Donald Trump: Classic or Dud?

Poor Trump, despised by his own wife every person with a shred of respect for the truth or compassion for the victims of his numerous crimes, his ceaseless bullying, and his vindictiveness**.

**It is unclear where Melania might fit into these categories.

i know people here hated when we talked about this but one thing that was definitely very funny was how clearly Melania despised him. she's an awful person too but still

I just hated the memes (which idk if they ever appeared here) that said shit like "Blink twice if you need help, Melania", because 'spousal abuse is funny'.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/19/politics/bedminster-mar-a-lago-donald-trump/index.html

Happily, "north" = Bedminster, New Jersey.

He's made his Bedminster. Now let him shit in it.

Obama’s strongest remark, Dovere reports, was prompted by reports that Trump was speaking to foreign leaders – including Vladimir Putin, amid the investigation of Russian election interference and links between Trump and Moscow – without any aides on the call.

“‘That corrupt motherfucker,’ he remarked.”

On the other hand

Bull FUCKING SHIT YES BIDEN IS GOING TO RAISE TAXES !!!!
HE SAID SO HIMSELF AND THE FUCKING MEDIA IN THIS NATION MUST STOP PROTECTING THAT CORRUPT MOTHERFUCKER JOE BIDEN!!!!!!

— Noelle (@noelle20102) October 21, 2020

So how long do you think until some real violence breaks out? It's kinda obvious a good portion of the Red Hatters are doubling down on the crazy.

I sadly think it is probably inevitable.

So how long do you think until some real violence breaks out?

Are you including violent diarrhea? Because we're talking Trump here.

didn't violence already break out?

I seem to recall some.

I was going to say. Violence been breaking out since May 1865.

Regardless of what exactly will or won't happen to him, this story is the best one I've seen tying a variety of threads together so far. A couple of key parts:

The New York attorney general’s office has been criminally investigating the chief financial officer of former President Donald J. Trump’s company for months over tax issues, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The office of the attorney general, Letitia James, notified the Trump Organization in a January letter that it had opened a criminal investigation related to the chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, the people said. The investigators have examined whether taxes were paid on fringe benefits that Mr. Trump gave him, including cars and tens of thousands of dollars in private school tuition for at least one of Mr. Weisselberg’s grandchildren.

...

Rather than risk bumping into each other, the two investigative offices recently began collaborating, another person with knowledge of the matter said. Two assistant attorneys general from Ms. James’s office have joined the district attorney’s team, which has been seeking to turn Mr. Weisselberg into a cooperating witness against Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization, people with knowledge of that effort said.

...

Mr. Trump has been described by advisers as agitated by the two investigations. After moving last week from his private Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, to another of his clubs in New Jersey, he then decamped to Trump Tower for his first extended stay in years, spending time at the office where aides have been grappling with the inquiries for many months.

More smoke/mirrors than anything else, who knows. But if you combine it with the continual drip of stuff that Weisselberg's former daughter-in-law keeps happily sharing, the latest today:

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/manhattan/ny-trump-ag-james-nyc-manhattan-da-vance-criminal-probe-20210519-u3iuor4axrf3tadfvy6lgtunoe-story.html

Then sure looks like something.

taxes on fringe benefits? maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan

Couldn’t they have phrased that headline slightly differently?

the continual drip of stuff

I have been following a “continual drip” of Trump legal rumors for five years. First Mueller, then other things—it always feels like a tease.

The wheels of justice move slow.

looking forward to the “Trump is becoming increasingly agitated” takes in the next few years

Weisselberg honestly seems like someone Trump has more interest in/concern about than his own family.

xp "he's been screaming at people and acting like an asshole all day... he must be agitated about those NY investigations!"

Every day in Apple News there is a new story from Vanity Fair about how Trump is THIS close to getting arrested. It’s the new “increasingly isolated.”

All the arrests to him and his family be imminent, until he magically runs for president again and regains immunity, not via the law but some longstanding tradition among law enforcement to never arrest obviously guilty politicians

Again, the “I could shoot someone on 5th Avenue!” bit was indicative of something more real than we all thought at the time. I’m guessing that emerged from a conversation he had with his own lawyers beforehand. They probably informed him that as president he would have insane legal immunity to all sorts of things. He probably said “you mean I could shoot someone?” and they all laughed, and one of his dumb sons added “even on 5th Avenue!” and they all laughed, and then a couple days later trump was on the third hour of ad libbing at a campaign stop and he said it, and they all laughed

"he's been screaming at people and acting like an asshole all day... he must be agitated about those NY investigations!"

― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Thursday, May 20, 2021 9:32 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Exactly the type of fantasy dot connecting people were desperately making during the last 5 years that inspired all of the subsequent resistanceporn fanfiction by twitter handles that were probably just trying to attract followers by pretending they had special insight.

Every day in Apple News there is a new story from Vanity Fair about how Trump is THIS close to getting arrested. It’s the new “increasingly isolated.”

Zeno's Trump paradox?

he could go down for tax fraud, who knows? seems likely he will just spend his life tied up in lawsuits and then fade away.

people just have put so much hope into him getting arrested--for years!

I think it may be less him than 'the business' as such in the end which gets it. But we'll see.

He does rather have a track record of declaring bankruptcy and skating away from consequences, why change tack now?

also, like, how is rudy giuliani still walking around and traveling and shit? isn't he, openly, one of the most corrupt people in the country? how long does it take to fucking nail him on something?

karma police arrest that man. and matt gaetz, same deal. he's not indicted yet? why? i don't call cops, but i would call the cops on gaetz if he lived in my town and i knew he'd done 1/10th of what he very obviously did

i get that our justice system is incredibly slow and a complete failure. maybe it's taking a minute to get the evidence in the right bag, and prepare the correct documents. but also, it's been crystal clear that giuliani is a corrupt piece of shit for several decades now. probably safe to begin drafting the legal documentation ahead of time? was anyone shocked that gaetz will do whatever it takes to sleep with teenagers?

With cable shows about sugar daddies, feel like Gaetz is benefitting from desensitization.

I get that expectations and standards have been wholly lowered by this point, but it does kind of astound me that a sitting member of Congress is accused of paying for sex with a minor via an app and it's still a comparatively niche news story.

then he went on the America First! tour with MTG, and everyone cheered for them

all comes back to Trump himself, doesn't it? Gaetz is a sexpest but no moreso than Trump is. MTG is a fucking lunatic but the stuff she says is no dumber than what Trump says on a daily basis. Giuliani is corrupt as hell but Don's in a whole other league. Republican voters do not care. so why *not* go on tour?

Trump literally got hundreds of thousands of people killed and incited a goddamn riot at the Capitol and the only thing that happened to him is he got banned from Twitter

And millions of people would happily reelect him.

"Gaetz is against cancelling Xmas, and I'm against cancelling Xmas, so therefore..." etc.

Republican voters do not care.

This understates the situation. It's not "I've heard the accusations and I don't care."

It's "I wear the scorn of the woke libs as a badge of honor. The baseless accusations of the FAKE NEWS lamestream media just solidify my support for these patriot warriors for MAGAtruth!!!!"

Simply "not caring" would be indifference. This lunacy is reactive, and it is a feedback loop. The more Gaetz and MTG get vilified by the liberal media elite, the more their fans double down and increase in fervency.

or what Andy the Grasshopper said

I'd argue that's it's just as likely that they have not heard any such accusations as the media they follow shields them from anything negative about their team above and beyond anything else

Exactly. It makes no difference that Biden spoke not word one about taking away anybody's hamburgers; to be on the side of hamburgers is to protect our values against rampant pedo-socialism, so count me in!!

Remember when Obama was gonna take all the guns?

Good times, good times.

A little more on that business side of things. Some details in here (such as more on disclosure when asking for loans) I wasn't aware of.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/05/20/whats-behind-the-new-york-attorney-generals-criminal-probe-of-the-trump-organization-489866

*taps “ah well nevertheless” tweet*

Grand jury convened in Trump criminal probe to hear evidence, weigh potential charges https://t.co/MXL5g6R59e

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 25, 2021

the grand jury is for the next 6 months, if i remember correctly from reading that this morning. shortly after that, he'll announce he's running for president in 2024, he'll be the frontrunner, and the investigations will halt because it's unprecedented

that makes him smart

lol that is absolutely what will happen.

In a statement issued through his leadership political action committee Save America, Trump hammered Ryan as a “RINO” — Republican in name only

From wikipedia: "Trump registered as a Republican in Manhattan in 1987 and since that time has changed his party affiliation five times. In 1999, Trump changed his party affiliation to the Independence Party of New York. In August 2001, Trump changed his party affiliation to Democratic. In September 2009, Trump changed his party affiliation back to the Republican Party. In December 2011, Trump changed to "no party affiliation" (independent). In April 2012, Trump again returned to the Republican Party..."