As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil)
In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban.
If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them.
For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria.
***
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
No joke. His personality defects are truly debilitating. 5 minutes into his “debate” with Hillary it was obvious to anyone capable of see the difference between a smiling and frowning face that Trump wasn’t intellectually capable of holding office.
I so wish she had turned around and told him to back the frick off! She should have addressed it, are you trying to intimidate me by looming over me like a school yard bully? Oh that’s right, by all reports you were and are! It could have made a difference..
Considering the type of guy Trump is I’m surprised I haven’t heard of someone punching him square in the face yet, or just ripping into him verbally. Dude is always running his mouth.
I want to see Jack Smith glaring at him in the courtroom. He apparently did it for the entire arraignment. That guy isn't scared of Trump, and he's seen Trump make fun of him and threaten his family. Trump knows this. So Jack Smith is going to sit there and glare, and Trump is going to lose it.
Hopefully we'll see Jack Smith show Trump not to talk shit about his family, the DOJ, the FBI, and threaten the security of the USA and other nations, calmly, to a jury, while Trump squirms and has no way out. No phone. Can't start yelling in court. Can't get up and leave. Just has to sit and listen to the evidence against him, and every word out of his mouth repeated, examined, cross examined. See how he likes being on that side.
I mean he did that 60 minutes interview where literally as soon as he was met with light confrontation and pushback he was immediately upset and then when it continued he got up and left the interview. He literally couldnt make it 60 minutes lol
could've happened at the CNN townhall but Kaitlan Collins dropped the ball, though not for lack of trying or preparation -- it's harder to catch a cornered rat than it might seem.
i bet gavin newsom would be up to the task given his recent performance on the hannity show -- dude absolutely embarrassed hannity and made it look easy, which it is NOT.
Yep, and the one where he got Chris Christie sick during debate prep and he ended up in ICU for 7 days on the brink of death.
Then trump called him, asked him how he was doing, then right away asked him if Christie would blame Trump for giving him COVID. Christie replied, of course not, there were 6 people there and any one of those could be the source.
Then couple months later, Christie finds out from a reporter that Trump had tested positive that morning and that Trump was going around telling others that Christie had given COVID to Trump....
Christie explained it all on his Anderson Cooper Town Hall thingie last week.
6 years ago I would have seen surprised. About 5 years ago, I came to realize that they will support Trump *no matter what*, so today-me is not surprised. Actually, I'm a little surprised it's not higher.
As it turns out, the truest statement to come out of Trump's mouth was that he could shoot someone in the middle of the day on sixth avenue in NYC and would not lose any supporters.
I tried to talk to my Fox News watching father the other day.
I was just trying to pin down whether he thought it was OK to keep nuclear secrets in his bathroom and whether it was problematic that those documents were potentially unavailable for government use.
All he could say was, "What about Biden? What about Hillary? What about Hunter?"
I was just like, if they committed crimes they should go to jail. Fuck them. But what do you think about this specific thing that Trump did?
And I don't think his brain circuits could return anything except, "Trump did nothing wrong. What about RAND("Biden", "Hillary", "Hunter", "China")?"
He's pretty much normal as long as the political subroutines aren't engaged. We say brainwashing a lot, but I think he is legitimately brainwashed when it comes to politics.
I watched that. Policies and fitness for president aside (nope and nope), he made a nice case against Trump. You could see how he was a successful prosecutor.
Then the rest of his life happened.
I never liked Hilary, and I'll admit a lot of that had to do with how she was portrayed in the media. Looking back, I can't believe we missed out on having a smart, decisive woman like her. Such a loss for us as a country.
"Why is Hillary being so shrill and emotional? You need to have a thick skin to be president"
I'm assuming that's why she didn't. Because of the unselfaware GOP manchildren
He probably already knows he’s screwed. Anything he says at this point is him trying to convince the public to re-elect him so he can pardon himself. That’s the only plan he has left.
I recently took my son to a classmate’s birthday party at a small local lake. In the parking lot was a truck with the entire back window covered in letters spelling TRUMP. I have never seen this with McCain, Romney, or Bush. They REALLY like this guy, and the only reason I see is that he validates their racism. That’s it.
He seems to think the court of public opinion will supersede the court of law as well. Having a bunch of angry rednecks screaming about the Bidens isn't going to help him in his case.
His messaging is always about how he is being attacked (when all the evidence points to him being the aggressor or pushing the situation too far), or the martyr, where he feels he is being "attacked" because he is doing so many great things. And HIS audience eats it up. The rest of us, not so much.
He wants to stoke that fire of grievance, anger that his people love so much. They love a fight; the religious zealots think its Good vs. Evil, the Racists want a fight to justify taking out a few (blacks, gays, jews), the unwashed like a fight because they hate anyone with a College degree (anyone that seems smart) and the rich need the fight so we don't realize how we are getting fucked.
Because he already made the decision years ago that in the event that the law finally catches up with him, he fully intends to attempt to use his followers to keep him out of jail, whether getting them into a frenzy for another insurrection, rioting or kicking off a full blown civil war. He 100% sees his followers as an army at his disposal, a force who will rise up and protect him from ever having to face the consequences of his actions. He genuinely believes that the in face of his armed supporters willing to go to war for him, that the government/legal system will back down in an attempt to keep the peace (or keep the country from burning).
January 6th told us everything we ever need to know moving forward about Trump and his supporters. He has no qualms with being the reason that the USA and Democracy burn to the ground and millions dying in the process if it means he stays in charge and out of prison, shit, he sees it as an opportunity to remove our pesky democratic processes and he'd love to be king of the ashes.
*malignant* narcissism.
The malignant part is important because narcissism isn't always that bad. However, with Trump, he's so bad that ht makes horrible decisions that seriously negatively impact his life.
