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In a vestigial act that recalls a bygone era, on February 4, a bipartisan group of Senators announced a deal to address immigration and border issues that Republicans were using to block aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. As NBC News reported:1
The $118 billion package includes a series of provisions aimed at reducing record high crossings at the southern border and tightening an asylum system that has been overwhelmed by migrants fleeing their homes to seek refuge. It also includes critical aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, which Republicans have said they’ll only support if it is paired with significant new U.S. immigration restrictions.
The agreement — reached by Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz. — would be the most aggressive border security and migration overhaul bill in decades if it passes Congress. It would raise the standard to get asylum, send away those who don't qualify and expedite cases for those who do.
While many of us were no doubt encouraged that at least one House of Congress could do its job, one prominent figure came out against the bill- Donald Trump.
[Trump] has told Republicans to reject it if it isn’t “perfect.” He has also falsely suggested that the bill would allow 5,000 illegal border crossings per day as he seeks to wield border chaos as a political weapon in a likely 2024 rematch against President Joe Biden, who quickly endorsed the bill.2
The consequence of Trump’s pressure campaign is that intimidated Congressional Republicans dropped support for the legislation, an absurdity given the bill gives Republicans most of what they demanded in terms of “border security”. During a press conference on border security priorities near the U.S.-Mexico border in Eagle Pass, Texas January 3, House Speaker Mike Johnson had said, “One thing is absolutely clear, America is at a breaking point with record levels of illegal immigration.” As a good Christian, Johnson is likely praying that the “breaking point” won’t be reached until 2025 when God’s chosen candidate is President. As a good Magatonian, he made clear he would not bring the bill to a floor vote in the House even if it passed in the Senate. No worries- the bill did not garner the 60 votes necessary to overcome a Republican filibuster in the upper chamber.
House Republicans are acting in the service of a man who has been in more courts than a basketball team. It is common knowledge that former President Trump considers himself a winner in all things big and small and is in perpetual denial about losing in any part of his life. His current legal problems offer him the rare chance to have it both ways: He is the obvious champion in the Ex-President-Indictment-Derby, coming in at 91 felony charges against the zero scored by the 44 previous chief executives. On the other hand, his prospects in the criminal cases awaiting trial are dim and he is likely to be found guilty on some of those charges.
The criminal justice system is not the only peril facing the leader of the MAGA cult. In an ironic twist, the civil courts, a favorite tool of Trump the businessman (he was involved in over 3,500 lawsuits) are now being used against him. In a 2019 book, former prosecutor James Zirin documented Trump’s legal history.3
Trump saw litigation as being only about winning. He sued at the drop of a hat. He sued for sport; he sued to achieve control; and he sued to make a point. He sued as a means of destroying or silencing those who crossed him. He became a plaintiff in chief.
Now the worm has turned on Citizen Trump. In late January, a jury in Federal district Court in Manhattan awarded writer E. Jean Carroll over $83 million in compensatory and punitive damages, a result of her successful defamation suit against him. A previous trial established the fact that Trump sexually assaulted Ms. Carroll in a department store dressing room in the 1990s and that Trump had defamed her after she went public with an account of the assault in 2019. While Trump has vowed to appeal the judgement, an appeal would require him to deposit the full amount in cash with the court. His alternative would be to post an appeal bond, a dual problem as any insurance company willing to issue such bond would require collateral (such as real estate) equal in value to the size of the bond.
Still to come is the judgement stemming from bench trial (before a judge, with no jury) on civil fraud in New York state court . NY Attorney General Letitia James sought a disgorgement (a return of money obained by fraud) of $370 million and requested the court Trump be barred from participating in New York’s real estate industry and from running any company in the state.
Ouch.
To complete the saga of Trump’s legal travails, last week the Federal Appellate Court for the D.C. Circuit ruled against his appeal of the District Court Judge in his criminal case that he had ”absolute immunity” against prosecution for actions he took as President. While the ruling makes clear that this position would place a President above the law, Trump is taking the case to the Supreme Court, hoping to postpone the trial until after the November election. In the peculiar logic that colors his public pronouncements in speeches and on social media, Trump claims he’s done nothing wrong and the prosecutions are a "witch hunt”. One has to wonder why he isn’t taking the opportunity to exonerate himself in a public trial.
And it’s also a wonder why the man who promised us “so much winning” keeps losing in court. Recall that following the election of November, 2020, Trump and his campaign filed 62 lawsuits seeking to overturn the results in a number of states. By January 6, sixty-one of those suits had failed.
