The Neither Shocking Nor Surprising Trump of It All
Also the surprising and the shocking and every other combo you can imagine....
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THREE VIDEOS TO SOOTHE YOUR SOUL BEFORE READING ALL ABOUT DONALD TRUMP
* Pete Maravich vs Bob McAdoo in a spirited game of H-O-R-S-E.
* “In an interview filmed ten days before his death, former President Lyndon B. Johnson discusses with Walter Cronkite his commitment to civil rights and his achievements in this area: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Equal Housing Law of 1968”
* Mick Jagger tries to keep up with Lady Gaga in a rousing version of “Gimme Shelter.”
OK.
We are all calmed down now.
Trump.
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Spoiler alert: As always with all Things Trump, there is more that is “neither shocking nor surprising” than in any other category by far.
Note: Trump speaks today around 2:30pm ET to the Georgia Republican Party and at dinner around 6:45pm ET to the North Carolina Party. Expect a lot of live cable coverage.
SHOCKING AND SURPRISING
* As the New York Times makes clear, no one can figure out yet why why why Trump kept the documents and wouldn’t give them back. If was really just for “trophies,” then that is f-ed up.
SHOCKING AND NOT SURPRISING
* Some legal analysts think a trial in the Miami case is possible before Election Day. (I remain skeptical.)
NOT SHOCKING BUT SURPRISING
* Headlines to the contrary (“The startling, damning details in the Trump indictment”), the rough outlines of the case had all been leaked out beforehand (for whatever reason(s)).
* Jack Smith cleverly included in the indictment some of Trump’s own past statements criticizing the very type of behavior he is accused of.
* Jonathan Turley, in an afternoon TV appearance on Fox, became the only known significant man-bites-dog defection from the Trump point of view.
* Jonathan Turley, by the time he wrote an op-ed for the New York Post, was back being more concerned about the Deep State than about Trump’s alleged actions.
* Merrick Garland’s role is that of the Invisible Man; Lisa Monaco’s role is that of the Invisible Woman; the media seems very little concerned about this.
* The curious and controversial character of Judge Aileen Cannon is back.
NEITHER SHOCKING NOR SURPRISING
* Team Trump has both instinctively and ferociously gone back to the well that has worked so well for them in the past: Hillary, Hunter, Corvette, Deep State, Truth Social, retweets, House Republicans, conservative media, using the Dominant Media as a helplessly (un)willing participant conveyor belt, etc. As per the Washington Post:
A[n]…adviser said Trump probably would play up a narrative that he was a victim, asking supporters to rally around him as he takes on the FBI and the Justice Department, and criticizes the agencies in scathing terms for their lack of prosecution of President Biden’s son, Hunter, who is under federal investigation on allegations of tax evasion and lying in the purchase of a gun.
One adviser predicted a “ton of money” would be raised for Trump from the prospect of federal prosecutors seeking to potentially imprison him for decades. The goal from Trump’s campaign, this person said, is to harden his political support among his base in coming weeks. The campaign declined to say how much money it had raised so far, but campaign advisers said they expected millions this weekend.
“We are going to fight like hell, and we’re going to hang it on Joe Biden every day that he did this,” said Chris LaCivita, a top Trump adviser.
* Every Republican strategist still knows that siding with the Deep State over Trump will alienate voters their clients need to win, as per the Washington Post:
“[H]e’s dominating in every poll and nothing has ever changed that. No one wants to get too far out on a limb before they see public sentiment moving,” the Republican said.
….which is why Ron DeSantis in North Carolina on Friday night talking about Jack Smith sounded like Jason Miller:
* While Trump’s rivals for the Republican nomination feel they must support Trump and decry the Deep State now, they also think their best bet ultimately is to play up three related themes suggesting his vulnerability: (1) he is bad at fighting the Deep State; (2) the Deep State will never leave him alone; (3) general election swing voters won’t like any of this and Trump can’t win, all as per this essential reading Washington Post story:
Despite the initial public statements, strategists for multiple campaigns have already begun to speak privately about the possibility that Trump’s federal legal challenges could reset the Republican nomination battle, which Trump has dominated so far this year. They see a clear opening developing over the coming months to use the indictment in a way that reminds Republican voters of their concerns about his judgment and competence.
A Republican consultant who is a longtime supporter of DeSantis called the federal case another example of Trump “stepping on one rake after another.”
“The ironic thing about Trump’s messaging all along is that he can take on the establishment, drain the swamp and get rid of the deep state,” the consultant said. “Not sure how he expects to take on the swamp and the deep state if he continually becomes a victim of the deep state.”
* Chris Christie is Chris Christie.
* Trump freezes the Republican presidential nomination race – and freezes his rivals out from any coverage that doesn’t involve him.
* Team Biden will always stay far, far away from this.
* Republican House members are just as all-in for Trump now as they were before the indictment was released, with some saying some stuff they should not (but for which they will face no real accountability or backlash):
* Nancy Mace and Michael Caputo believe Jack Smith has just ensured Trump will be the Republican nominee.
* Donald Trump will do things that one could, under normal circumstances, only imagine a Bond villain, Dr. Evil, or Donald Trump doing.
* Absolutely no one doubts that Trump was capable of doing everything with which he is accused; no one in any public or private conversation says anything like, “The Donald Trump I know would never do anything like that!”; instead, it’s all, “Yeah, I could see him doing that, of course.”
* Headlines of Dominant Media accounts about how Republican voters are turning on Trump over this are, invariably, far less than advertised when you actually read the stories; even though the Dominant Media wants nothing more than to finally see the day when Trump’s conduct causes voters to turn on him, they can’t find enough voters even anecdotally (let alone based on polls coming soon) to prove their desired point.
* The New York Times and Washington Post ed boards say DOJ had no choice but to indict Trump; the Wall Street Journal ed board says DOJ made a historic error with devastating long-term consequences by making the fateful choice to indict Trump, with Gigot & Co. thrown back into Trump’s arms in writing:
The greatest irony of the age of Trump is that for all his violating of democratic norms, his frenzied opponents have done and are doing their own considerable damage to democracy.
* Mitt is Mitt.
* Hillary Clinton decided she would (inadvertently or vertently?) help Trump politically.
* Reds accused Democrats of simultaneously wanting to do anything to stop Trump from being president and of indicting him for the explicit purpose of helping him win the nomination because they think he can’t win a general election.
* Jack Smith took no questions.
* Trump’s legal team is an apparent mess, with Boris Epshteyn playing a role both shadowy and starring.
* Norman Eisen, Andrew Weissmann and Joyce Vance explain the challenges Smith will have in prosecuting the case in an essential reading New York Times op-ed piece.
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ESSENTIAL READING
* The New York Time interview with Cheryl Hines, an accomplished person who just happens to be the wife of Bobby Kennedy (not that there’s anything wrong with that), is epic on too many levels to list here.
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