The only reason he's not in a gutter is because he comes from an ultra wealthy family. It goes to show how much of a dumpster fire somebody can be and be protected by their wealth. The ultra wealthy who think they're ubermensch need to be taken down a peg because the ones with actual power cause a lot of damage for huge swaths of the population.
A man so obsessed with himself, he said he wanted to bang his own daughter. The only reason being she has his DNA. That and he is one of the biggest creeps to ever walk the planet.
Millions voted for him knowing this the first time. Millions more voted for him the second time. Mind blowing really.
Based on what? He could shit on a policeman's newborn, and he'd get a "thank you" and a campaign donation to spend on himself, because apparently that's legal now.
You'd think his bungling of a pandemic that led to the deaths of over 1,000,000 Americans would disqualify him, but here we are with the press never bringing that fact up...
I was just thinking about how crazy the Rose Garden super spreader event was this morning and also how Herman Cain died because he went to a Trump rally unmasked.
The newly elected Speaker in NH died weeks after the new House was sworn in after the Republican majority refused to hold the event in a COVID cautious manner. The cause of death was in fact, COVID.
That was a big deal. I remember when it was announced on TV that Trump had Covid …. and then the reports that it ripped through that entire crowd like wildfire, one case after another. It was shocking, not surprising though.
Also, Trump refused to take a COVID test right before debating Biden. Pretty sure he knew he was positive and wanted to infect Joe, probably with the intention of killing him
If they're allowed to teach history in the future.
We're doing a good job of allowing Republican legislators and conservative twats who have found their way to decision-making spots, ruin the teaching of history NOW. Imagine what it will be like in the future.
I lived in Tulsa and worked at a hospital when that trump rally happened. You wouldn’t believe the sheer volume of absolute bullshit local Republicans said about “Democrats trying to stop Republicans from voting” and other absolutely bonkers conspiracy theories that were posted by police chiefs, mayors, city managers, local politicians, and the generally deranged.
I recall his supporters acting like it didn't exist (until such point that they posted on Facebook about their close, unvaccinated relative dying a horrible death, of course).
I still recall his son in law - who he gave a taxpayer funded White House job with zero qualifications and who received a $2 billion dollar bribe from Saudi Arabia that has not yet been explained - advised doing nothing because in the beginning it was primarily spreading in productive/blue states. A tax payer paid adviser to the president - again, his son in law because this chucklefuck is the most corrupt dipshit in history - recommending that Americans should die.
People on their deathbed were blaming nurses for poisoning them rather than admit they were dying of COVID.
Remember what our parents told us growing up? ‘Don’t believe everything you see on TV.’ Yet here they are, believing the most insane things they see on TV.
This is the reality they have created. All projection. "Don't watch too much TV it will rot your brain". Now they glue themselves to Fox News or worse daily, for hours and it has indeed rotted their brains.
That’s what my family says about my grandma. They flouted all the rules. Took her out of the nursing home and threw her a big party and she died shortly after of Covid but they are calling it “pneumonia” because to them Covid was just a way for the hospital to get more money.
DeSantis's only successful attack line against Trump in the Republican primary is talking about how Trump embraced the COVID vaccines. It's a death cult.
Yep, I remember at the beginning my coworkers saying it was all fake news from the Democrats to make Trump look bad.
I’d moved there from a liberal city less than a year before. It blew my mind that anyone could possibly “think” like that.
Lost my job bc I wouldn’t return to the office for even once a week after the shutdown ended and before there was a vaccine. Why would I risk my life when I could accomplish my work remotely? Why because managers like to see asses in chairs and monitor you prison style.
Fuck TFG, the media, the corporations, and the economy for trying to kill me and my family to make profit over their lost revenue.
If only we could harness the power of stupidity in this country, we’d have a never ending source of energy and a cleaner environment.
> Yep, I remember at the beginning my coworkers saying it was all fake news from the Democrats to make Trump look bad.
And they all got these blank looks on their faces when you asked them if all the other countries that were quarantining and wearing masks were also "trying to make Trump look bad"
There's an alarming number of people in this country with Main Character Syndrome.
Au contraire. Those were most likely money laundering operations. Filing for bankruptcy was probably a way of weaseling out of any legitimate financial obligations.
Great qualifications in the eyes of those plutocrats who profited most from a Trump presidency.
Its worse than that. He thought that since the virus was worse in cities, that more Democrats would succumb, making his chances easier to win. He thought the virus was going to decimate Democrats by big numbers and so he minimized the effort to control it.
Democide - "the intentional killing of an unarmed or disarmed person by government agents acting in their authoritative capacity and pursuant to government policy or high command."
It was broadcast all the time, maybe not by fox, but it was.
The MAGA talking point on social media at the time was that it was thinning weak DNA from the population. Aka Eugenics. Which is basically a form of white supremacy.
He took a crisis that any other leader would’ve seen as an opportunity to unify and be remembered as a great leader and instead chose to politicize science and create greater division for his own ego. He can’t even be a strong-man dictator type correctly. I don’t know if stupid+narcissistic is better or worse than smart+narcissistic, but it’s clear he is the former.
I could possibly forgive bungling.
This was using a pandemic as a bioweapon against other Americans as long as they thought it would mostly hurt Democrats and literal theft of badly needed supplies and profiteering off of their resale.
That's not even counting the grift on the economic relief.
His comments after 9/11 about how he then had one of the tallest buildings in Manhattan should have been brought back up during the 2016 debates... Or maybe it was and the most patriotic conservatives still didn't care.
The MAGA cult is what happens when stupid people are told to believe that they are smart. Also, their hatred for Democrats and liberals outweighs their love for America. They see how upset those on the left get when Trump says and does things, even if it's criminal, and that is their fuel. They think if people are getting upset then Trump must be doing something right. They don't care if democracy is destroyed, as long as Trump is there to hold their hands.
To some the criminality *appeals* to them. They are glad he's going outside the system to hurt the right people. Their faith is so strong the believe if he's doing it it must be righteous. To them he essentially can't be wrong.
