Our Biggest Problem

Hannity: What is your closing message to the people of New Hampshire?

Trump: … You take immunity from the president, so important, you will have a president that's not going to be able to do anything. pic.twitter.com/oMbBudzlFu

— Acyn (@Acyn) January 19, 2024

Does he think that will be on the ballot? (Do you think he’s scared shitless? I sure do.)

Only time will tell whether the former president or the the courts of the United States will win the president's defiant standoff against America's Democracy, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law.

Thus far, he obviously believes he is winning.

— @judgeluttig (@judgeluttig) January 19, 2024

Oh, dearie my! And I think Trump believes he’s winning because he’s constitutionally (!) incapable of believing anything else. Or, the shorter version: show me the evidence!

Hah! Got you there!

But do go on!

In the months ahead, the courts of the United States will be tested up to, and beyond, the breaking point, like they have never been tested in history and will never be tested again.

— @judgeluttig (@judgeluttig) January 19, 2024

by systematically delegitimizing the federal and state systems of justice and, along with them, the federal and state courts that administer those systems of justice, so that their judgments will neither be respected nor accepted by the American People.

— @judgeluttig (@judgeluttig) January 19, 2024

Is it me? Am I just a dewy-eyed optimist because I’m a liberal? Or do I have a foolish faith in people because family law and parish ministry showed me nothing but the best of my fellow humans? But all this hugger-muggery about the doom of the Republic and the demise of the court system because of a narcissistic fool is just a bit rich.

Or is it just rich people finding out the serfs and peasants are not happily beating their feet in the Mississippi mud? Somehow it sounds like that: as if the privileged have found out the staff are not happy, and now they’re fearful for the state of the family silver. Because Billy Be Damned Bangtry, the idea that a charlatan and con man who has run his last grift and will soon be broke and run out of marks to con for his grift even as the lawyers demand to be paid and the judges make the bills come due and, frankly, the music stops.

Funny thing, it doesn’t matter if the American people accept or respect the judgment of the court. Exhibit A: O. J. Simpson. And yet we all survived.

Even in the short run, people actually do accept court judgments. Even those as odious and unacceptable as Dobbs or Hobby Lobby, or for that matter Bush v Gore. None of which inspired the violence and animosity of Brown v Board. Which violence and animosity Judge Luttig and I both experienced, firsthand, and at the same time in the same place.

And yet here we are.

Oh, well: despair sells, doesn’t it?

"Through his defiant and disruptive actions in court, former President Trump may have succeeded in playing to his rabid, aggrieved base, but Day 2 was a disaster for him as a defendant," writes Palm Beach State Attorney @aronberg. https://t.co/J4YXdufMol

— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) January 18, 2024

I’m pretty sure the jury is going to accept that, as the first jury did. And the rest of us will, too, because Trump isn’t really that persuasive, and the judicial system really isn’t that weak.

Or am I just tired of hand-wringing? I’ve been with people with real problems. And Trump’s are all of his own making. No one’s really going to follow where he’s trying to lead because of that simple fact.

This is the grieving-over-my-mother-in-law version of Trump ⤵️ https://t.co/dfisHUZTBk

— Katie Phang (@KatiePhang) January 18, 2024

The majority of Americans are ready to champion this man to the end of all things?

Attended the E Jean Carroll trial today: the Trump defense appears to be Carroll is to blame, since by going public with the sexual assault claim, Trump had to defame her and her reputation suffered only because of her decision to report the assault.
Trump defense=war on women

— Andrew Weissmann (weissmann11 on Threads)🌻 (@AWeissmann_) January 18, 2024

This will certainly win friends and influence people. Maybe you prefer details. Consider this:

Instead, he focused on minor, inadvertent “labeling errors” in carrying over data from her initial expert report to her supplemental analysis; he also questioned whether Humphreys considered that Carroll was not damaged because she has made more money since Trump defamed her. 3/

— Lisa Rubin (@lawofruby) January 18, 2024

And just like Kanye’s jumping on the MTV Music Awards stage is hardly what made Taylor famous, nor can Trump credibly claim responsibility for Carroll’s success in life. She was 76 when she came forward with her story of having been sexually assaulted by him in the ‘90s. 5/

— Lisa Rubin (@lawofruby) January 18, 2024

And nonetheless, Trump’s two-pronged defense (at least in court) is 1) “I made you famous,” and you’re richer, more widely read, and better known than before I put your name in my mouth; 7/

— Lisa Rubin (@lawofruby) January 18, 2024

Pay attention. This is what you really need to know:

If you’re enraged by the dual “I own your success & you’re to blame for your injuries” approach, you’re not alone. So take comfort that when asked for examples of successful reputation repair campaigns like the one Carroll’s expert modeled for this case, she listed a few. 9/

— Lisa Rubin (@lawofruby) January 18, 2024

Her examples? Martha Stewart (remember her incarceration for insider trading?); Hugh Grant; Justin Bieber, and…Taylor Swift.

Trump’s argument to every challenge is “I did nothing wrong and you should pay me just for thinking I did.” If that’s a threat to the systems of government under which we all live and work, then Trump is not our biggest problem.