Trump Show Off Broadway

Donald Trump is going full Trump Show as he takes the witness stand in his fraud trial. Of course, following his tradition of projection, Trump has called the judge and the trial a fraud. It may play well to his cult following, but it’s not playing well with the judge and the judge is the one who will decide the damages in this case. (As I’m writing this, the trial has taken a break for lunch which is a grilled cheese and chips that Trump Org valued at $1.4 million.) Here’s the latest from CNN, the Messenger, and NBC.

+ Trump seems to be betting it all on winning another presidential election and using the justice system to free himself of legal burdens and then go after his opponents. This is not a hidden strategy. WaPo (Gift Article): “Donald Trump and his allies have begun mapping out specific plans for using the federal government to punish critics and opponents should he win a second term, with the former president naming individuals he wants to investigate or prosecute and his associates drafting plans to potentially invoke the Insurrection Act on his first day in office to allow him to deploy the military against civil demonstrations … To facilitate Trump’s ability to direct Justice Department actions, his associates have been drafting plans to dispense with 50 years of policy and practice intended to shield criminal prosecutions from political considerations.”

+ And even with the court cases, the fraud, the crimes, January 6, the relentless lies, the dictator worship, the attempts to overturn the election, the stealing of classified material, the promise of authoritarian-style retribution, and the general crazy-ass shitheadedness, a recent Times/Sienna poll shows Trump leading Biden in key swing states.