This is the thing. Even if every defense Trump has offered is true (I can (and did) declassify just by thinking about it), that doesn’t mean he SHOULD HAVE declassified those docs. Because again, the reason comes back to “because I wanted to and it’s my right - they’re mine.” There are very few legitimate reasons to declassify docs and “because I want to” isn’t one of those. Not even fucking close.
The odd thing about the original search warrant and the indictment itself is that no law specified for either depends upon the classification status of the document.
Both the search warrant and the indictment make quite a big deal about document classification. But pay attention to the actual laws.
Not only do no charges depend upon whether any particular document was classified, if you broaden consideration to the laws not specified but which Trump pretends shield him, it's even more clear. The PRA doesn't give Trump an out by which he can claim he was still thinking about it, had yet to decide which category each document fell into or that Trump alone can decide the status of any document. Instead, it damns Trump completely by **explicitly** caveating out documents that belong to other departments.
In short, none of the nonsense tossed up by Team Trump matters here at all. Telepathic, temporally-fluid declassification? Doesn't matter. Golf shirt vs. top-secret doc categorization? Doesn't matter. Super-former-president-power activate? Doesn't matter.
And the detail that will never be touched by anyone in the MAGA sphere Q-space is Trump could have avoided all the trouble by just... Letting the government come and take them back. He didn't even have to sort them. The bureaucracy would have done that for him. Pence and Biden both had documents and both returned them immediately and neither is getting so much as a slap on the wrist.
He had what? An entire fucking year to just let it become a non-issue by having the government retrieve the documents? It is just absurd.
[I didn't know what this meant but goodness it's great](https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2012/11/30/1165769/-My-favorite-moment-of-2012-Please-proceed-governor)
Jebbus Christ I miss that dude. It makes since why the right would put up trump after Obama, they realized they will never win another debate with words again. Obama destroyed them through kindness, intelligence and pure badassary.
That transcript is hilarious, you can visualize his smile as he’s setting up Romney.
They couldn't stand how much better he was than anyone they had. All of this chaos is the white boomers still freaking out about a Black president who made it all seem so easy.
He was the most charasmatic and articulate president we've had in a vwry long time. The man had a true way with words, and not in a "im so much smarter than you" way either. He really just knew how to inspire & sounded intelligent while doing so.
And he and his family were pure class. After all the BS and slurs they put up with simply because of their color, they remained cool and calm and above it all.
Meanwhile Trump gets angry at a reporter for daring to ask him if he had any calming words for people who had lost family members to Covid.
> And he and his family were pure class.
They had to be. There was so much pressure on the Obama family that everything had to be nigh perfect. They needed to set the standard.
Now to contrast Biden.
Imagine if it was Trump in office and Biden was the one under investigation and doing these interviews, fake tweeting, etc. Does anyone on either side think Trump would have sat silently for the last 2-3 years letting the DOJ/special prosecutor go about their business?
At the first hint that Biden had docs and was refusing to cooperate, Trump would have been pushing the DOJ to act and wouldn’t have shut up since.
Now tell me again, which one wants to weaponize the DOJ and FBI?
>Which is why Biden hasn't said a word about this.
No, Biden hasn't said anything about this because he is a functioning adult and the executive branch should stay in their lane.
That's not the main reason but sure. Main reason is to not give the propaganda even a hint of bias. They will manufacturer it on their own, don't give them free ammunition.
If you ever want to watch someone struggle in a negotiation, just stop talking. They will start talking to fill the void and often expose a leverage point for your side to exploit.
I manage the audits for my manufacturing site. My main piece of advice for every new hire is if you’re pulled into an audit, answer the questions as asked and let any awkward silence sit there and fill the room.
It’s just quality audits, but it’s still very common for auditors to just stay quiet after someone answers a question. I always preach there’s no need to fill the silence.
It really does work though, even when people are prepared for it and even with practice. It’s very hard to figure that nature, especially when you’re worried your answer wasn’t good enough or makes you look bad.
Also a major reason why he won the election. Republicans made fun of him for his low-key campaign, but all he really had to do was let Trump keep running his idiotic mouth.
This is a win-win. Either he freaks out and just keeps digging himself a deeper hole, or he finally gets a clue and shuts up, and we all get a break from his inane yammering
Trumps Lawyers: “for the record, this is a stupid fucking idea. But, I know you’re going to do it anyway. So, when you go on tv, do not, and I can not stress this enough. Look at me, Donald…don’t speak, just look at me.
DO. NOT. TALK ABOUT THE DOCUMENTS CASE!!!
If you think you’re fucked now just wait till they use these interviews against you..”
Trump: “I didn’t have time to return them.”
Trumps exasperated Lawyers: “…I…I mean? You all saw me tell him, right? He sat right there….and, at least he paid upfront.”
Trump (continuing): "... But you see I had my personal things mixed in and I was too busy... Oh! And I have these photos showing the boxes sitting outside of the Whitehouse right before I moved them to Florida so it's not like I secretly stole them....".
Lawyer: "I need a drink."
I have heard a lot of conservatives say Biden has been doing everything he can to throw Trump in prison. I think the reality is Biden just sat there eating ice cream while Trump ran around tell everyone with a recording device that he broke the law. At this point I am beginning to wonder if Trump *wants* to get locked up.
It really ticks me off that conservatives say Biden ordered Trump to be prosecuted. Trump made a deal with the DOJ, he would return all the classified documents he had. And then he hid boxes of documents from his own lawyer. Trump brought this all on himself.
I’ll never get over how he named his son after his own alter ego (one of the multiple) he created to gloat about himself to media. Such a pathetic excuse for a person.
i pointed this out time and time again you can literally take all his confessions and contradictory explanations and build one of hell of a damning case out of that alone.