Concurrent with his various legal troubles, Trump is campaigning for the Republican nomination for President. His motivations for wanting an encore term in the White House are apparent: One, if elected, he can direct the Justice Department to curtail the Federal prosecutions he is facing, hence his incessant delaying tactics to avoid Federal trials before the electon. Second, campaigning presents him with the opportunity to raise money from his supporters, money he needs as much to pay his legal bills as his campaign expenses. Last month, the New York Times reported that PACs (Political Action Committees) supporting the Trump campaign had spent $50 million in 2023 on legal fees. Given the quality of the representation he received in the New York cases, Trump may be overpaying his lawyers.
As to the campaign itself, Trump is recycling his old hits in his stream-of-consciousness stump speeches . As referred to above, he would like to run against President Biden on immigration and the border. He coupled his opposition to the bill that would address these issues with an attack on Senator James Lankford (R-OK), one of its authors, claiming that he did not endorse Lankford for reelection in 2022 when in reality he gave him a “Complete and Total Endorsement”. (We are reminded that loyalty and honesty are not the Donald’s strong suits.)
Most alarmingly, his public statements are becoming increasingly unhinged. He has confused Nikki Haley, his remaining opponent for the GOP nomination, with Nancy Pelosi, the former Democratic Speaker of the House. He often refers to running against former President Obama rather Joe Biden, the current President who defeated him in 2020. The theme of his statements at his rallies and in interviews is authoritarian in tone: His intention to set up camps to detain the immigrants he will subject to mass deportations is one example.
Most recently, Trump has hopped aboard an old hobby horse and restated his antipathy toward NATO. He repeatedly states that he feels no obligation to come to the aid of any NATO ally attacked by Russia as required by Article 5 of the alliance’s treaty. More pointedly, the AP reported that Haley, who was Trump’s UN Ambassador, and others who worked in his Administration, indicated that he repeatedly expressed a desire to withdraw from NATO. Along with his frequent praise for Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Trump’s statements are unsettling to our European allies who view the war in Ukraine as a portent of future Russian aggression.
In one sense, for anyone who has been familiar with Trump’s behavior since he moved into Manhattan real estate in the 1970s, none of this is new.4 He is the ultimate big-stakes grifter, a self-promoter who has weaseled his way out of the consequences of his actions so often that he inevitably conned himself into believing he can get away with anything (e.g. shooting someone on Fifth Avenue). But the truth just may be that the sheer preponderance of his legal difficulties are engendering desperation that is manifesting itself as derangement.
It’s never a pretty sight when a narcissist’s self-image is destroyed by reality. In Trump’s case, it is our democracy itself that could be the collateral casualty.
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IBID
James Zirin, Plaintiff in Chief: A Portrait of Donald Trump in 3,500 Lawsuits ( All Points Books, 2019)
Excellent summation of the latest Marvel superhero 'Vomitface'
What we have in the immigration debacle is proof that the former GOP is a wholly owned subsidiary of Trump. All House Republicans ( if we can still use that name ) wanted reform and readied a bill for passage; enter Trump against any immigration resolution and we have complete reversal of sentiment for it. Imagine, if you can, the unilateral actions desired by Trump if in office again to withdraw from NATO, and stop all funds and materiel from going abroad for any cause. Apply that to the United Nations as well. Feature the Army at the southern border repulsing all immigrants, with gunfire as needed. There you have dictator Trump at his rawest.
Now go a little farther and imagine Trump signaling Putin to attack the 3 weak NATO Baltic countries because they don't pay their share of national dues toward the alliance. Picture Trump nodding toward China preparing and executing an invasion of Taiwan. Whoops, there go most of the world's semiconductor chips, meaning your cars, cameras, cell phones etc.becoming unreplaceable or imported from China at high cost. Picture Kim Jong Un lobbing nukes at South Korea, Japan, Wake Island and maybe Hawaii without reproach or American retaliation. Picture spies from many nations infiltrating American business with no active FBI or Justice department monitoring and arrest. You're looking at American the Beautiful (Communist) nation, hunkered down hoping for love letters from Kim, praise and direction from Putin and economic stagnation by blockading China. You can't go anywhere, buy anything, object to conditions, demonstrate for or against anything, or vote for anyone not Trump-approved. Pray to God and hope to die that November 2024 voters see the spectre and vote for Biden.
Otherwise. . .