This just in: Trump files harassing lawsuit against the Des Moines Register, claims report of final election poll is, “Election interference”. What a surprise: Trump sends up another Roman candle that we’re supposed to marvel at before he launches the next one in a day or two.
Josh Marshall of TPM says we need to organize a legal defense fund for 3 reasons, the last one not widely appreciated.
Trump’s retribution may focus on individuals, but it’s a collective harm. So it makes sense to spread the cost of dealing with it. If person X is targeted for defending the rule of law or democracy or related equities, those are things we all have an interest in defending. So it makes sense to spread the burden.
When a powerful person (and in this case a president) targets individuals, he is trying to overwhelm them, force them to knuckle under because they lack the resources to fight. That does more damage to the civic equities we’re trying to defend. The point of such retribution is to make an example of someone and cast a penumbra of fear that keeps other people from getting out of line. If people are confident their costs — literal and figurative — will be covered they will be more likely to speak their minds, do the right thing, run risks.
Trump’s lawsuits are often jokes, intended to unbalance the opposition and mire them chin-stroking editorializing: “We have that same mixture of outrage, incomprehension, uncanny laughter, the upshot of which is that the rules somehow don’t apply to this guy. That’s power and that is the point. It is a performance art of power enabled by a shameless abuse of the legal system.” So what’s to be done?
This is where I would want such a group to jump in, immediately, caustically and tauntingly saying, “Nope that won’t fly. We’re ready with the best lawyers and a mountain of cash and we’re going to embarrass you for even trying.” Beyond covering legal expenses and giving people the confidence they won’t be bankrupted by Trump, these are really pro-wrestling-derived public spectacles and performance art aimed at telegraphing power and demoralizing enemies. So much of our politics in the Trump era amounts to this. We’ve seen this. We know this if we’re paying attention. And Trump’s opponents need to learn to speak in that language. …
It’s about demonstrating the limits of Trump’s power and embarrassing him, President or not.
This idea has precedent; the U.K. humor magazine Private Eye famously maintains a defense fund to fend off lawsuits, due to the much more relaxed libel laws in Britain. Ian Hislop, the longtime editor, has been described as the most sued man in Britain at times.
The lawsuit that Trump has filed is absolutely ridiculous on its face and should be thrown out immediately. For good measure, the judge should also force Trump to pay whatever legal costs the Des Moines Register has to incur to defend itself against this nonsense.
Part of it is insurance. Part of it is exploiting a vulnerability, hidden in plain sight. When Trump launches a lawsuit that his lawyers know he’s going to lose, someone should be saying as much in front of the cameras.
“Trump wants to shut down the free press because a columnist hurt his feelings. Well we’re going to deliver a world of hurt to the President, until he agrees to stop violating his oath of office. Sign here Mr. President and it will all go away.”
This assumes without evidence that Trump can feel embarrassment. Have we ever seen him acting “embarrassed” about being called out for any of his stupid shit? He wasn’t embarrassed about the “eating the cats” bit, the “concepts of a plan” bit, the “swaying slightly to the music rally” bit, so why think he’ll be embarrassed because of a bullshit lawsuit? He’s been filing bullshit lawsuits his entire adult life, win or lose, they have no more impact on his life than a fart.
It’s a public battle, not a psycho-battle. The point is not to make Trump feel good or bad, the point is to make him look more ridiculous and ineffectual in public opinion. This is a dominance game: the Dems need to counter it, as well as do a bunch of other things.
Separately, Trump is not a well man psychologically. Pushing his buttons does lead him to do stupid stuff. But that’s not the primary motive here. Trump has launched then dropped a lot of lawsuits over his lifetime: it’s good to make him pay a political price for his missteps, unbalance him, and force him to respond to attacks. Which he does. For example,normal people don’t care about attacks on his crowd sizes: Trump does.