Your reading assignment today is by Greg Sargent at The New Republic, Mexican President’s Harsh Takedown of Trump Exposes an Ugly MAGA Scam. Very briefly, Trump is threatening Mexico with a 25 percent tariff on all goods imported from Mexico. This is to “force” Mexico to do something about the migrants and fentanyl from “pouring” into the United States. However, Mexico has already done quite a bit to reduce such border crossings, which is why the apprehensions are way down.

During the campaign, Trump simply pretended none of that was happening. It’s one of MAGA’s biggest deceptions, and his latest scam carries it forward. The very idea that Mexico must be bullied with tariffs into cracking down on migrants is designed to imply that it’s doing nothing right now—it’s taking advantage of us, Trump might say—and only his fearsome threats can force it into submission. …

… All this paves the way for larger deceptions later. Bank on it: The moment Trump takes office, the lower apprehension numbers will magically become real metrics. Fox News will start trumpeting them, and Trump will start claiming the border has achieved pacification due to his strength. Indeed, Trump very well may credit his current threat of tariffs with “forcing” Mexico to make the lower numbers of border crossings a reality.

Trump’s greatest talent, other than self-promotion, is his skill at taking credit for other people’s work. Media let him get away with it, of course. Do read the whole Greg Sarget piece.

Along those lines, see Trump team says Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal brokered by Biden is actually Trump’s win.

You probably heard that Jack Smith requested the J6 and documents cases be dismissed. Barbara McQuade says,

In fact, this move could be an effort to keep the cases alive in the long term. An interesting tell in each motion is Smith’s request to dismiss the cases “without prejudice.” That means that the cases can be filed again. By dismissing the cases now on his own terms, Smith blocks Trump’s attorney general from dismissing the cases for all time.

In addition, by filing his motions pre-emptively, Smith was able to explain his reasons for dismissing the case, rather than allowing Trump’s future AG to mischaracterize them. According to Smith, he was dismissing the case not because of the merits or strength of the cases, but because he had to. As Smith explains, the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel, whose opinions are “binding” on the special counsel, has concluded that a sitting president may not be indicted or criminally prosecuted under the Constitution. OLC reasoned that criminal charges would make it impossible for a president to carry out his constitutional duties in light of the distraction of preparing a criminal defense, the public stigma that would hamper his leadership role and the obstacles prison would impose on his ability to perform his duties.

But Smith was careful to note that this relief from criminal prosecution is “temporary,” and ends when the president leaves office. Smith cites OLC as concluding that this form of immunity for a sitting president “would generally result in the delay, but not the forbearance, of any criminal trial” That is, Trump gets a reprieve, but only during his term in office.

Trump will be lucky if he’s still alive in four years, considering he must be a massive cardio-vascular event waiting to happen.

In transition news, see Trump team signs some, but not all, critical transition documents. In brief, Trump is keeping the sources for his transition funding secret — we know Trump isn’t paying for this out of his own pocket — and also is refusing to request FBI checks of appointees. Trump wants the background checks to wait until he’s inaugurated, so he can control them, apparently.

Try to have a happy Thanksgiving, and put the catastrophe out of your mind for a bit. It’s going to be a long four years.