The unifying theory of why he’s in the position he’s now in is that his plan from the start was “I’m going to be President for the rest of my life. I’ll claim I won the 2020 election, whatever the results show, and if I don’t succeed at that, I’ll organize an insurrection, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll carry on and declare myself President anyway, and that will get me to 2024, when I’ll run and claim to have won, and if i win I’ll suspend all future elections, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll organize a civil war, and if I lose that, I’ll collude with Putin or whoever to start a war with the U.S.” and and and…
He did what he did because he thought he’d always get to be POTUS or to lead a war against whoever was POTUS. No need to take care about how he handled classified docs.
“Above the law” doesn’t quite cover it, though. The law will always overpower one’s opinions, unless you intend to override the law indefinitely by seizing power indefinitely.
Otherwise, any sane person would recognize “Yeah, I’m violating about twelve federal felony laws here, and strewing the evidence right and left, so eventually I’m going to do serious time for this.” Unless that sane person plans to flout the law by being President.
Well, that’s an alternative unifying explanation, that he’s simply out of his skull, but even then he had to have made up some way he’d be able to pull this off, and this seems like the most probable path to getting away with blatantly mishandling documents to me. It just seems so self-destructively reckless otherwise. There’s no rational plan that I can see that would let DoJ decide not to investigate and indict him.
I’m quite confident there isn’t one. I expect indictments soon after the mid-term election. Garland is not the AG who will give Republicans the “he’s pulling a Comey!” ammunition.
I’ve also heard Trump plans to declare his intent to run for president after Labor Day. So… maybe Tuesday?
The man is the walking embodiment of “entitled white male scion of privilege” who has never heard a “no” he respected in his life. At this point I’d suspect autism with pathological demand avoidance based on just HOW determined he is to never once do what’s expected or required of him. So, y’know, giant Adderal snorting toddler. Not a huge mystery here.
Not to you, and not to me, but most of the expert commentary I’ve heard on the news is baffled as to his motives. Is he selling classified information to the Saudis? Is he hoarding it to blackmail other foreign leaders? Is he a stupid idiot who just thinks it’s cool to have this stuff in his office? Etc. But if you alight on “He expected to stay in office forever, or at least to drag things out and obfuscate the issues long enough to seize power by means other than the electoral process” then you don’t need to find another motive anymore. It all makes sense.
and he was surrounded by incompetents that fellated him every waking hour. The “team” was too stupid to understand you need the military on your side of an insurrection, and that was completely missing.
I was raised by a narcissistic father and had a long term abusive relationship with another narcissist so by now my radar for this shit is so sensitive I can figure it out from space, I swear. It’s why I absolutely don’t bother getting into discussions, arguments or fights over that moron, because I know what he’s doing, why he’s doing it and how much good it will do knowing these things. Because it requires everyone ELSE knowing and refusing to supply this tard with attention and that’s never gonna happen so yeah.
Or unless you have lived for 76 years breaking the rules every step of the way and never faced any significant consequences what so ever. As far as he was concerned they were his secret documents to do with has he pleased. If he continued his usual tactics of stalling, stone walling, lying and prevaricating eventually the Archives would get tired, give up and let him keep them. He was utterly stunned when they barged in and took them back.
Your first sentence here is a bit overstated: he’s been fined, sanctioned, sued beyond a normal person’s toleration, but a couple of million inherited dollars just turns all that into the cost of doing business.
The second sentence just reflects his public posture but on an obvious level, anyone who spent years of his life complaining about Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of government property understands perfectly well that they were not, and could never be, his to do with as he pleased.
There’s something in those top-secret files that he can threaten to reveal to the world, or at least to the Russians, if we try to bust his ass for his numerous crimes. Got to be.
Absolutely. And I will be bitterly disappointed if the DoJ doesn’t charge him with espionage the first time a hint of that threat slips out of his mouth.
If it just turns into the cost of doing business then its not a “significant” consequence.
Rules for thee and not for me, is narcissism 101. Besides she was a measly secretary of state, while he was the fucking president, which means he gets to do whatever he wants.
I think this is it. Even ignoring his life prior to 2016, during his campaign he consistently engaged in behavior that would have ended most candidates’ hope of election. I forget the number of times Trump did something that I was sure would knock him out of the primaries and ultimately ensure a victory for Hillary. Like Trump, I was actually surprised he won the 2016 election. And throughout his presidency, Trump continued to get away with things that would have buried other administrations. It’s not unreasonable for Trump to think he’s untouchable. He felt he could mishandle top secret files becaus he’s gotten away with mishandling everything else.