TWGB: Broke and Losing It

 

Donald, man. Check the tape. pic.twitter.com/PwXb9iqP4j

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) February 29, 2024

I would call that mean, and unfair, and I would call it ageist and far, far out of context, except, I have written about how Trump never would have come up with the idea of him being a "stable genius" and defended that tooth and nail if he wasn't already well aware his stability and intellect were being regularly challenged. I also don't think much of the sarcastic "jokes" of a person who doesn't seem clear about what sarcasm is. Or what jokes are. Trump has long been a bully, and what I like about Biden is, he doesn't care for bullies and comes at them--no malarkey. 

Anyway, Biden got a physical recently and did not get a cognitive test because he didn't need one. Trump has to constantly talk about his. Trump takes the slight regarding his mental state very seriously. It's all about the Democrats! They are making him look crazy! 

OK, but what Democrats are doing this man's make-up and hair and dressing him? Just asking. 

I think the real thing on what's left of Trump's mind now, though, is being broke. He recently tried to play "Let's make a Deal" regarding his NY civil fraud trial damages, offering $100 million. Or maybe a little delay while he searches the sofa cushions in every one of his properties. (He was not aware, to use a very good turn of phrase, that the cruelty of the fines he faced, were, in fact, the point.)  He wanted to apply for an appeal of the E.Jean Carroll damages by fronting nothing at all. The plaintiff side argued that Mr. Broke might not be good for a bond for one thing and his financial situation wasn't getting better for another.

Former Trump counsel Micheal Cohen describes this situation of being really very broke as a harm to his ego. Or "Super-ego" (technically, that would ordinarily be one's moral or conscience side, but Trump doesn't have one of those and idolizes money, so maybe Cohen's phrase is completely correct in this case.) 

The key here is his liquidity. He has to possibly sell properties, but they have recently suffered a bit of devaluation rather publicly. And he can't accept that sudden devaluation, because he is devalued by it. So he tries to shift things around. Not sure why he thinks no one will catch him trying to get out of how screwed he is.

For one thing, his "partners' in Truth Social think he's trying to diddle them. That's like, his one non-RE holding that might be worth major bank, depending on if investors think it's worth the gamble and he won't flake and just try to hork whatever cash gets pumped into the thing. (Also--why? is a web-based media company going anywhere these days? For his viewership a valuation in the billions is sketch. Because, see branding issues of 91 counts of felonies and sex pest judgment.)  And for those who don't want to believe his US-based legal troubles are anything but politics, his business in Scotland is similar and they should take a cue from New York. 

But here's the sort of troubling thing--next week, one of his dictator-buddies Viktor Orban is coming on down to meet him at Mar-a-Lago, where I TRUST FBI has swept out all the classified docs, right? (But not all the bugs?) Of course, he still has his partnership with LIV to possibly bail him out a little. 

And Trump's little friends are ramping up to help him in his election again this year, apparently. 

It's a mad world, but if there's justice, Mr. Stable Genius is going to be a broke joke,

The hush money trial is still going to go down, and despite the SCOTUS decision to take on Trump's immunity claim, I still think we might see some part of Smith's case. 

Here's my thing--remember the 60+ cases Trump had in the election-denial phase of his grief? Remember how they rejected his claims to executive privilege and already stalled his immunity over civil cases? 

I think they might just be trying to settle Trump's hash this year instead of having some long, drawn out, national nightmare. And it does a lot for their legitimacy if that's all it's about--making their word, final. But also, ultimately upholding the "Yuck no" on Trump's wholesale universal immunity claims. 

I am not always a Suzy Silverlinings, but on this one, the alternative is so, so unthinkable.