Sounds Like Trump Blabbed To That Australian Billionaire About A Whole Lot More Than Just Nuclear Subs
Sounds Like Trump Blabbed To That Australian Billionaire About A Whole Lot More Than Just Nuclear Subs
So fucking needy.
Last night, Donald Trump got on Truth Social and babbled out this deranged screed:
The Failing New York Times story, leaked by Deranged Jack Smith and the Biden “Political Opponent Abuser” DOJ, about a red haired weirdo from Australia, named Anthony Pratt, is Fake News.
I never spoke to him about Submarines, but I did speak to him about creating jobs in Ohio and Pennsylvania, because that’s what I’m all about – JOBS, A GREAT ECONOMY, LOW TAXES, NO INFLATION, ENERGY DOMINANCE, STRONG BORDERS, NO ENDLESS WARS, LOW INTEREST RATES, and much more!
Maggie Hagerman and the Misfits never called me for a comment. Why would they, they just write anything they want. Whether it’s correct or not is of ZERO importance to them. “All the News That’s Unfit To Print.” That’s why we call it the Fake News!
Attacking the special counsel? Check.
Attacking and attempting to discredit a potential witness? Check.
Judge Tanya Chutkan temporarily lifted the gag order on Trump in his federal election-stealing case while his (baseless) appeal plays out. There aren’t any gag orders in the federal stolen classified docs case — the one that’s most pertinent here — so we guess it’s cool.
As you can see, this is about Anthony Pratt, the Australian billionaire businessman upon whomTrump reportedly jizzed all kinds of hot intel about America’s nuclear submarines at Mar-a-Lago. As you can see, Trump denies it. Of course, Trump is one of the most prolific liars in human history, so we should take that into account.
The New York Times came out with a big report this weekend that adds much to the Pratt story, based on leaked recordings, and “60 Minutes Australia” played those recordings on the TV on Sunday.
This sets the scene for how masterfully Pratt played the Trump game, how he grasped how motivated Trump was by flattery and praise, something pretty much every hostile foreign government with spies was surely also keenly aware of.
Mr. Pratt was hardly the only favor seeker circling Mar-a-Lago, which became the fulcrum of the president’s two overlapping worlds, and a marketplace of sorts where favors, secrets and opportunities to lobby the president over clubhouse burgers were treated as currency. But Mr. Pratt, who rode in Mr. Trump’s motorcade and attended a White House state dinner, played the game better than most.
Mr. Trump, the current front-runner for the Republican nomination, had almost no relationship with Mr. Pratt before the 2016 election. But after, Mr. Pratt used his money and flattery to get on Mr. Trump’s radar: He lavished praise on him in public appearances, bought newspaper ads that hyped Mr. Trump as a job creator and became a member of Mar-a-Lago. […]
Behind closed doors […] Mr. Pratt described Mr. Trump’s business practices as being “like the mafia,” according to covert recordings obtained by “60 Minutes Australia” and shared with The Times.
And oh boy, the things Trump blabbed to Pratt! ABC News’s earlier reporting says Trump told Pratt exactly how many nuclear warheads our subs can carry and how close they can sneak up to Russian subs without them knowing.
The recordings add some new things, like for example:
Trump telling Pratt in December 2019 about this convo he just had with the leader of Iraq, sounds like right before the drone strike in Iraq that assassinated Iranian Gen. Qassim Soleimani.
Trump telling Pratt that his PERFECT CALL! with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — where he extorted Ukraine to make up fake investigations into the Bidens in exchange for the military defense aid it needed to protect itself from Russia, which Congress had already appropriated — was totally mild in comparison to some of his other behavior. “That was nothing compared to what I usually do,” said Trump.
That was Trump trying to force Ukraine to help him steal the 2020 election. Wonder what he was thinking of right then that was worse.
