it. But a surrogate did. But I wonder if Trump is inhibited by Rudy going bankrupt. Obviously, there are lines you can't cross without repercussions. E. Jean Carroll will draw blood this week. The DC cops are gonna get a turn at Trump's fortune. (I don't know when.) The judge's clerk in NY has a hell of a case but she may wait until some time in the future (after the appeal) to file against Trump. That's entirely speculation. But Trump may have gotten the word that saying false things about the peasants can be very expensive. I'm not sure that repeating the false thing, rather than issuing it directly will be much of a defense.
If Sauer didn't get his money in advance, he's an idiot. I don't care where he went to school. I suspect Sauer knew the flaws in his argument better than the judges who questioned him. I would guess that Sauer tried to modify the argument to something that has SOME grounds. He sounded a lot like Wil-E-Coyote looks when he skids three feet past the edge of the cliff and reaches around with a toe for some footing in thin air before the descent to a poof of dust.
To have any chance, Sauer had to argue that Trump's actions were within the "outer perimeter" of official acts defined in Nixon v Fitzgerald. But the Fitzgerald decision clearly defined that the president is not immune from illegal acts. Sauer was hired to claim that everything POTUS does is "official" and everything official is legal. Did anyone warn Trump that this argument would go down faster than the Titanic? I suspect that Trump is the victim of his own con, He thinks that any lie spoken with conviction will be believed. And that's true when the audience is cultists. But judges are not part of the cult and they aren't swayed by "forceful" lies
More fireworks next week. Stay tuned and stay stocked in popcorn.
Trump doesn't care about any of that. He's a stochastic terrorist (and I know he doesn't know what that means, but it doesn't matter) and threatening judges, prosecutors and jurors is how things work in the countries he repeatedly, openly and explicitly prefers to this one.
I have been at a number of funerals where the deceased had dementia and in some of them even very close relatives did not recognize the mental deterioration. Trump's followers seem, in general, not to. Even Chris Christi stayed away from pointing out Trump's ever-increasing detachment from reality.
I really don't think Trump understood that the court had already ruled on fraud, and the trial was only considering the amount and extent of penalty. Nothing in Trump's rant showed he was aware enough to aid even a bit in his defense. He, like his followers, seem blind to the obvious. They are fine with repeating his paranoid delusions about what is going on. Never mind evidence, water will suck the magnetic field right out of a magnet in an instant. Bleach will cure the Covid. Trump runs an honest business without fraud. No one is going to tell him his mind has problems. It is perfect, like his phone calls. All the problems are out there.
I still think (and every time I say this, people think I'm making excuses for Trump, so let me say right off the top that I'm not)* he flies into rages and and when he denies having said something a couple of days later it's because he literally doesn't remember what he said.
“I don’t get $8 million for doing nothing.” Yeah, we know. You get $8 million for showing your belly to Putin, Xi, MBS or whoever, and giving them whatever they want, up to and including classified secrets.
*(I've put this clause in comments before and people still scream at me for making excuses for Trump. Eyeroll)
If I were Judge Engoron I’d be considering how much of a lesson Trump needs to be taught.
I don't think Trump is teachable, but if I was in Engoron's shoes I'd slam Trump so hard his effing head would spin. Drive a stake deep into the heart of the Trump organization. Anything less will allow Trump and his spawns to continue on their way without any real penalty. Turn Trump into a pariah!