Co-blogger Pierre Lemieux writes:
Whatever one thinks of the criminal prosecutions and state “civil” suits against Donald Trump (and there are good reasons to question many aspects of them), they represent the powerful state that he has not disavowed, except perhaps in occasional and incoherent baby talk, as long as he was running it. And there is something special about the way he sells this sort of state, provided he runs it, to his followers. America was in terminal decline before him, in four years he made it great again, it’s not great anymore since the election was stolen from him, but he will quickly make it great again if the election is not rigged.
There are two ways to disavow a powerful state: with words and with actions. I favor the latter. The former is, literally, just talk.
It’s true that Donald Trump didn’t disavow the powerful state with words. And, in many, many ways, he didn’t do it with actions.
But he did do it one important way with non-action.
Recall that in the 2016 campaign, when he would even mention his opponent Hilary Clinton, some of his most zealous supporters would yell, “Lock her up.” I don’t know if Trump said it back, although I wouldn’t be surprised. But those are words.
What did he do to Hilary Clinton after he became President? Nothing. He didn’t appoint a special prosecutor, although he certainly had grounds to do so.
What did his 2020 opponent, Joe Biden, do after he became President? Appointed an Attorney General with an ax to grind, who did appoint a special prosecutor to go after Donald Trump.
Donald Trump is, in so many ways, a person to whom it’s hard to be sympathetic. But Alvin Bragg, Letitia James, Joe Biden, Merrick Garland, and Juan Merchan, to name five, have made me sympathetic to him. They are going so far beyond what is fair and appropriate, in a way that Donald Trump never did.
The pic above is of Judge Juan Merchan.
READER COMMENTS
David Seltzer
Apr 20 2024 at 6:03pm
David: While it’s difficult to be sympathetic to Trump, the ham handed way he’s been treated by James, Biden, et al, they may have trapped themselves into a Trump landslide re-election. That is probably as calamitous as a Biden-Harris re-election. If Trump is re-elected, does he serve as POTUS or use the office to settle scores? I’m betting the latter.
David Henderson
Apr 20 2024 at 6:46pm
I don’t think it will be a landslide. I think Trump will narrowly win the electoral college, with no more than 320 electoral votes. He and Biden will be within 3 percentage points of each other on the popular vote. Don’t dismiss how repulsed so many people are by Trump and by his antics (to put it generously) on January 6, 2021.
Craig
Apr 20 2024 at 7:51pm
I’m not even 100% sure it will be Biden/Trump though right now that seems to be a probability. Ultimately I think it comes down to the economy and right now I would suggest its Biden’s race to lose.
MarkW
Apr 20 2024 at 6:36pm
If Trump is re-elected, does he serve as POTUS or use the office to settle scores? I’m betting the latter.
If Trump is re-elected doesn’t he almost has to use the office to ‘settle scores’ just to be able to truly serve as POTUS — given the (largely successful) efforts of the ‘resistance’ in the permanent bureaucracy to hamstring and undermine him the first time around?
I agree with David. Although, it’s not so much that I sympathize with Trump as that I am appalled at the flagrant (and formerly unthinkable) abuses of power used against him by his political opponents. One way or another Trump will be off the stage in four years. But I fear the damage to American democracy his opponents have done in trying to ‘resist’ him will be plaguing the country for far longer.
Craig
Apr 20 2024 at 7:54pm
“If Trump is re-elected, does he serve as POTUS or use the office to settle scores? I’m betting the latter.”
Both.
“But I fear the damage to American democracy”
Indeed, its not the ‘Era of Good Feelings’
Jose Pablo
Apr 20 2024 at 11:58pm
One way or another Trump will be off the stage in four years.
Don’t bet on that. Not the “I follow the rules” kind of guy. The sooner he leaves American politics the better.
MarkW
Apr 21 2024 at 5:35am
Apart from everything else, Trump will be 82 in 2028 and he’s far from the fittest, healthiest man of his age. He also really has no political philosophy (other than ‘I am THE guy’) and no real political heirs (just opportunists and those cowed into going along).
Scott Sumner
Apr 21 2024 at 1:33am
In my view, the damage to democracy done by Trump’s opponents is utterly trivial compared to the damage already done by Trump himself (and the damage I expect him to do in the future.) I have no sympathy for him, but expect him to get off scot-free and be re-elected.
MarkW
Apr 21 2024 at 5:21am
Putting aside the lawfare shenanigans, the use of censorship-by-proxy to suppress dissenting views and politically damaging information (under the guise of ‘disinformation’ — right out of the autocrat’s playbook) by the federal government by coercing (and, to be fair, colluding with) major tech and media companies is trivial? Yikes. I just don’t know what to say.