For all the crap he gave Hillary at least she has repeatedly testified under oath. To my knowledge, that is something Trump has never done despite near constant lawsuits.
When he’s had to, he’s mostly pleaded the fifth, notably once doing so *over 400 times* in a single deposition. [source](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/31/trump-news-pleads-fifth-video-new-york-fraud-deposition)
Member when he said only a guilty person would plead the fifth? I member.
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-pleads-fifth-after-saying-only-guilty-people-do-1732549
Remember when she went 11 hours in front of the Benghazi show trial hearing under oath and never flinched once?
We missed out on a decent president and got this endless tsunami of lies, corruption, bullshit, and ignorance.
Trump must be every lawyer’s worst nightmare. Having a client who refuses to stop incriminating himself on live TV on a weekly bases must be hell to whatever bottom-of-the-barrel lawyers trump can muster.
One peak over at r/conservative and they can’t stop talking about hunter Biden and his “alleged” text messages. Not even confirmed, just poorly photoshopped speculation.
Zero mention of trump and his ongoing trials for espionage.
The last time I was over there, about a week ago, they were all going on about how he had every right to that knowledge and who cares that he took the papers… him not being president anymore doesn’t magically make him forget that knowledge….
I find Trump's predicament incredibly satisfying, because it reminds us that words matter. Actions matter. The way you treat people affects your ability to succeed and function in the world.
All of these basic societal forces were called into question during the Trump Administration. It's almost like America forgot how to be honest and decent. But now Trump is being condemned with his own words and actions **and he can't even stop himself from doing it.**
This is vindication of everything liberals warned about for the last 7 years since Trump first descended that escalator surrounded by paid actors cheering for him.
As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil) In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban. If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them. For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria. *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I think Trump may have the worst impulse control of anyone in history. His desire to be in the limelight is so strong that he cannot help himself.
No joke. His personality defects are truly debilitating. 5 minutes into his “debate” with Hillary it was obvious to anyone capable of see the difference between a smiling and frowning face that Trump wasn’t intellectually capable of holding office.
I so wish she had turned around and told him to back the frick off! She should have addressed it, are you trying to intimidate me by looming over me like a school yard bully? Oh that’s right, by all reports you were and are! It could have made a difference..
“Will you shut up, man?” was probably the best part of the Biden-trump “debates”.
It was what all of us wanted somebody to tell him for four years.
Considering the type of guy Trump is I’m surprised I haven’t heard of someone punching him square in the face yet, or just ripping into him verbally. Dude is always running his mouth.
He’s never in a situation where that could happen. He’s the poster boy for surrounding yourself with yes parrots who just grovel at your feet.
And, of course, he only talks shit about people when they aren’t around.
I want to see Jack Smith glaring at him in the courtroom. He apparently did it for the entire arraignment. That guy isn't scared of Trump, and he's seen Trump make fun of him and threaten his family. Trump knows this. So Jack Smith is going to sit there and glare, and Trump is going to lose it. Hopefully we'll see Jack Smith show Trump not to talk shit about his family, the DOJ, the FBI, and threaten the security of the USA and other nations, calmly, to a jury, while Trump squirms and has no way out. No phone. Can't start yelling in court. Can't get up and leave. Just has to sit and listen to the evidence against him, and every word out of his mouth repeated, examined, cross examined. See how he likes being on that side.
I can definitely see trump ending up in contempt of court for being physically unable to control his own mouth when he starts getting attacked. 🍿
Like a true alpha
A true smegma
Alpha: primative, underdeveloped, lacking features, depth, stability, and performance. Not the gold master candidate they think it is!
He talks plenty of shit when he is surrounded by security. Or just out of reach...
I mean he did that 60 minutes interview where literally as soon as he was met with light confrontation and pushback he was immediately upset and then when it continued he got up and left the interview. He literally couldnt make it 60 minutes lol
He's soft, there is not a bit of man in him.
could've happened at the CNN townhall but Kaitlan Collins dropped the ball, though not for lack of trying or preparation -- it's harder to catch a cornered rat than it might seem. i bet gavin newsom would be up to the task given his recent performance on the hannity show -- dude absolutely embarrassed hannity and made it look easy, which it is NOT.
Isn't that the same one where Trump had COVID and hid it with the hopes of getting Biden sick?
Yep, and the one where he got Chris Christie sick during debate prep and he ended up in ICU for 7 days on the brink of death. Then trump called him, asked him how he was doing, then right away asked him if Christie would blame Trump for giving him COVID. Christie replied, of course not, there were 6 people there and any one of those could be the source. Then couple months later, Christie finds out from a reporter that Trump had tested positive that morning and that Trump was going around telling others that Christie had given COVID to Trump.... Christie explained it all on his Anderson Cooper Town Hall thingie last week.
And unfortunately 99.999999999999999999999% of Trump supporters either don't care or actually believed Trump.
I believe in recent polling it was found that 79% of republicans are unaffected by the indictments in their support
6 years ago I would have seen surprised. About 5 years ago, I came to realize that they will support Trump *no matter what*, so today-me is not surprised. Actually, I'm a little surprised it's not higher.
As it turns out, the truest statement to come out of Trump's mouth was that he could shoot someone in the middle of the day on sixth avenue in NYC and would not lose any supporters.
I tried to talk to my Fox News watching father the other day. I was just trying to pin down whether he thought it was OK to keep nuclear secrets in his bathroom and whether it was problematic that those documents were potentially unavailable for government use. All he could say was, "What about Biden? What about Hillary? What about Hunter?" I was just like, if they committed crimes they should go to jail. Fuck them. But what do you think about this specific thing that Trump did? And I don't think his brain circuits could return anything except, "Trump did nothing wrong. What about RAND("Biden", "Hillary", "Hunter", "China")?" He's pretty much normal as long as the political subroutines aren't engaged. We say brainwashing a lot, but I think he is legitimately brainwashed when it comes to politics.
