And that is why you aren’t one of his advisors or otherwise part of his staff. If he only hires people who kiss his ass and cower from him, of course none of his people will tell him the truth.
Even on the rare occasion when someone stands up to him, he fires or otherwise distances himself from that person and considers them a traitor and unworthy of trust. See Omerosa, William Barr, etc.
Not if the witness actually believes the answer is correct.
The more likely event is that Trump contradicts his own earlier testimony. Smart prosecutors can use that against him and I would pay to watch that happen on television.
But, as others have already noted, the problem is getting him there. He’s already playing the executive privilege card.
As @k9bfriender pointed out, this is a civil case, not criminal. There are no prosecutors, only attorneys representing the plaintiff.
I don’t see how he can assert executive privilege in this matter. Either he defamed her or he didn’t, and none of the assertions have anything to do with him being president. His defamation was a matter of public record, so there’s nothing to shield. Moreover, the sexual misconduct alleged by Zervos occurred in 2007, long before he was president.
As for him asserting executive privilege in connection with the congressional committee investigating the January 6th insurrection, he’ll be able to delay with this tactic for awhile – but not indefinitely. Biden sure isn’t going to help him.
@Uniqueorn, I don’t believe a witness expressing an opinion about the outcome of an election would be guilty of committing perjury, unless it could be shown that the witness expressly stated that they knew the outcome was otherwise. As earlier noted by others, this line of questioning would be irrelevant in the Zervos case.
More likely it would unfold something like this during the deposition:
Plaintiff’s attorney: “Sir, did you ever say that Ms. Zervos’ allegations of your sexual misconduct with her were a hoax?”
Trump: “I never said that.”
Plaintiff’s attorney: “For the record, I offer a copy of this tweet published in 2016 under the account of Donald J. Trump asserting that allegations of sexual misconduct against you by Ms. Zervos are a hoax, as Plaintiff’s Exhibit 1.”
Trump: “Oh, you mean tweets? I didn’t write my own tweets.”
Plaintiff’s attorney: “So you’re saying you were unaware that this tweet was published on your behalf on your account? Do you disavow any knowledge of the contents of this tweet?”
Trump: “Uh, yeah. That’s what I’m saying.”
DA in Manhattan: (Licking chops)
(IANAL.)
According to multiple reports, that’s just not true, though. Plenty of Republicans claim to have summoned the fortitude to tell him. I mean, they are ostensibly on his side so they aren’t rubbing his face in it, but people like Chris Christie, Lindsey Graham and Bill Barr claim to have summoned to fortitude to take him aside and say things like, “It was a very close race, but you didn’t win.” ,“It’s not easy, you lost a very close election” and “I really wish that you’d won, but you didn’t.” These are paraphrased and I’m not going to dig through the books to get the exact quotes, but they are very close and capture the tone,
He just gets pissed off at them and accuses them of hating “Trump” (apparently he goes into that 3rd person thing when he’s really mad) and not fighting for him and being part of the scheme.
Then there’s the billboards on trucks with his picture and the word LOSER that drive past his window, and the airplanes with LED displays that say Loserpaloza and banners trumpeting his loss that fly over his rallies.
I agree that he believes he won, but it’s not because no one told him otherwise. It’s because the one central fact in his universe is that he can’t lose, and everything else has to be twisted to fit around that central point.
I found the article.
Interesting. I’ve read Wolfe’s book, I’ve read all the recently released high profile books about the last year of the Trump administration. I know the three men I referenced all claim to have very gently tried to tell him at least once.
None of them pushed past his denials, no one really tried to have a long talk with him, but I still don’t think it’s accurate that no one tried to tell him.
Wolfe’s book was a little infuriating, frankly. Wolfe has good stories, lots of trivial gossipy tidbits that make good sound bites. Trump is going to rail against Wolfe, but somehow Wolfe keeps getting access. I don’t think Trump hates him as much as he does the more serious journalists.
Sure, Wolfe portrays Trump as a deranged reality TV star, a circus clown. But he not only consistently minimizes the real world effects of Trump’s behavior, he uses the craziness to absolve Trump of any consciousness of guilt. He basically thinks events like Trump’s shakedown of Zelensky and Trump instigating the January 6th insurrection are just random unfortunate side effects of “Trump being Trump”, and Trump is blameless because he had no intention of doing those things, he was just being himself. He also believes the Democrats are always persecuting Trump unfairly for just being himself.