The recordings show Pratt, sounding like Starbursts are going all up and his down his legs, talking about how great Trump is at doing crime. This goes along with the mafia thing, which people have been testifying to about Trump for years now:
“He’s got incredible balls,” Mr. Pratt says. “Trump says, ‘Would you go and tell that guy over there to steal for me?’ And so he can say, ‘I never told the guy to steal.’ And things like that is how Trump gets away with it.”
Speaking of, did y’all hear this is the week where Michael Cohen testifies in Trump’s fraud trial in New York? Whee!
Anyway, in the recordings, Pratt brags about how close he is to Rudy Giuliani, and says one time he paid Rudy like a million bucks to “come to his birthday party as a celebrity guest,” per the Times. OK, weirdo. Rudy couldn’t go because of COVID, but “now he rings me once a week.” Um, cool?
There’s much more in the Times piece about all the goodies Pratt got in exchange for licking the royal taint. It sounds like he has spent just absolute shitloads of money to get close to Trump, and yet in every text he spells Mar-a-Lago like “MarLago.” Dumb.
The Times also reports on this lovely charming romantic thing:
Mr. Pratt also describes on the recording how Mr. Trump asked his wife, Melania, to strut around Mar-a-Lago in her bikini “so all the other guys could get a look at what they were missing.”
Classy. That goes nicely with the story Mitt Romney told about Trump telling his son Josh Romney at a New England Patriots game what high demand Melania would be in once he “drops” her. (This was before Trump recited the sacred vows of third marriage.)
Here’s the “60 Minutes Australia” report. We say it a lot, but we have to fight against becoming numb to how criminally evil it is that Donald Trump could be allowed anywhere near the presidency ever again.
Evan Hurst on Twitter right here.
@evanjosephhurst on Threads!
I have profiles those other places but I think I forgot how to log on.
If you're shopping on Amazon anyway, this portal gives us a small commission.
'It sounds like he has spent just absolute shitloads of money to get close to Trump, and yet in every text he spells Mar-a-Lago like “MarLago.” Dumb.'
*** *** ***
The actual spelling should be "Lugar Malo."
Anthony Pratt may only be playing dumb, just as Trump plays dumb. This is an important part of the Trumpian method of deceiving people. You play dumb in order to win their trust and put them off guard. If you can make people believe you're dumb, they may assume that you're not smart enough to deceive them. It works for Columbo, and it works for Trump, too. Indeed, it works better for him, because he isn't interested in solving crimes, only in committing them, which is a lot easier.
In fact, although Trump's willingness to share classified information with Pratt makes him seem dumber than Pratt, I think Pratt may be dumber than Trump. First of all, Pratt had to pay a lot of money for the information that he got from Trump. Secondly, what has Pratt gained from knowing this information? I suppose he has bought himself some notoriety and media exposure. Was it worth it? Actually, for a conceited billionaire like Pratt with endless boredom and money to burn, maybe it WAS worth it. On the other hand, Trump got a significant amount of Pratt's money. So who is the bigger idiot, really?
There may have been some other guests at Lugar Malo who made much more profitable (and destructive) use of the information that Trump gave them than Pratt has done. We may never find out who they are, but it might help to turn our attention to recent visitors who acted conspicuously stupid.
Trump has long rejected any standard of normalcy for American presidents. He has by now arguably done things worse than his infamous "shoot somebody on 5th. Avenue" hypothetical posits and got away with it. So far, anyway -- I think some of his criminal trials will at last bring him down. The only thing that's even coming close to working in the people's and the republic's favor is our judicial system. Even with its creakiness and manifest two-tier dispensations of "justice" -- rich folk can basically admit to trying to damage or overthrow the republic and so long as they admit they've been bad and tattle on others, they get a ludicrously tiny fine and have to talk to a parole officer on occasion, along with maybe some pro bono lawyer-work -- it still shows some capacity for objectivity and adherence to law. That's more than we can say for a lot of cowardly, grasping, venal Republican politicians.