Uncontented with attacking Manhattan's district attorney in the most personally offensive ways imaginable, Trump has decided to go after the judge who will be hearing his felony case. He did so with caps, peculiar air quotes and, of course, exclamation points — all being signals of a disturbed and exceptionally rattled mind:
"The Judge 'assigned' to my Witch Hunt Case, a 'Case' that has NEVER BEEN CHARGED BEFORE, HATES ME. His name is Juan Manuel Marchan, was hand picked by Bragg & the Prosecutors, & is the same person who 'railroaded' my 75 year old former CFO, Allen Weisselberg, to take a 'plea' deal.... He strong armed Allen, which a judge is not allowed to do, & treated my companies, which didn't 'plead,' VICIOUSLY. APPEALING!"
No doubt that with the Christian name of "Juan," the New York state judge is in for some ethnic slurs, too, as the "animal," black district attorney has been. (Pace Trump, Marchan's colleagues describe him as a "serious" and "smart" judge in possession of an "excellent temperament, integrity and a solid knowledge of the law.")
Trump is also ill-contented with the heretofore listlessness of his populist, Second Amendment army. He was reasonably confident that, should he be indicted for having whored with a porn star bought off through crooked accounting, his prediction of "death and destruction" would suffice to bring both about. To his immense dissatisfaction, though, there have been no shootings, no burning buildings. And so yesterday he again attempted to incite the neofascistic troops to violence: "HOW MUCH MORE ARE AMERICAN PATRIOTS EXPECTED TO TAKE???"
Locally, the patriots include members of the New York Young Republican Club, who issued this deranged, cultish statement: "President Trump embodies the American people — our psyche from id to super-ego — as does no other figure; his soul is totally bonded with our core values and emotions, and he is our total and indisputable champion."
As your high school teachers used to instruct, compare and contrast that statement with the following, historical oath — although, admittedly, the "contrast" necessarily will be weak: "I swear to you, Adolf Hitler, as Führer and Chancellor of the German Reich, that I will be loyal and brave. I pledge obedience unto death to you and those you appoint to lead. So help me God."
The latest buzzword among the Trump Youth and other like-minded imbeciles is, as you know, "weaponization." It is also ironically warlike, sometimes in a Confederate secessionist kind of way. Gov. Ron DeSantis deployed the line "weaponization of the legal system" in his announcement that the state of Florida would in no way assist the federal government "in an extradition request," should it come to that.
Speaker of the House — or so it is rumored — Kevin McCarthy joined DeSantis's cliché alliance in declaring that "[Bragg] weaponized our sacred system of justice against President Donald Trump." He then sort of reiterated the former president's call for, ahem, unrest: "The American people will not tolerate this injustice."
The House GOP caucus piled on. Typical of their manic disorder was Arkansas Rep. Steve Womack's press release: "[This] opens a new era in political warfare that has no place in our country" — but which Republicans keep demanding in almost laughably unconcealed language. Womack added, in so many words, the already well-known fact that the era of GOP small government and states' rights is over: "Congress will investigate the conduct of the Manhattan D.A.'s office to determine if the indictment was justified and not partisan weaponization."
Typical also of the political press and punditariat is this fresh conventional wisdom: Trump was slumping, but now he's triumphant, for D.A. Bragg has turned once-stormy Lady Fortune around. The Republican presidential primary contest is as good as over. DeSantis is no more.
Such is the predictable, reflexive tic of the nattering nabobs of politics.
Consider this, from a just-released Quinnipiac University poll (A-), as summarized by the NY Times: "One in four Republicans and one in three independents said criminal charges should disqualify Mr. Trump as a presidential candidate." Those are rather sizable fractions — and based on peripatetic interviews, the Gray Lady suspects the fractions may enlarge.
"Republican officials almost unanimously rallied around Donald J. Trump after his indictment," writes the Times, "but the actual G.O.P. voters who will render a verdict on his political future next year weren’t nearly as solidly behind him.... For some the rush to defend was weighed down by scandal fatigue and a sense that Mr. Trump’s time has passed." Said one: "He’s completely unpresidential. I can’t believe he’s still running for office.” Said another: "I’d like to see DeSantis have his chance." And another: "If he is as bad as I think he is, go ahead and do something [with the indictment]." Each had voted for Trump twice.
Scandal fatigue, even though already years long, has barely begun. D.A. Bragg's indictment is but the first of, most likely, four prosecutions. Over the coming months the following three will roll out like a shock-and-awe bombardment. For now Republicans are having fun disparaging what could indeed be a weak local case. Not so with the state and federal indictments pretty much in the can. Daily headlines will greet Trump (and his followers) with accusations of profoundly serious felonies of much greater legal robustness.
We'll then watch those anti-Trump Republican fractions — or factions — grow. So too will Trump's calls for violence, though its probable materialization will only damage him further. Trump is in for a long, relentless beating at the hands of American justice. It will deck him and flatten his base. He, and they, can take only so much.