Photo By Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons
Column By John Young
It’s all about keeping a lie alive.
When Donald Trump issued the all-time blooper, “Nikki Haley was in charge of security” at the Capitol Jan. 6, all of the media focus was on the flub.
Please, news types. Fixating on lip slips is the Fox Propaganda Channel way. (“Bulletin: Biden stutters again.”)
The real story was the lie.
That lie: the insinuation that Trump did something to protect the Capitol when all hell broke loose Jan. 6.
Prove it, Mr. Defendant.
Jack Smith requests the honor of your explanation.
It’s just another example of how every moment of every day, and often into early mornings, Trump lives a lie, knowing his followers will swallow every word.
Ah, but in two courtrooms this week he finally is paying for this lifestyle, his lie-style.
Last week a jury ordered him to pay $83.3 million on top of a $5 million judgment in the ongoing and impenitent defamation of E. Jean Carroll, whom the judge determined he raped in a New York fitting room.
This week a judge is set to lower the boom on the Trump Organization for lying about the value of his properties to obtain sweetheart deals from lenders.
That Trump engaged in such chicanery is the furthest thing from a revelation. Michael Cohen gave us a preview five years ago.
The former Trump attorney told the House Oversight Committee in 2019 how Trump jiggered property values – inflating them to get better loans, deflating them to lower his taxes and get better insurance rates.
Observe the New York fraud trial and ask: What is this man worth anyway? A Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation by The New York Times found he was worth much less than he claimed, owing much of his wealth to his father. It found questionable tax avoidance schemes that boosted his coffers greatly.
Unfortunately for Defendant Trump, he can’t now cop a “cash poor” plea when socked by these verdicts.
Trump’s own words — his deposition for the state’s lawsuit against the Trump Organization, claiming a worth of as much as $3 billion (“It’s all in the brand”) — was shown to the jury in the E. Jean Carroll suit.
That boast undoubtedly helped jurors formulate the stunning civil judgment.
All of this points back to the original lie of the Trump saga: He said he was so rich that he could and would fund his own campaign.
I remember a man in 2016 citing that thing in influencing his vote. Trump was incorruptible.
I wonder if Mr. Gullible has ever rethought that decision as he has seen Trump’s businesses rake in millions from foreign governments and the ex-president sell doodads and gewgaws on cable.
One wonders if, upon Biden’s victory in 2020, that dude sent money to Trump’s Save America PAC, nominally to “Stop the Steal,” but really to serve as a slush fund for the Golden Grifter.
Onward we go in a hyper-costly cavalcade of court time, not a second of which would be necessary if not for Donald Trump’s lies.
“Please, justices I picked: I appeal to you. Let me break some laws. OK. Let me break any and all laws. A president constrained by the law is no president at all.”
“Please, justices I picked: I appeal to you. The 14th Amendment says that insurrectionists can’t run for office, but it says nothing about this insurrectionist.”
Team Trump has asserted that if Trump were to be prevented from running for president, “bedlam” would ensue.
Plaintiffs from Colorado, writing to the court, point out that Americans have already seen “the ‘bedlam’ Trump unleashed when he was on the ballot and lost.”
The question remains: How different would history be if Nikki Haley had stopped those rioters before they reached the Capitol steps?
Longtime newspaperman John Young lives in Colorado. Email him at jyoungcolumn@gmail.com.
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author.