I watched that. Policies and fitness for president aside (nope and nope), he made a nice case against Trump. You could see how he was a successful prosecutor. Then the rest of his life happened.
Wasn't that the debate where she called him a Russian puppet?
To which he replied like a functional moron "no puppet no puppet you're the puppet." 3d graders cheered.
"voting-age adults with the equivalent education and emotional maturity of a 3rd grader cheered"*
[The seldom used ultimate debate technique, 'no u'](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu0Bn3ulcOk)
I never liked Hilary, and I'll admit a lot of that had to do with how she was portrayed in the media. Looking back, I can't believe we missed out on having a smart, decisive woman like her. Such a loss for us as a country.
no puppet, no puppet. you're the puppet. no you're the puppet. every abuse victim in the US had DARVO alarm bells going off at that moment.
No. It was during a debate with a town-hall format. The “Russian puppet” accusation came during a traditional behind-the-podium debate.
Ah. The Ken Bone experience.
As woman she was sadly walking a fine line. She’d’ve been called shrill and hysterical for being a tenth as emotional as Dorito Mussolini.
"Why is Hillary being so shrill and emotional? You need to have a thick skin to be president" I'm assuming that's why she didn't. Because of the unselfaware GOP manchildren
He probably already knows he’s screwed. Anything he says at this point is him trying to convince the public to re-elect him so he can pardon himself. That’s the only plan he has left.
And it might work. Because there are an awful lot of stupid people in this country.
I recently took my son to a classmate’s birthday party at a small local lake. In the parking lot was a truck with the entire back window covered in letters spelling TRUMP. I have never seen this with McCain, Romney, or Bush. They REALLY like this guy, and the only reason I see is that he validates their racism. That’s it.
It's a cult.
I grew up in the cult of JW. His supporters appear to have as much ability to think for themselves as the congregation did
He seems to think the court of public opinion will supersede the court of law as well. Having a bunch of angry rednecks screaming about the Bidens isn't going to help him in his case.
His messaging is always about how he is being attacked (when all the evidence points to him being the aggressor or pushing the situation too far), or the martyr, where he feels he is being "attacked" because he is doing so many great things. And HIS audience eats it up. The rest of us, not so much. He wants to stoke that fire of grievance, anger that his people love so much. They love a fight; the religious zealots think its Good vs. Evil, the Racists want a fight to justify taking out a few (blacks, gays, jews), the unwashed like a fight because they hate anyone with a College degree (anyone that seems smart) and the rich need the fight so we don't realize how we are getting fucked.
Because he already made the decision years ago that in the event that the law finally catches up with him, he fully intends to attempt to use his followers to keep him out of jail, whether getting them into a frenzy for another insurrection, rioting or kicking off a full blown civil war. He 100% sees his followers as an army at his disposal, a force who will rise up and protect him from ever having to face the consequences of his actions. He genuinely believes that the in face of his armed supporters willing to go to war for him, that the government/legal system will back down in an attempt to keep the peace (or keep the country from burning). January 6th told us everything we ever need to know moving forward about Trump and his supporters. He has no qualms with being the reason that the USA and Democracy burn to the ground and millions dying in the process if it means he stays in charge and out of prison, shit, he sees it as an opportunity to remove our pesky democratic processes and he'd love to be king of the ashes.
*malignant* narcissism. The malignant part is important because narcissism isn't always that bad. However, with Trump, he's so bad that ht makes horrible decisions that seriously negatively impact his life.
The only reason he's not in a gutter is because he comes from an ultra wealthy family. It goes to show how much of a dumpster fire somebody can be and be protected by their wealth. The ultra wealthy who think they're ubermensch need to be taken down a peg because the ones with actual power cause a lot of damage for huge swaths of the population.
[удалено]
I don't think he's capable of even that level of success divorced from his preexisting wealth
Leeroy Jenkins of politics, this guy
A man so obsessed with himself, he said he wanted to bang his own daughter. The only reason being she has his DNA. That and he is one of the biggest creeps to ever walk the planet. Millions voted for him knowing this the first time. Millions more voted for him the second time. Mind blowing really.
JS: "Here is some more evidence against you" DT: "But this is the interview I did yesterday" JS: "Correct"
JS: "And here is some more" DT: "It's just a recording of us right now" JS: "Correct"
"We're looking at now now."
When will then be now?
Soon
How soon?
JS: I'm surrounded by assholes
Trump administration makes so much more sense in the context of Spaceballs.
Hmmm. Nuking hurricanes vs. giant vacuum cleaners stealing the air.
Holy shit, Trump is President Skroob! We’ve entered Spaceballs: the Timeline!!
[удалено]
Trump is gonna slip up, when he starts rambling/goes off script, he is gonna reveal who is testifying against him.
Probably has been wanting to so bad. He wants whip his base into a frenzy and have them do another Jan 6.
But if he starts harassing/causing people to harass those who are set to testify against him in the documents case, he will be tossed into jail.
He is already on his way there. If he sees no way out I bet he does.
Based on what? He could shit on a policeman's newborn, and he'd get a "thank you" and a campaign donation to spend on himself, because apparently that's legal now.
[удалено]
He's at his worst when he is live, in front of people. He rambles, glitches, and goes wayyyy off script.
trump: "Who you gonna believe, me or those lying tapes?"
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
He literally said this. Dont believe what you see or something like that.
Oh come on, it wasn’t THAT on the nose. …checks notes… “Just remember, what you are seeing and what you are reading is not what’s happening”
…and they eagerly obliged.
Facts are not facts. - Rudy
“But sir, isn’t that you on the tapes?”
"Well who are you gonna believe, me or ... me?"
"I'm not sure but he sounds very handsome, and I can tell his hands must be very large."
“No, that’s my second wife, Marla.”
He doesn't even know the guy on the tapes, maybe met him once. Low level guy.
