John Dean’s incisive observations about Trump’s pugnacious tactics should not be missed.
By John Dean
He clearly feels the pressure of being under investigation by someone with both the resources and skills to uncover any wrongdoing by him or his family.
Trump the politician expanded his fights to include political opponents, and now as president, he is in a fight with the federal intelligence community, the Washington press corps, the “deep state” (otherwise known as career government bureaucrats) and Democrats, along with a few Republicans and even some of his staff.
Trump Tactics
Donald Trump’s tactics are conspicuous to anyone who follows his actions, and can be reduced to two overriding activities: (1) He lies consistently and persistently; (2) he cheats whenever the opportunity presents itself to do so, and (3) he tries to intimidate everyone with whom he deals.
Dean’s analysis of Trump’s tactics is confirmed by Trump’s involvement in 3,500 lawsuits, many of them filed by Trump himself with little merit, meant only to hector and stress the financial resources of his many disgruntled investors, swindled Trump U students, and Trump’s critics into submission.
In business and politics, and now in government, Trump is operating at about the level of a precocious eight grader. The games he has played in the past are not going to work in the league he now finds himself.
Mueller and Company are sophisticated and experienced federal prosecutors who have dealt with miscreants far more sophisticated and clever than Donald Trump. In fact, in the end Trump’s tactics, which are obvious and recorded, will be used against him. His lawyers seem unable to stop him, but they have surely told him.
Today, we are watching a very frightened Donald Trump. He knows he is in a fight way above his league, but he does not know how to play above that league. Nor does he understand Washington and the presidency sufficiently well to know how to use it—...
Trump’s presidency is in a downward spiral. We can only hope Americans will learn some valuable (if painful) lessons from this increasingly ugly spectacle of the Trump error.
By Richard North Patterson
Taking their arguments together, his advocates would immunize Trump from all legal or constitutional constraints. Only such unprecedented empowerment, they assure us, can prevent Trump’s persecution for crass political purposes, rescuing the world’s most powerful man from malign forces bent on his victimization. And so, in the end, American law would mirror Trump’s own narcissism.