New: Trump has told advisers and associates that he’s prepared to escalate attacks against the Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg now that he’s been formally charged — and remarked in a private moment that it’s time to politically “fuck em up”. @Guardian https://t.co/7n53MiLFBW
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) April 2, 2023
Not a legal defense. But it is likely to get him in trouble with the judge. Word is Trump wants to hold a press conference after the arraignment. That probably won’t sit well with the court, either.But the latest charged rhetoric reflects Trump’s determination to double down on those attacks as he returns to his time-tested playbook of brawling with prosecutors, especially when faced with legal trouble that he knows he cannot avoid. https://t.co/7n53MiLFBW
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) April 2, 2023
Also not a legal defense. And he can’t complain about pre-trial publicity, since he’s the one seeking it.The completely deranged Former President of the United States just reposted this: pic.twitter.com/jRpIGqPTuY
— Spiro’s Ghost (@AntiToxicPeople) April 2, 2023
Depends, of course, on what Bragg’s case is. Still have to wait and see.Bragg’s case is strong!
— Norm Eisen (@NormEisen) April 3, 2023
Now at 8pm ET I’ll join @cnn @Acosta @JohnWDean to explain why https://t.co/BiUcSpukT9
He will perpetually be his own worst enemy.Key evidence against Trump at a J6 criminal trial will be his support now of convicted J6 insurrectionists. Shows his complete alignment with their violent mission, with no daylight then or now.
— Andrew Weissmann 🌻 (@AWeissmann_) April 3, 2023
Perpetually.“…based on witness statements, security camera footage, and other documentary evidence, that boxes including classified material were moved from a Mar-a-Lago storage area after the subpoena was served, and that Trump personally examined at least some of those boxes.”
— Katie S. Phang (@KatiePhang) April 2, 2023
Self-owned.Emails and texts of “Molly Michael, an assistant to Trump who followed him from the White House to Florida before she eventually left that job last year, have provided investigators with a detailed understanding of the day-to-day activity at Mar-a-Lago at critical moments.”
— Katie S. Phang (@KatiePhang) April 2, 2023
For my weekly blog post: There is a method to the madness (as well as actual madness).https://t.co/ZxRgB8nQ7q
— Teri Kanefield (@Teri_Kanefield) April 2, 2023
This week's Blog Post understatement: "Trump does not appear to be preparing a normal defense"
If you’ve seen any of Trump’s recent rants, you know that they are unhinged and dangerous. If he keeps it up, he might end up with a gag order or even pretrial detention.
In other words, Trump does not appear to be preparing a normal defense, which is no surprise. Instead, his aim seems to be to create as much chaos as possible with the goal of tearing the country apart.You had me until the insane, internet level, hyperbole. Trump doesn’t aim to tear the country apart. He can’t think that big (and this isn’t a comic book story). He just thinks throwing tantrums is a winning strategy. Tell me again how many cases he’s won since November, 2020. Or how he’s actually torn the country apart since then. Oh I know tout le internet says he’s going to. When is that finally going to happen?
Those embracing the paranoid style of politics believe that unseen satanic forces are trying to destroy something larger in which they belong. According to Hofstadter, the “something larger” to which they belong is generally phrased as the American way of life. They feel dispossessed and that America has been largely taken away from them and their kind.
They are “determined to repossess it and prevent the final act of subversion.” They, therefore, adopt extreme measures. They will stop at nothing to prevent what they see as an impending calamity.Yeah, that sounds familiar.
As we are entering the indictment phase, which will move Trump back into the spotlight, the more reactionary Republican leaders will rally around Trump because they are reactionaries, and they see the indictment as another salvo in a cultural war that is eroding their own power.
Meanwhile, as Trump finds himself adjusting to the reality of being a criminal defendant, he will try to bait his critics into helping him attack the “system” that he wants to dismantle.
His goal will be to create chaos, keep people spinning, and get everyone fighting. The solution is not to take the bait.Sound advice; but the danger is badly overstated. At the beginning of this essay we find this:
His method is to (1) Fire up his supporters and (2) bait his critics into helping him destroy rule of law.Well, yes, that’s what Trump wants to do. But that second goal is as far beyond Trump’s reach as it is beyond his harshest critics. Indeed, it’s the rule of law he’s up against now, and it doesn’t give a wet snap for his attacks, or for the impatience of his critics. Nor will the impatience of a handful of internet cranks (a tiny subset of a tiny subset of the populace) toss the rule of law from its place.
The threat is real. Trump is dangerous. Right-wing extremists are dangerous. However, the way to combat authoritarianism is not with more authoritarianism.The threat is only as real as a majority of the people take Trump seriously. And they have taken him seriously enough to turn him out of office and to not protest en masse (the anti-war movement or civil rights movement of the ‘60’s; BLM and the George Floyd protests are counter-examples). There probably won’t even be a sizable crowd in Manhattan on Tuesday. The majority of Americans are either happy with Trump’s predicament, or indifferent to it. There aren’t enough angry people on the internet to spring Trump from jail, or to tear the rule of law and put him there instanter.
People keep making Hitler in the bunker comparisons, but right now we're at the Battle of the Bulge stage, where he's paranoid but also still has delusions of grandeur and thinks if he uses the same tactics that worked in the past, he can throw us back onto our heels.
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