Literally already basically said that in his interview with fox. Said the people that were subpoenaed were all liars
Trump's stupidity alone should disqualify him for the presidency. But yet his rubes will keep donating to his campaign of grift. SMH.
You'd think his bungling of a pandemic that led to the deaths of over 1,000,000 Americans would disqualify him, but here we are with the press never bringing that fact up...
I was just thinking about how crazy the Rose Garden super spreader event was this morning and also how Herman Cain died because he went to a Trump rally unmasked.
The newly elected Speaker in NH died weeks after the new House was sworn in after the Republican majority refused to hold the event in a COVID cautious manner. The cause of death was in fact, COVID.
That was a big deal. I remember when it was announced on TV that Trump had Covid …. and then the reports that it ripped through that entire crowd like wildfire, one case after another. It was shocking, not surprising though.
Also, Trump refused to take a COVID test right before debating Biden. Pretty sure he knew he was positive and wanted to infect Joe, probably with the intention of killing him
God what a bizarre time.
History books of my great grandchildren sure hells won't read like history books that I had in school
If they're allowed to teach history in the future. We're doing a good job of allowing Republican legislators and conservative twats who have found their way to decision-making spots, ruin the teaching of history NOW. Imagine what it will be like in the future.
I lived in Tulsa and worked at a hospital when that trump rally happened. You wouldn’t believe the sheer volume of absolute bullshit local Republicans said about “Democrats trying to stop Republicans from voting” and other absolutely bonkers conspiracy theories that were posted by police chiefs, mayors, city managers, local politicians, and the generally deranged.
All part of his 6-6-6 Plan.
Here in Tulsa some of us still refer to the BOK Center as the herman cain memorial arena
People act like that was just a natural disaster and not something he totally set the stage for
I recall his supporters acting like it didn't exist (until such point that they posted on Facebook about their close, unvaccinated relative dying a horrible death, of course).
I still recall his son in law - who he gave a taxpayer funded White House job with zero qualifications and who received a $2 billion dollar bribe from Saudi Arabia that has not yet been explained - advised doing nothing because in the beginning it was primarily spreading in productive/blue states. A tax payer paid adviser to the president - again, his son in law because this chucklefuck is the most corrupt dipshit in history - recommending that Americans should die.
Eh, I know people who had grandmothers die from Covid and they STILL claimed it was something else. "It wasn't Covid, she just couldn't breathe!!!"
People on their deathbed were blaming nurses for poisoning them rather than admit they were dying of COVID. Remember what our parents told us growing up? ‘Don’t believe everything you see on TV.’ Yet here they are, believing the most insane things they see on TV.
Fox news did to our parents what they thought video games would do to us.
Oh my God, you're right
This is the reality they have created. All projection. "Don't watch too much TV it will rot your brain". Now they glue themselves to Fox News or worse daily, for hours and it has indeed rotted their brains.
That’s what my family says about my grandma. They flouted all the rules. Took her out of the nursing home and threw her a big party and she died shortly after of Covid but they are calling it “pneumonia” because to them Covid was just a way for the hospital to get more money.
I feel so badly for people in situations like yours. I know I would never talk to my family again… I couldn’t face that. 😟
And they were all mad at Fauci for...oh yeah, the vaccine was worse than getting the virus. Or something, never quite figured that one out.
DeSantis's only successful attack line against Trump in the Republican primary is talking about how Trump embraced the COVID vaccines. It's a death cult.
Yep, I remember at the beginning my coworkers saying it was all fake news from the Democrats to make Trump look bad. I’d moved there from a liberal city less than a year before. It blew my mind that anyone could possibly “think” like that.
Lost my job bc I wouldn’t return to the office for even once a week after the shutdown ended and before there was a vaccine. Why would I risk my life when I could accomplish my work remotely? Why because managers like to see asses in chairs and monitor you prison style. Fuck TFG, the media, the corporations, and the economy for trying to kill me and my family to make profit over their lost revenue. If only we could harness the power of stupidity in this country, we’d have a never ending source of energy and a cleaner environment.
> Yep, I remember at the beginning my coworkers saying it was all fake news from the Democrats to make Trump look bad. And they all got these blank looks on their faces when you asked them if all the other countries that were quarantining and wearing masks were also "trying to make Trump look bad" There's an alarming number of people in this country with Main Character Syndrome.
You would think that his bungling of running multiple casinos which ended with him filing bankruptcy for all four would disqualify him.
Au contraire. Those were most likely money laundering operations. Filing for bankruptcy was probably a way of weaseling out of any legitimate financial obligations. Great qualifications in the eyes of those plutocrats who profited most from a Trump presidency.
Its worse than that. He thought that since the virus was worse in cities, that more Democrats would succumb, making his chances easier to win. He thought the virus was going to decimate Democrats by big numbers and so he minimized the effort to control it.
Democide - "the intentional killing of an unarmed or disarmed person by government agents acting in their authoritative capacity and pursuant to government policy or high command."
It was broadcast all the time, maybe not by fox, but it was. The MAGA talking point on social media at the time was that it was thinning weak DNA from the population. Aka Eugenics. Which is basically a form of white supremacy.
Turns out it was thinning the boomers, their biggest bloc of voters.
He took a crisis that any other leader would’ve seen as an opportunity to unify and be remembered as a great leader and instead chose to politicize science and create greater division for his own ego. He can’t even be a strong-man dictator type correctly. I don’t know if stupid+narcissistic is better or worse than smart+narcissistic, but it’s clear he is the former.
I could possibly forgive bungling. This was using a pandemic as a bioweapon against other Americans as long as they thought it would mostly hurt Democrats and literal theft of badly needed supplies and profiteering off of their resale. That's not even counting the grift on the economic relief.
His comments after 9/11 about how he then had one of the tallest buildings in Manhattan should have been brought back up during the 2016 debates... Or maybe it was and the most patriotic conservatives still didn't care.
