A Few Trumpy Tidbits

In which no one comes off looking good.

Poor Donald

When was the last time you saw a defendant in a high-profile trial appear without the support of any family?  Two weeks into his trial on 34 business fraud charges, he’s entered and exited the state Supreme Court in Manhattan completely alone. Could it be that he doesn’t want to share the spotlight?  Or that they don’t want to share it with him? We’ll likely never know. But things sure are rough when even your wife and kids won’t stand behind you.

Poor Rudy

On Wednesday, an Arizona grand jury indicted 17 Trump associates on charges linked to his campaign’s effort to overturn the 2020 election. Among them were eleven who sent Congress false documents claiming Trump won the state and its Electoral College votes. Included among the other six charged is Rudy Giuliani, who became known as “America’s Mayor” after 9/11 and hitched his wagon to Trump in the 2016 race. Giuliani, whose hopes for the secretary of state position never materialized, nevertheless served as a mastermind of deception and inflammation, which peaked when he urged “trial by combat” just before thousands in the crowd he addressed attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Giuliani  has been indicted on similar charges in Georgia and he recently lost a major civil lawsuit in the same state. In that case two poll workers won a $148 million verdict when they sued over Giuliani’s vocal public claim that they were part of conspiracy to help Biden in his narrow 2020 victory there. Giuliani, who faces five other lawsuits, has declared bankruptcy. It’s worth noting that since the criminal charges he faces have been lodged in state courts, he would not be eligible for a presidential pardon, should Trump regain the White House. In other words, he could end his storied life as a bankrupt felon.    

Poor Bill

Last Thursday, Bill Barr, who served as Trump’s attorney general, the nation’s top law enforcement official, said he would vote for Trump come November. “Trump may be playing Russian roulette,” Barr said, “but a continuation of the Biden administration is national suicide in my opinion.”

What was the former president’s reply?

“Wow! Former A.G. Bill Barr, who let a lot of great people down by not investigating Voter Fraud in our Country, has just Endorsed me for President despite the fact that I called him ‘Weak, Slow Moving, Lethargic, Gutless, and Lazy,’” Trump said online.  ”Based on the fact that I greatly appreciate his wholehearted Endorsement, I am removing the word ‘Lethargic’ from my statement.“

As Trump dissed him politically, Barr dug his own moral hole by revealing in the same interview, that while president Trump mused about executing adversaries and troublemakers. Barr downplayed Trump’s talk, saying he thought it was a matter of “blow[ing] off steam.” This is the man to whom Barr pledged his loyalty. Pathetic.

Secretaries know everything

On Friday, Trump’s longtime secretary/scheduler Rhona Graff testified as a prosecution witness. She said that Trump’s personal contacts list included two women who are at the heart of the trial because Trump paid them to keep silent and then allegedly disguised the payments with fraudulent financial reports. Graff said Trump kept personal contact info for both porn star Stormy Daniels and nude model Karen McDougal. She also recalled Daniels’ visit to Trump’s offices at Trump Tower  

When Graff finished her testimony, and left the stand, Trump tried to shake her hand as she passed. Graff walked on, apparently aware that there’s a place and time to be friendly and that was not it. What did the jurors make of it? My guess is that as she refused to take his hand, she created a decidedly negative vibe for Trump.

Poor Donald (again)

As pundits debate who Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might hurt most come Election Day, Biden or Trump, “the former guy,” as Biden calls him, seems to believe RFK Jr. could damage his chances more. This make sense if you consider that just like Trump, Kennedy is going after voters who hate conventional politicians. Add the famous family name and you’ve got a candidate who should make Trump worry.

On Sunday Trump took to social media muse about whether Kennedy is a “Democrat ‘Plant’” and to declare that RFK is “far more LIBERAL than anyone running as a Democrat.” Among diehard Trumpers “liberal” is a code word for “traitor.”  Will Trump’s warning work among any other voters? I don’t know, but clearly he’s afraid.