Hitting the Trifecta
Normally, one would think that when early voting has started in a Mid-Term election, a president would tout his party's great successes to get the people enthused to vote. But when your top success was called the "Big Beautiful Bill" and it's turned out so unpopular that you've stopped calling it that -- and when your party's leader has a 30% approval -- and when that leader has dementia, which is degenerative, and is a malignant narcissist, what you tend to end up going with instead are stories so horrible that they can be explained how horrible they are just by the headline alone.
I thought I sort of might have been going out on a limb last week when I suggested this was happening almost every day with Trump. But to his credit, he keeps proving me right. And just yesterday, we added a triple play. That's when the three headlines read -- "Trump has 430 trees cut down defying judge's order," "Trump DHS investigators raid home of Trump Democratic rival in Congress," and "Trump DOJ sues TV news pool for refusing White House coverage after being banned from White House".
It's near impossible to read the headline of just one of the stories and not instantly see it as Trump abusing the legal system. Now triple that.
It's hard to decide which abuse story is more blatant and is worse for Trump. The defiance of a judge's order to cut down 430 trees (now, actually, raising the number to 519) is the easiest of the easy-to-grasp "Oh, my god! He what??" abuse stories. Though it doesn't rise to the same level of legal attack as the others. Still, though, it produced the most blunt, scathing, enraged comments by the federal judge. She was brutal to the DOJ attorneys, and deservedly so. “I was hearing from everyone on plaintiffs’ side this was going to happen," she lectured them, "I said repeatedly, ‘No, I trust the government.’ I trusted you all not to do precisely what you have done.” And then added, “What has happened has cost the government all of its credibility," and added that the government’s actions were “inexcusable.” But my favorite of reactions from U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes came after she asked, viscerally livid, “In what universe did you think this was acceptable?,” and the DOJ lawyer replied, “We did our best.” To which the judge came back with, “No, you did not do your best. You did your absolute worst.”
The headline story on the DHS raid of Rep. Ilham Omar, though, is not only easy to grasp from the headline alone, but pathetic on many levels, . Among them -- MAGOPs in Congress have been ranting about Jack Smith's DOJ investigation of Trump when the Special Prosecutor had warrants for phone records of members of Congress who spoke with Trump during the Insurrection. He didn't get wiretaps, but only the phone numbers of calls. And the MAGOPs in Congress went ballistic over that, and want Jack Smith prosecuted for his completely legal, normal action. But they're all fine with a fellow member of Congress having her home raided. And secondly, the whole reason it was raided is because they're looking for documents they think her father might have signed that may have been illegal when she was seven years old. Additionally, Trump has been ranting regularly against Rep. Omar for 10 years, largely (as far as people can tell because she's a liberal black woman from Somalia. And just the other day, DHS Secretary Mullin also went off against her and how she should be investigated. If this case ever goes to court -- which seems unlikely -- it appears to be a blatantly easy case to have dismissed for illegal targeted prosecution. In fact, one top attorney said that if (in a theoretical case) someone was actually guilty of a crime, but it was shown they were targeted for prosecution, even that case would be illegal for violating the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and be dismissed. And further -- the DOJ has a long-standing policy of not involving itself in investigations that deal with political campaigns within 60 days of an election, and this is just 22 days before the Mid-Terms, which also helps support the "targeted" prosecution charge. So, on so many levels, this story is just monumentally stupid and just as easy to see how monumentally stupid it is merely by the "weaponizing the government to attack Trump's opponents" headline alone.
SIDE NOTE: And all this above is without noting, as a mere bonus, that when questions were raised about Melania Trump's immigration status, Trump announced she would have a press conference on it "in two weeks" (tm) -- which was during the 2016 campaign, ten years ago. Still waiting...
But I think the suing the news pool story is the the more insanely stupid and egregious, just by the headline. First of all, and most importantly, because it deals with the First Amendment and freedom of the press and is a clear, blistering attack on the news media. It's the kind of attack that you would expect to see, as one analyst said -- before pausing and then adding -- "in Russia." And second, this story leaps out for its almost comic lunacy. Consider:
Trump hates the press. He's called the press the "Enemy of the People." He regularly slams reporters (almost exclusively women reporters) as stupid and fake to their faces. He banned three major news sources -- two of them TV networks, all part of the joint White House press pool -- from White House access. And yet he now has his DOJ suing the White House press pool because they stood by their banned associates for whom they have a mutually agreed-upon commitment to work together with as part of the joint news pool and therefore didn't cover Trump when there were a couple of major news events.
Yes, really. People in the White House press pool who he hates and calls fake and says are the Enemy, who he literally banned from covering him at the White House, Trump is suing for the White House press pool not covering him. It is a suit that will go nowhere. But (like the Ilhan Omar raid) he likely hopes it will distract and please his base.
The problem with this "thinking" is that when you have a mountain of other massive problems, distractions only last a moment until they get inundated by reality, and a base is only pleased until your efforts go nowhere. And then they get upset that you failed to deliver on your promises.
What did Trump think would happen when he banned MS NOW, CNN and Politico?? It's Newton's Third Law of Motion. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. When you ban people from covering you, they won't coverage you how you want. And that's a major problem when you're a malignant narcissist. When you live and breathe on coverage, cameras jammed in your face and microphones, and then take those away, it's like removing heroin from an addict.
And a crazy "weaponizing the government to go after your opponents" story and headline like this is also what you get when you have dementia., which is degenerative.
Having your DOJ sue the press you banned from covering you when they don't cover you is the same crazy story and headline you get when you have your Department of Homeland Security investigators raid the home of a longtime rival in Congress who's from Somalia and you want to believe that maybe her father might possibly have signed papers wrong when she was seven years old. And it's the same crazy story and headline you get when you have DOJ attorneys defy a judge's order and have 430 additional trees cut down from a public golf course.
And it's what you also get when you have no real successes to run on and have a 30% approval. And are desperate. And flailing.And these are three of the stories and easy headline for the past week. Those ones are old news by now. All three were just yesterday! That's quite a parlay. On top of all the others.
And none of this even includes the other easy-to-grasp lunatic headline from today already -- "Trump's ambassador to Greece asked to resign for soliciting a Trump donor to pay her $100,000 credit card bill." And it wasn't even 10 AM yet. Nor another recent headline on Pete Hegseth announcing a firing squad execution to be live-streamed. Nor Trump's War in Iran he can't end. And the skyrocketing gas prices. And high consumer prices. And the Epstein files. And shooting more people on city streets in your DHS deportation efforts. And...
And it will continue. Watch this space. Or any space.
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