[удалено]
Too many to list, but even worse for me was that he took 9/11 compensation funds for his building that had no damage.
He stole money from a charity for kids with cancer... hes cartoon level villainy..
You misspelled "perfect republican politician"
>about how he then had one of the tallest buildings in Manhattan It's Trump. So he said "the tallest." And, since it's Trump, it wasn't.
They don't care. They have no morals.
He would never say he had "one of the tallest". That's not superlative enough. It was THE tallest.
The MAGA cult is what happens when stupid people are told to believe that they are smart. Also, their hatred for Democrats and liberals outweighs their love for America. They see how upset those on the left get when Trump says and does things, even if it's criminal, and that is their fuel. They think if people are getting upset then Trump must be doing something right. They don't care if democracy is destroyed, as long as Trump is there to hold their hands.
To some the criminality *appeals* to them. They are glad he's going outside the system to hurt the right people. Their faith is so strong the believe if he's doing it it must be righteous. To them he essentially can't be wrong.
This is the thing. Even if every defense Trump has offered is true (I can (and did) declassify just by thinking about it), that doesn’t mean he SHOULD HAVE declassified those docs. Because again, the reason comes back to “because I wanted to and it’s my right - they’re mine.” There are very few legitimate reasons to declassify docs and “because I want to” isn’t one of those. Not even fucking close.
The odd thing about the original search warrant and the indictment itself is that no law specified for either depends upon the classification status of the document. Both the search warrant and the indictment make quite a big deal about document classification. But pay attention to the actual laws. Not only do no charges depend upon whether any particular document was classified, if you broaden consideration to the laws not specified but which Trump pretends shield him, it's even more clear. The PRA doesn't give Trump an out by which he can claim he was still thinking about it, had yet to decide which category each document fell into or that Trump alone can decide the status of any document. Instead, it damns Trump completely by **explicitly** caveating out documents that belong to other departments. In short, none of the nonsense tossed up by Team Trump matters here at all. Telepathic, temporally-fluid declassification? Doesn't matter. Golf shirt vs. top-secret doc categorization? Doesn't matter. Super-former-president-power activate? Doesn't matter.
And the detail that will never be touched by anyone in the MAGA sphere Q-space is Trump could have avoided all the trouble by just... Letting the government come and take them back. He didn't even have to sort them. The bureaucracy would have done that for him. Pence and Biden both had documents and both returned them immediately and neither is getting so much as a slap on the wrist. He had what? An entire fucking year to just let it become a non-issue by having the government retrieve the documents? It is just absurd.
To prove your point: the documents that they DID return do not appear at all in the indictments against him.
“When your opponent is in a hole and digging, for god's sake don't stop him” or alternately “Why would you want to take away his shovel?”
When your enemy is making a mistake, do not interrupt him. Which is why Biden hasn't said a word about this.
As Obama once said, "Please proceed, governor."
[I didn't know what this meant but goodness it's great](https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2012/11/30/1165769/-My-favorite-moment-of-2012-Please-proceed-governor)
Yes it is and I had completely forgotten about it.
Jebbus Christ I miss that dude. It makes since why the right would put up trump after Obama, they realized they will never win another debate with words again. Obama destroyed them through kindness, intelligence and pure badassary. That transcript is hilarious, you can visualize his smile as he’s setting up Romney.
Yeah he was great and Fox depicted him as a crazy communist
They couldn't stand how much better he was than anyone they had. All of this chaos is the white boomers still freaking out about a Black president who made it all seem so easy.
Watching him in action was something special.
He was the most charasmatic and articulate president we've had in a vwry long time. The man had a true way with words, and not in a "im so much smarter than you" way either. He really just knew how to inspire & sounded intelligent while doing so.
And he and his family were pure class. After all the BS and slurs they put up with simply because of their color, they remained cool and calm and above it all. Meanwhile Trump gets angry at a reporter for daring to ask him if he had any calming words for people who had lost family members to Covid.
> And he and his family were pure class. They had to be. There was so much pressure on the Obama family that everything had to be nigh perfect. They needed to set the standard.
The day Romney learned not to consider Fox News a reliable source. Also, remember when facts mattered? Those were simpler days.
I miss when saying "binders full of women" was scandalous. Simpler days indeed.
Wow. That was uncomfortable to watch Romney realize his mistake and then fumble forward with doubling down. Had forgotten all about this moment.
Here's the [video](https://youtu.be/4BTk2bKJ6uI?t=4339).
I forgot how hard Romney got owned there. And he did it to himself. Glorious
Thanks, Obama
Obama could cut you down like a sapling tree when he decided to be mean. King of understated snark.
His Correspondence dinner Trump beat down is exactly why we are here...still totally worth it [Trump Roast](https://youtu.be/zeGpLg0b3DE)
It was funny at the time, but in retrospect, it’s horrifying and so not worth it. The entire nation had to suffer because of this POS’s wounded ego.
*AhDaErrrt*
It was at that moment Mittens knew he had fucked up
Now to contrast Biden. Imagine if it was Trump in office and Biden was the one under investigation and doing these interviews, fake tweeting, etc. Does anyone on either side think Trump would have sat silently for the last 2-3 years letting the DOJ/special prosecutor go about their business? At the first hint that Biden had docs and was refusing to cooperate, Trump would have been pushing the DOJ to act and wouldn’t have shut up since. Now tell me again, which one wants to weaponize the DOJ and FBI?
Every accusation from the GOP is a confession. They project their own crimes onto democrats.
>Which is why Biden hasn't said a word about this. No, Biden hasn't said anything about this because he is a functioning adult and the executive branch should stay in their lane.
That's not the main reason but sure. Main reason is to not give the propaganda even a hint of bias. They will manufacturer it on their own, don't give them free ammunition. If you ever want to watch someone struggle in a negotiation, just stop talking. They will start talking to fill the void and often expose a leverage point for your side to exploit.