Jon Murphy
Apr 21 2024 at 12:14pm
That began under the Trump Administration…
Monte
Apr 21 2024 at 2:29pm
And was exacerbated under the Biden Aministration…
MarkW
Apr 21 2024 at 6:54pm
That began under the Trump Administration…
A lot of resistance to Trump began under (and inside) the Trump Administration. Or were there examples of Trump strong-arming media and tech companies to suppress information that might hurt Trump and benefit his opposition?
Jon Murphy
Apr 21 2024 at 6:57pm
Fauci and his witch hunt against the Great Barrington Declaration, for one.
vince
Apr 22 2024 at 7:19pm
Lincoln imprisoned journalists.
Richard W Fulmer
Apr 24 2024 at 4:53pm
Well, no. Obama used the IRS and DoJ to go after his political opponents as did FDR and Woodrow Wilson. Unfortunately, this sort of thing has a long history.
vince
Apr 27 2024 at 2:19pm
Richard, you should read the article.
MarkW
Apr 22 2024 at 5:15am
Fauci and his witch hunt against the Great Barrington Declaration, for one.
The efforts to suppress stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop and discredit it as ‘Russian disinformation’ also began under the Trump administration and involved people inside the FBI. They were certainly not doing it at Trump’s behest however.
At this point, it is certainly the Democrats who largely think this is good a proper thing for the government to do (apart from a few brave souls on the left like Matt Taibbi). The distrust of ‘unfettered’ free speech has become a mainstream position on the left now. And those running large media and tech organizations (apart from Musk/Twitter) would likely be willing to play ball again with a new Biden administration. They would clearly NOT do it, however, to favor Trump.
Jon Murphy
Apr 22 2024 at 7:48am
True but irrelevant. I’m discussing actions taken by members of the Trump Administration
Monte
Apr 21 2024 at 10:56am
This is a double jeopardy of a different color in the form of Biden vs Trump. We dread another term by either, but David is correct to point out that the Biden Crime Syndicate and its enforcement arm (Bragg, James, Garland, Merchan, Willis, etc.) have gone “far beyond what is fair and appropriate.” I think a fair analogy as far as David being sympathetic to Trump is that felt by Frodo towards Gollum. It’s almost as if Trump places the same value on the presidency as Gollum did the ring.
Pierre Lemieux
Apr 21 2024 at 12:00pm
David: You’re right that there are degrees of disavowal, and these varies along many dimensions. Everything is a matter of degree, except at tipping points, which can arguably be explained in degree terms too. But words are important because they structure action and the consequences of action. They also motivate action in the actor’s mind.
BS
Apr 21 2024 at 12:20pm
I would have thought by now that Trump’s habitual lack of follow through (eg. “lock her up”) would discourage people from assuming that any threats or promises he makes now can be taken to the bank. What would happen during another Trump administration would likely mirror the previous one and the Biden administration: people in the administration push their agendas through a malleable president.
Prosecutors presumably believe Trump is guilty of laws as written, or they wouldn’t be bringing cases. The interesting questions are whether similar cases are routinely charged, and whether novel legal theories have been constructed in order to bring charges. I doubt that the valuation case outcome is going to scare very many business owners into exiting New York, but it should be expected to change behaviour at the margins.
Jim Glass
Apr 22 2024 at 2:27am
Just recapping…
Allen Weisselberg, CFO of The Trump Org, in prison now after pleading guilty to 15 fraud felonies plus two perjury felonies (in furtherance of financial fraud).
Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer, three years in prison after pleading guilty to an array of crimes.
Paul Manafort, Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman, sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for bank and tax fraud.
Rick Gates, deputy chairman of Trump’s 2016 campaign, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and lying to the FBI. Prison for him.
Roger Stone, Trump campaign advisor, sentenced to three years in prison for obstruction of justice, witness tampering, and lying to Congress.
Plus: Papadopoulos, Navarro, Bannon…
Looks like Biden criminal gang has a long ways to go to catch up! Trump’s the greatest unconvicted center of gravity of any orbiting menagerie of convicted-confessed felons since Al Capone. Try harder, Joe!
And, from New York v Trump et al, a public document not one person here seems to have bothered to look at before forming strong opinions about same:
That’s $168 million pocketed via fraud from his lenders, in just one paragraph. There are 92 pages of this.
I’m old enough to remember when even a small sampling of the likes of the above would end a politician’s career. Happily, the Republican-Libertarian nexus has grown open-minded enough to not even notice.
In fact, Donald’s proclaimed a victim when anyone does notice — and it helps him, gets him the sympathy vote, at least around here. How can we not feel sad for him for all he’s being put through. Imagine, his bankers get tired of him defrauding them, so they rat him out to the AG! Outrageous!
