Shockingly, Suing the Wall Street Journal and Closing Congress Didn't Work

And so it came to pass that just days after Trump sued the Wall Street Journal for defaming his reputation (which I think is the funniest part of the lawsuit – I mean, for god’s sake, he was found guilty of rape!  And said you can grab women by the p*ssy.  And said, under oath at a deposition, that throughout history “it’s been largely true.  Unfortunately” – before adding “…or fortunately”) – the WSJ published a story confirming that Trump’s name is in the unreleased Epstein files.

I hope that Trump still doesn’t think they’re going to back down and settle the lawsuit. 

In fact, what Trump and his lawyers should realize is that what the newspaper published was not just another article about Trump and Epstein with breaking news – no, what the Wall Street Journal published was evidence supporting their case in the lawsuit!!!  And further, the more stories they publish (which I’m sure they will try to do, and succeed), the more evidence they’ll be offering in their defense.

I know that Trump loves to sue and get the other side to settle.  I believe that the only way this case is ends without a trial is if Trump withdraws it. 

And I think he’ll have to.  The problem for him is that that would be such a massive embarrassment.  But how can he not withdraw it?  There is no way he wants to be deposed under oath.  (Or that his lawyers want him to be.)  The only thing I can imagine is that he got so full of himself with CBS and Paramount settling (which in Paramount’s case was only because they want their $8 billion sale to be approved), that Trump was sure-sure-sure- the WSJ will, too.  But if he and his lawyers don’t grasp the point that this second news story shows they are not settling, I can only hope for their sake that they grasp it when the third story is published.

And all that news was bolstered yesterday by CNN tracking down video of Trump and Epstein at a Victoria’s Secret party.  I can almost hear the Wall Street Journal attorney’s words as they approach the bench:  “And we offer Exhibit 43, Your Honor.”

By the way, while I do think Trump will withdraw his lawsuit – because he knows what's in those files and knows what he did – what I don’t know is how his dementia is conflating his eternal certainty that he has never in his life done anything wrong with his awareness of his actions.  And therefore don’t know how long that will extend the lawsuit until he’s finally made to see by his begging lawyers that “You cannot be deposed.”

One can never underestimate Trump’s dementia…

I think Trump often starts off knowing the truth of what he says and doesn’t mind lying about it.  He learned from Joe McCarthy’s alter-ego Roy Cohn, after all.  But because of Trump being a malignant narcissist and having dementia, I’ve gotten the sense that he very often convinces himself of that the lie he knew he told is now true.

Who knows?  I’m not a psychologist.  But that’s how it’s always struck me – based on what I’ve long-read what actual psychologists do say and write about him and his serious cognitive issues.

And so, for at least the time being, we will have to live through the diversions that he and his enabling MAGOPs put forth, largely in hopes that the splinting MAGA base will be distracting by.

But those efforts to divert attention are nonetheless bewildering.  Sending Congress home early?  Do they really think that will stop not just the story, but will stop their conspiratorial base from being angry and feeling used??  If anything, it will feed their outrage, it will look like a cover-up to them.  (Here’s how conspiratorial their base is, which bizarrely Trump and his team haven’t grasped by now – Jeffrey Epstein’s 80-year-old lawyer died yesterday of an illness, and MAGA World is suggesting it’s not a coincidence!!  That’s what Trump and his enablers are dealing with.  So, they think putting the House on vacation is going to “divert”" their attention?  The base still is insistent the 2016 election was rigged.)

So, Mike Johnson sending MAGOP reps back to their home districts for five weeks is probably the last place they want to be.

And some of the distractions have bordered on hilarious – like Trump saying that unless the Washington Commanders changed their nickname back (to what was a racial slur), he wouldn’t approve funding for a new football stadium in D.C.  But on Tuesday, Jen Psaki on MSNBC showed an old Trump tweet from 2013, before he was in office, slamming then-President Obama for commenting on the controversy over football club’s nickname.  Trump had tweeted. “President should not be telling the Washington Redskins to change their name-our country has far bigger problems! FOCUS on them, not nonsense."  As the expression goes about Trump, there’s a tweet for everything.  (Besides, who thinks “Let’s distract by trying to force the team to change it back to a racial slur”???  This is what comes when you’re surrounded by unqualified incompetents whose only skill is “Yes, sir!”)

And then there’s the bizarre distraction of sending the Deputy Attorney General to interview Ghislaine Maxwell in prison for 20 years, trying to overturn her conviction and, no doubt, hoping for a Trump pardon.  Because, sure, “We’re going to get a convicted child trafficker to save us.”  Seriously???

But as for distractions, Trump’s biggest and most ludicrous one of all – not even claiming, but stating unequivocally (against all judicial ethics, without evidence or an indictment) that Barack Obama supposedly is “guilty” of an attempted coup and treason??  Putting aside that – wait, Barack Obama  wasn’t even trying to stay in office after his second term -- this is something that is so insane that it only serves to make the people having to spout it shrink to nothingness.  Yes, of course it’s to distract, but you don’t want to change to focus to your mental decline.  Which brings us back to – you can’t underestimate Trump’s dementia.

Still, though, the unintended hilarity of the effort is that the very first thing I thought is:  thanks to the Supreme Court's presidential immunity decision about Trump – no president (including, of course President Obama) can even be tried for the made-up claims that Trump and his team are making!

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Still, in the end, when you have nothing and can only flail, when the newspaper you’re suing publishes even more damning stories about you, when it’s clear they’re not going to settled, and you’ve painted yourself into a corner, from all your bad, dementia-enhanced decisions – the only thing left is to keep throwing all the ketchup on the wall and hope.