On June 8, Donald Trump announced that he was off to travel the world for the G7 summit and Singapore get together, and didn’t have time to deal with things like the “Russian Witch Hunt Hoax.” But now that his feet have once again touched American soil, Trump has cranked up his Twitter machinery to continue his insistence that he is above, beside, and everywhere but under the law.
According to Trump, now that he is home, “the thought process must sadly go back to the Witch Hunt.” Though Trump makes no effort to explain why he is forced to spend his time attacking the rule of law rather than, say, deal with the mess he made of international relations at the G7, or perhaps noting down some of those items in his off-the-books agreement with “tough guy” Kim Jong Un. Apparently, having solved the threat of nuclear war through not getting rid of a single bomb or missile, and having dealt with the issues of friendly international trade by driving a stake through its heart, Trump has time for side issues.
And in advance of the release of the Inspector General report, which will hit Congress today, it’s important that Trump grease the rails for all the Republican narratives to come.
But Trump also has another craw-sticker to deal with this morning, after the New York attorney general’s office cooked up a very special birthday present. Trump has responded to the announced lawsuit from the state of New York by making his standard ‘This Is Sparta’ speech …
“I won’t settle!” Is what Trump has said a thousand times. Actually, more like three thousand five hundred times. Usually, right before he settles.
The Trump Foundation has produced its own statement for how it managed the perpetual motion award for generating more funds than it collected.
The reason the Foundation was able to donate more than it took in is because it had little to no expenses.
So little expenses that they were apparently negative $400,000. Trump already quietly admitted to violating the laws against using a charitable foundation for self-dealing in the days right after the election. So pretending now that the Trump Foundation was a great thing would seem to be based on that idea that, 13,201 scandals later, no one really remembers the details of that case. After all, the days when we were actually talking about how Trump had used his charity to buy giant self-portraits and pay off golf bets, rather than fretting over how Trump was destroying alliances and consorting with dictators, seems like a simpler, more innocent time. It seems that way because it was a simpler, more innocent time.
Trump devotes another tweet to attacking former New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman who, inconveniently, is not present. However, the fact that this case was delayed until now likely says little about the willingness of either Schneiderman or current Attorney General Barbara Underwood to prosecute Trump’s multiple violations of state and federal law. More likely it indicates that, until now, the case was on hold at the request of special counsel Robert Mueller. Which makes the fact that New York took this step … interesting.
You can stop your clocks now. But still, five whole days of not talking about the Mueller investigation, and all it took was giving Trump a whole planet to screw up.