“The Biden Crime Syndicate”. Is that what psychologists call ‘projection’? 🙂
Monte
Apr 22 2024 at 9:58am
Far be it from me to defend Trump, but he has clearly been selectively prosecuted while Biden has been insulated from it. If Biden were to be as thoroughly investigated, I suspect the laundry list of crimes and unethical behavior over the course of his career would equal or surpass that of Trump’s. Regardless, Biden is certainly guilty of a higher degree of incompetence, and that’s enough to tip the scales for me.
Truth, projection, counter-projection,”A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
steve
Apr 22 2024 at 12:36pm
You really believe that Biden was not being looked at by Trump’s DOJ? The GOP congress has spent a lot of time on him and there is a special prosecutor looking at Hunter. Hillary? Let’s not forget that the GOP actually did have a special prosecutor look at her (and Bill) when they were in office. Impeachment? They impeached Bill over lying about sex.
What is going on now is not unique or not something the GOP has not already done to other Dems. What is unique is the sheer amount of criminal activity on the part of Trump. No other POTUS tried to steal an election. No other has lied and refused to return documents when requested.
Steve
Monte
Apr 22 2024 at 5:26pm
Rather than do a line-item refutation of some of things you claim, I’ll just point out that none of the people you mention are above reproach, none have suffered any real consequences, and all are guilty of reprehensible behavior. We can argue about the level or severity of each crime, ethics violation, lie, or obfuscation, but it’s all a matter of degree.
You believe Trump is the greater of two evils. Biden is evil enough and, on top of that, incompetent, so I guess we’ll just end up cancelling each other’s vote. To borrow from a quote of days gone by, Biden is, IMO, a person of very inferior intelligence, wholly unequal to the task of office.
Jim Glass
Apr 22 2024 at 5:37pm
And your *evidence* for this is exactly what, besides the contents of your fervid imagination?
Exactly! Trump hosts the Happy Felons Social Club while Trump University is closed and forced to cough up $25 million, The Trump Charity is closed for malfeasance, Trump’s creditors deliver boxes of documents proving how he defrauded them of $168 million (for starters) to the AG, leading Trump’s CFO to plead guilty to 17 criminal charges…
But that’s all unfair, none of it should have happened, because you “suspect” in your imagination that maybe someone else might be just as bad.
In what third-world country does the justice system operate like that? Venezuela? Trumpistastan?
Monte
Apr 22 2024 at 6:25pm
You’re right! It’s all in my imagination! Please allow me to wallow in and be content in my fervidness! Every news source informing us about Trump delusion syndrome, law-fare, selective prosecution, and campaign interference is simply “misinformation.” Biden, OTOH, has been subjected to a vast right-wing conspiracy of unfounded allegations meant only to undermine who the Presidential Greatness Project claims is the 14th greatest president in our nation’s history. Spare me.
This is all getting so tiresome. Steel-man the argument by looking at the evidence yourself, or you can just ignore it and continue with your ad absurdo appeals to reason. I’m moving on and give you the last word.
Jim Glass
Apr 22 2024 at 7:47pm
EXCELLENT idea! I have. I’ve read the whole 92-page court opinion, New York v Trump et al., and seen all the evidence cited in it. We lawyers do that. It’s a public record, you can too.
Have you? Maybe you should take your own advice.
Be careful though. When at the very start you read the people at Mazars USA LLP, Trump’s accounting firm, explaining how they fired him as a client when they realized he was feeding them bogus numbers — violating the terms of the engagement letter Donald had signed personally — your imagination may really heat up about how maybe they might be lying.
And when during the following 85 pages you read one Wall Street banker, accountant, real estate appraiser after another — you know, infamously left-wing anti-Republican types! — piling on poor victim Donald, your imagination may get so fervid about all their possible, “suspect” mass lying that it burns itself out and does damage. Take care.
vince
Apr 23 2024 at 3:17pm
It certainly heated up your imagination. Trump tends to do that to his haters. They lose all objectivity. Mazars prepared a compilation–not an audit, and not even a review. In a compilation, the accounting firm provides NO assurance and NO examination. Compilations are often prepared for banks who merely need to check a box that they got a report. They take your numbers and slap them on a letterhead. The issue was ESTIMATES of value. If a bank were really interested in accuracy, they would request an audit or at least a review. Better yet, they would require an independent appraisal of the assets.
Trump signed it? Like every CEO who signs a financial report–are they all experts in Generally Accepted Accounting Principles? And the accountant who terminated the relationship? He had no problem providing services to Trump for ten years–until he was interrogated by the Manhattan District Attorney in 2021.
