Saith the king “To Me!” cried Donald Trump, brandishing stacks of news clipping during his Manhattan criminal trial. His Republican supplicants rushed to their king dressed like him. It is supreme irony how readily MAGA Republicans abandon their own heritage of freedom, of democratic self-rule, of the fundamentals of law dating from the Magna Carta, British common law, and William Blackstone. They’ve replaced it all with the Law of Trump. Their patriotism, like Trump’s business prowess, is a sham, disposable if power is on the line. And commitment to the principle of equal justice under law? As the expression goes: For my friends, everything, for my enemies, the law. Half a dozen of his businesses have gone bankrupt, including casinos. Trump’s charitable foundation was a sham, dismantled, and its assets distributed to genuine charites. Trump University was judged a fraud, sued and shuttered. The Trump Organization is banned from doing business in the state of New York. Trump has been civilly judged for sexual assault. Last week, Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of business fraud.
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It’s still in peril The contrasts during Thursday’s 80th D-Day remembance in Normandy could hardly have been more stark. The choices ahead for the U.S., NATO and Europe were there in subtext even when not all but obvious. Stephen Collinson comments for CNN: President Joe Biden is in Europe, warning of totalitarian evil and the dangers to democracy. Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump is back home, seeking a favor from Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, mulling revenge and trashing US elections. The former president is making his 2024 opponent’s case — that the West is being challenged by unprecedented threats to the rule of law from hostile forces outside and in. But Trump’s strength also suggests that the centerpiece of Biden’s trip — an homage on Friday in Normandy to one of former President Ronald Reagan’s greatest speeches — may fall on many deaf ears back in America. The former president is showing in every speech and public appearance that the seduction of demagoguery, the demonization of outsiders and the language of extremism is as potent now as it was before World War II.
Public opinion polls about the current presidential race are mystifying in a lot of ways. How can it be that the twice impeached, convicted felon Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party again? As inexplicable as it is to many of us I think after eight years we have to just accept the fact that almost half the country is beguiled by the man while the other half looks on in abject horror. and carry on from there. But as much as we may be dismayed by this adoration and fealty to Trump the man, it’s still maddening that so many voters, even including Democrats, insist that everything was so much better when Donald Trump was president. By almost any measure it was an epic shit show and I can’t believe that people have forgotten what it was really like. One obvious explanation is that he lies relentlessly about his record and after a while people start to believe him. According to him we had unprecedented prosperity, the greatest foreign policy, the safest, the cleanest, the most peaceful world in human history and it immediately turned into a toxic dystopia upon his departure. The reality was far different.
Oh my dear God. The greatest whiner in the history of the world, an epic sore loser who never, ever stops complaining about how unfaaaaair everyone and everything is to him has a thick skin? His FNBR is extremely serious:
Convicted criminal Donald Trump wanted to jail his predecessor It’s important that people understand just what crock this new line about Trump never calling for the prosecution of his political enemies is. He’s a liar, of course. But there’s more to this than just Trump’s usual mendacity, which Aaron Rupar ably covers in this free article from his newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. It’s tough to remember now as Donald Trump regularly wails about the need for total presidential immunity, but four years ago, the then-president was a huge proponent of prosecuting presidents. In the spring and summer of 2020, Trump desperately tried to make a big scandal out of “Obamagate” — the idea that President Obama had done, uh, something or other worthy of serious investigation and possible prosecution. (Trump at one point called the non-scandal the “biggest political crime in American history, by far!”) We won’t get too into the details, because Trump certainly didn’t.
When Trump shows you who he is…. Steve Benen examines Donald Trump’s recent campaign rhetoric about imprisoning political opponents: Last year, as his legal crises intensified, Donald Trump grew explicit about his intentions to retaliate against his perceived foes with politically motivated criminal cases. In September 2023, for example, the former president suggested he’d have “no choice” but to prosecute his political opponents in a possible second term. The Republican added soon after that when prosecutors took steps to hold him accountable for his crimes, “what they’ve done is they’ve released the genie out of the box.” (I assume he meant “bottle.”) This came on the heels of Trump vowing to appoint a “real” special prosecutor to go after President Joe Biden and his family. That’s all Trump means by “Great Again.” Be cruel and criminal enough that no one will dare cross him. That’s it. Sell ’em snake oil. Deliver retribution. Commit more crimes as president for his own sick pleasure and for MAGA’s entertainment.
Let’s hope not. It never works out very well Tomorrow marks the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landing at Normandy France, where approximately 160,000 Allied troops successfully pulled off the largest invasion by sea in history. From that point on America was in charge of allied forces and it was the beginning of the end of the war. When you travel to that battlefield and visit other WWII memorials and cemeteries in Europe you will see what great care is taken to ensure the memories of those sacrifices are honored with daily maintenance and respect. This is likely to be the last big D-Day celebration featuring WWII veterans who are almost all centenarians at this point. Some are travelling to the ceremonies and will be honored by all the dignitaries in attendance which will include President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and King Charles II of Britain among others. Russian President Vladimir Putin was not invited due to the invasion of Ukraine which is somewhat ironic since back in 1944 the Soviet Union was one of the allied countries fighting Germany.
He then said “Some people said I should have done it. Would have been very easy to do it. But I thought it would be a terrible precedent for our country.” Philip Bump responds: This is nonsense. Trump’s administration did attempt to effect legal retribution against his opponents, including Clinton. It wasn’t that he didn’t try, it was that it wasn’t “very easy” to do. Trump came into office railing against the intelligence community and the FBI because of the investigation into Russian interference that was publicly reported soon after he won the 2016 election. He fired FBI Director James B. Comey in an explicit effort to kneecap that probe, resulting in the appointment of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Mueller ultimately determined that there were links between Trump’s campaign and Russian actors, and that the campaign embraced Russia’s assistance, but that there was no coordination that violated the law.
Sadly, yes… Republicans used to call themselves the moral majority. Last week, Donald Trump was convicted on 34 felony charges in the hush-money case against him. Compared to before the verdict, the biggest changes we found in a post-conviction poll conducted between May 31 and June 2 are in Republicans’ positions on felony, crime in general, and the presidency. They have shifted in a way that puts the verdict in a more favorable light and keeps Trump’s candidacy viable. For example, fewer Republicans think it should be illegal to pay hush money for the purposes of influencing an election than did a year ago, and more now say felons should be allowed to become president than did a few months ago. Sigh…
We are so much better off