In order to support this thesis and absolve Trump in the events of January 6th, Wolfe had to make a case that Trump really didn’t know he was trying to overturn a fair election, and the “everyone was scared to tell him” narrative plays into that story. I suspect he means that everyone was scared to have that come to Jesus conversation, the intervention type discussion where you keep trying until the other person gets it, but that’s not the same as “not telling him.”
He vacated the Whitehovel grudgingly but without being forced or (disappointingly) dragged by the heels. He is not running mismanaging the US government. He is not even seriously acting as though he is still President Catastrophe-in-Chief. To argue that he actually believes he won the election goes counter to the available evidence.
But, but…
When he wishes upon a star,
Makes no difference if he’s a demented narcissitic asshole, no?
Ok my phrasing went off the rails, there, so you’ll have to sing those last four words really quickly, like one word.
Obviously, he knows that Biden was declared the winner, and is now the President. Obviously, he doesn’t believe that he actually won.
He believes that he got the most legitimate votes in every swing state, and should have been declared the winner. He believes that Biden stole the election by fraud, and that he would have won without the fraud.
Better?
I don’t think he believes it for a second. He’s just too big an asshole to admit that he lost.
I believe that he simply felt that there were nasty ways through which he could have the results altered in his favor, and that through Mike Pence and January 6th he could just force/bully his way in.
Pretending like Trump is simply unaware of reality is to make excuses for him, an evil, cheating grown man.
I think Trump believes that Democrats cheated better/more than he did, 'cause everyone is a cheat. That’s what pisses him off. Nobody cheats better than he does.
I can dig that. But without (AAAAAAA!!!) being in Trump’s mind, we’ll never know. Most aspects of Trump can be explained with the following 2 words:
Cheat
Lie
Yup. But he believes his lies. He thinks cheating is normal. After all, that has been his entire slow witted life.
If Trump loses at anything, it’s because someone else lied and cheated better than he did. That is if he even understands the concept of what a lie is.
Maybe it’s just me, but the bastard knows he’s lying. He doesn’t believe his own lies. He lies with intention, and is duly responsible and not excused.
I don’t think people like Trump really have a notion of truth and lies – only what is good for Trump and what isn’t.
I think the most likely thing is that Trump will plead the fifth in response to every question. At least, his lawyers will tell him not to answer any questions.
No answers, no perjury. And no admissions to use in a potential criminal trial for sexual assault.
I think his lawyers will tell him not to answer any questions, and then he’ll do it anyway.
I have to agree with both of you, at least in part.
He does lie with intention only to benefit himself-- or to punish someone he believes “deserves it” because they somehow betrayed him. I even think it might be possible that he repeats his lies so often and so diligently that they become a form of truth to him. If he ever has to stop and truly review the facts, he may recall that his story is not factually based (a lie), but he is so used to telling it that way, and insisting people see it that way that he forgets there is a deeper truth there.
I also believe Trump fully knows what the truth is and what a lie is and that telling the truth is supposed to be good and telling a lie is supposed to be bad. Sorry iiandyiiii, I believe you are mistaken there. Where you are one-hundred percent correct, is that what is supposed to be doesn’t matter at all to Trump (and those like him). He knows, he just doesn’t care. He would much, much rather live in a false world where he gets to dictate reality than one where reality is dictated upon him.
He does know he lies but he does it so often and so intentionally that sometimes he forgets which parts of HIS reality are real and which are lies. But he always, always, always does everything for his own benefit. His own immediate benefit at that. He can’t even tell a lie that delays gratification. He will lie to benefit what he wants right now- then tell an opposite lie tomorrow to avoid the consequences of the first lie.
It seems to me he can be summed up better than lie and cheat. The two words that sum him best are: “I Want”. That is all that matters-- like the world view of a small child.
Their gonna need duct tape. That any lawyer would be part of the circus that is DJT is stunning to me. Just how bad do you want your name in the news. It’s crazy.