Monte
Apr 23 2024 at 11:59am
From Georgia to New York, 2024 could turn on the odor of selective prosecution.
Jim Glass
Apr 22 2024 at 7:04pm
Let’s recap Trump’s record of superior competence…
He became Commander-in-Chief, the man to Make America Great Again, with Senate and House majorities steadily built up over the prior eight years by Paul Ryan and the Repub leaders. He had ALL the tools of power!
So he promptly purged Ryan and all, and under his own Great Leadership immediately lost the House, then lost the Senate (his own hand-picked candidate in Alabama losing to a Democrat!!! in Alabama!!!), and in spite of having all the power of incumbency, his own job too. (After demonstrating the political skill needed to get himself impeached *twice*, matching the total number in all US history since 1789.)
Donald used to laughingly tell the story of how Jimmy Carter came to him asking for a contribution for his Presidential Library and he replied, ‘Sorry Jimmy, but any President who gets voted out after his first term is an incompetent loser and I don’t give money to losers.’ Ha!
And now he’s your Hero of Competence! Tip for future success in life: You’re entitled to your own opinions, but you’d do best to not create and believe in your own reality.
Beyond which, what REALLY matters is not the competence of the President himself but that of the people he hires to his top jobs. Let’s see, Trump’s lifetime top financial advisor is “17 Pleas” Weisselberg, Secretary of the Treasury?
Attorney General? How about Alina Habba — who ran up Trump’s liability in the Carroll defamation case by $75 million through her amazing utter incompetence. So incompetent she literally didn’t know how to label evidence — “Exhibit A”, you’ve seen that in TV court shows? She couldn’t do that. The Judge literally ordered her to home and learn.
Why was Trump the BILLIONAIRE represented by this clown? Because she was the best he could get. He’s (1) a nightmare client, (2) infamous for dead beating his lawyer bills. Court filings say he still owes Giuliani $2 million. Good lawyers may stomach (1) but not when they know (2) is coming.
This is the quality of the help he hires for himself. Consider that. That’s how competent he is. So … Habba for Attorney General! Why not?
Monte
Apr 23 2024 at 3:02am
I’m more persuaded by the fact that under Biden, we’ve seen more crime, higher inflation, greater political division, and less standing on the world stage than I am your rendition of Trump’s scorecard.
He’s certainly not my hero, but at least he can speak coherently and knows where to go without a guiding hand. Biden can’t and doesn’t and that’s a reality America can do without. But you’re right, the people he has hired to do his top jobs are precisely the ones responsible for our abysmal state affairs.
As for my future success, mission accomplished! I’m happy, healthy, relatively wealthy, married with two wonderful adult children who are successful in their own right. I had a very rewarding career and I’m now retired and spending too much time blogging about economics and politics.
Monte
Apr 23 2024 at 12:22pm
BTW, would you be the Jim Glass of Quinn Emanuel’s Post-Grant patent practice in NY? If so, I count it a privilege to engage in a squabble with someone who has been recognized as a “Super Lawyer”. If not, the song remains the same.
Peter
Apr 25 2024 at 8:25am
And as a lawyer you know convictions and pleas in the US legal system have absolutely nothing to do with actual guilt. Prisons are littered with actually innocent people and it’s epidemic to the point it’s probably, or nearing so, the majority of people on probation as well. As the saying goes, prosecutors will indite a ham sandwich, juries will overwhelming convict it, and judges will give it the near max of it dared to go to trial or even file a motion.
Whatsaboutism needs to be enshrined as an affirmative defense, otherwise any prosecution is simply for personal gain by the prosecutor and hence a travesty which shouldn’t be tolerated in a just system.
David Henderson
Apr 22 2024 at 9:20am
Jon Murphy above claims that people in the federal government while Trump was president were “members of the Trump administration.” I think that’s a stretch. He could make that point about Fauci, because, after all, Trump had the power, which he didn’t exercise, to take Fauci off the COVID task force.
But it’s hard to make that point about civil servants whom Trump couldn’t fire.
I think if was John F. Kennedy, while president, who said, quoting Louis XIV (or was it Louis XVI?) that he was not really king of France because he had thousands of people under him who he couldn’t control.
vince
Apr 22 2024 at 7:21pm
Trump’s greatest legacy is that he provided a glimpse of the depth of the swamp.
BS
Apr 24 2024 at 11:44am
As usual, there’s a huge gulf between people who insist the laws be applied to Trump, and people who insist the laws be applied to everyone. The latter can easily stipulate to everything Trump is alleged to have done, and legitimately wonder how the always manages to avoid prosecuting certain people for similar deeds.
BS
Apr 24 2024 at 11:46am
“how the always” -> “how the system always”
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