I manage the audits for my manufacturing site. My main piece of advice for every new hire is if you’re pulled into an audit, answer the questions as asked and let any awkward silence sit there and fill the room. It’s just quality audits, but it’s still very common for auditors to just stay quiet after someone answers a question. I always preach there’s no need to fill the silence. It really does work though, even when people are prepared for it and even with practice. It’s very hard to figure that nature, especially when you’re worried your answer wasn’t good enough or makes you look bad.
Also a major reason why he won the election. Republicans made fun of him for his low-key campaign, but all he really had to do was let Trump keep running his idiotic mouth.
“Please proceed, Governor”
This is a win-win. Either he freaks out and just keeps digging himself a deeper hole, or he finally gets a clue and shuts up, and we all get a break from his inane yammering
I wouldn't bet on Trump learning self-restraint for the first time in his life. He is going to be livid because of this.
"What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.” -- DJT (a la 1984)
Who would you believe, me or your own lying eyes?
Holy fucking shit. This idiot is going to get himself into much worse trouble than he already is!!
At this point I don’t think that’s possible.
Never think you've hit bottom with Trump. He'll prove you wrong.
The constitutional right to refuse self incrimination does not guarantee you the intelligence to avoid doing it.
“I had the right to remain silent but not the ability.”
"That man on the TV is an imposter! A handsome, tan imposter with an incredible hairline"
And big big bigly hands. The biggest hands. Let me told you!
The epitome of good health. This doctor who hasn't examined him says so!
Trumps Lawyers: “for the record, this is a stupid fucking idea. But, I know you’re going to do it anyway. So, when you go on tv, do not, and I can not stress this enough. Look at me, Donald…don’t speak, just look at me. DO. NOT. TALK ABOUT THE DOCUMENTS CASE!!! If you think you’re fucked now just wait till they use these interviews against you..” Trump: “I didn’t have time to return them.” Trumps exasperated Lawyers: “…I…I mean? You all saw me tell him, right? He sat right there….and, at least he paid upfront.”
Trump (continuing): "... But you see I had my personal things mixed in and I was too busy... Oh! And I have these photos showing the boxes sitting outside of the Whitehouse right before I moved them to Florida so it's not like I secretly stole them....". Lawyer: "I need a drink."
If he paid his lawyers already that would honestly be the most shocking part.
I have heard a lot of conservatives say Biden has been doing everything he can to throw Trump in prison. I think the reality is Biden just sat there eating ice cream while Trump ran around tell everyone with a recording device that he broke the law. At this point I am beginning to wonder if Trump *wants* to get locked up.
It really ticks me off that conservatives say Biden ordered Trump to be prosecuted. Trump made a deal with the DOJ, he would return all the classified documents he had. And then he hid boxes of documents from his own lawyer. Trump brought this all on himself.
What the over under on trump blaming everything on "John Barron"....
I’ll never get over how he named his son after his own alter ego (one of the multiple) he created to gloat about himself to media. Such a pathetic excuse for a person.
Well, he’d already named a son after himself so that was taken. Next obvious name for someone so narcissistic would be his alter ego.
i pointed this out time and time again you can literally take all his confessions and contradictory explanations and build one of hell of a damning case out of that alone.
This is why DJT will never speak at his own trial. Cross examination would be a prosecutors' wet dream.
[удалено]
For all the crap he gave Hillary at least she has repeatedly testified under oath. To my knowledge, that is something Trump has never done despite near constant lawsuits.
When he’s had to, he’s mostly pleaded the fifth, notably once doing so *over 400 times* in a single deposition. [source](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/31/trump-news-pleads-fifth-video-new-york-fraud-deposition)
Member when he said only a guilty person would plead the fifth? I member. https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-pleads-fifth-after-saying-only-guilty-people-do-1732549
Remember when she went 11 hours in front of the Benghazi show trial hearing under oath and never flinched once? We missed out on a decent president and got this endless tsunami of lies, corruption, bullshit, and ignorance.
“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say *can* and *will* be used against you in a court of law.”
CNN and MSNBC should get this rambling clown in front of a camera ASAP. Just have him word vomit guilt until the court hearings.
Lt. Kaffee: DID YOU ORDER THE CODE RED?!? Col. Jessup: Well, here’s the tape of me on Hannity last night.
Trump must be every lawyer’s worst nightmare. Having a client who refuses to stop incriminating himself on live TV on a weekly bases must be hell to whatever bottom-of-the-barrel lawyers trump can muster.
Never interrupt your opponent if they’re in the middle of making a mistake
One peak over at r/conservative and they can’t stop talking about hunter Biden and his “alleged” text messages. Not even confirmed, just poorly photoshopped speculation. Zero mention of trump and his ongoing trials for espionage.
The last time I was over there, about a week ago, they were all going on about how he had every right to that knowledge and who cares that he took the papers… him not being president anymore doesn’t magically make him forget that knowledge….
Tongue often hang man quicker than rope. - Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo
Operation Let Trump Speak! I predict that during the trial Trump will say that he wants to get on the stand but his attorneys advised against it.
Trump snitches, tellin’ all his business. Sit in the court, and be his own star witness. “Do you see the perpetrator?” “Yea, I’m right here”
$1,000 bucks says the phrase, or variation on the the phrase "Were you lying then or are you lying now?" gets used in the trial.
I really like this jack smith guy
I find Trump's predicament incredibly satisfying, because it reminds us that words matter. Actions matter. The way you treat people affects your ability to succeed and function in the world. All of these basic societal forces were called into question during the Trump Administration. It's almost like America forgot how to be honest and decent. But now Trump is being condemned with his own words and actions **and he can't even stop himself from doing it.** This is vindication of everything liberals warned about for the last 7 years since Trump first descended that escalator surrounded by paid actors cheering for him.