Trump Didn’t Improvise Manhattan Courtroom Bitch Tantrum. That Was REHEARSED.
He is so unbelievably goddamned stupid.
There were closing arguments in Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial yesterday to determine just how many gabillions of dollars he and his company will have to pay, and how many of his precious riches he will lose. (He has already been adjudicated guilty, extremely.)
Trump was supposed to be shutting his insolent mouth yesterday. (More background on that below if you’re not up to speed.) Instead his lawyer Chris Kise begged the judge to please let Trump talk, pleaaaase? Judge Arthur Engoron said, “Do you promise to just comment on the facts and the law?” Trump just started babbling without making any such promises.
MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin summed it up right nice. Here’s her thread, which we will roll out for you below:
Text:
“This was a political witch hunt; we should receive damages for what they have taken our company through. They have no documents—they have nothing!” The only thing they have, Trump concedes, is the triplex, which was a mistake.
“I am not sure the dollar amount would have been that far off, if you want to know!” But Trump continues, “I am an innocent man. I have been politically persecuted. . . . This statute is vicious.”
“What has happened here is a fraud on ME. . . . The amount of taxes I have paid over this period is close to $300 million. They don’t want me here anymore. I have a problem; they want to make sure I don’t run again.”
Trump goes on — without any interruption from Engoron or her team — and attacks James, accusing her of election interference. “You have your own agenda,” Trump angrily says to Engoron. “You can’t listen for more than one minute!”
Engoron pleads with Kise, “Mr. Kise, please control your client.” Trump nonetheless accuses James of going after him for her political gain, including an allegedly “failed” run for Governor, at which point Engoron shuts it down.
But it’s too late. Everything Trump wanted to say was said. And now, having said it, he has left the courtroom after insisting James should pay him for the havoc she’s wreaked on his company.
Oh my fucking God, Donald, get a grip, and prepare to lose everything you’ve ever worked for lied, cheated, stolen, frauded, crimed for and/or had handed to you by your ugly dead daddy. Also maybe your freedom. But that would be a result of the 91 felony indictments, which are unrelated to this civil case.
The punchline?
Trump rehearsed that pathetic shit. Nikki McCann Ramirez and Asawin Suebsaeng report at Rolling Stone that Trump rehearsed it for DAYS.
Again, he was supposed to be shutting the fuck up. Instead:
Sources told Rolling Stone that Trump had been rehearsing what he thought would be a blistering, dramatic conclusion to the case that will determine the fate of his business empire.
Oh my fucking God he’s so stupid.
Reportedly he told people about it. He tried lines out on them. He was really thinking he had something of value to say.
In addition to the summary in the tweets above, Trump of course called Letitia James racist and whined about Joe Biden trying to “rig” the 2024 election against him. And more!
Trump wanted to use the closing argument to get in a few more jabs, or as one of the people familiar with the matter puts it, he “just wanted to go off on the judge to his face one more time.”
Just so goddamned stupid.
Trump had previously announced he wanted to give part of his own closing arguments like he thought he was going to YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH, but Judge Engoron said fuck off on Wednesday because Trump had not indicated that he was willing to follow the rules that apply to the lawyers and everyone else, simple rules like “don’t attack witnesses” and “don’t attack judge.”
[H]e said Trump’s remarks would have to stay within the bounds of “commentary on the relevant, material facts that are in evidence, and application of the relevant law to those facts.”
Trump would not be allowed to introduce new evidence, “comment on irrelevant matters” or “deliver a campaign speech” — or impugn the judge, his staff, the attorney general, her lawyers or the court system, the judge wrote.
Trump’s whinyass lawyers went all whinyass whining that those rules were unfaaaaaaair.
[Trump attorney Chris] Kise termed the restrictions “very unfair.”
“You are not allowing President Trump, who has been wrongfully demeaned and belittled by an out of control, politically motivated attorney general, to speak about the things that must be spoken about,” the attorney wrote.
Aw honey, go eat 10,000 fucks without any condiments.
But Trump ultimately had his say. Trump has always thought he was his own best communicator. We love that delusion of his, he fucks himself straight up his dick with it every single time.
Like so.
Heckuva job, dumbass.
[AP / Rolling Stone]
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.
I have a Strauder v West Virginia and it says ONLY OTHER BILLIONAIRES CAN JUDGE ME, and I have a list, a whole list of the best people, the best billionaires, who would have been on the jury. I had one billionaire who came to me and said, "Sir, you are the best of us. You could have been the riches man on the planet, bigger than Musk. Bigger than Gates. Bigger than both of them combined or even all of us combined, but you chose service to your country and we respect that." But the crooked and corrupt Judge Patsy, exploited by AG "Jungle" James doesn't respect me. She thinks she can use the law of the jungle instead of the law of the law because she failed to get elected governor and cares more about her politics than business of New York, the worst city in the world which would be the best if their corrupt, anti-Trump politicians would get run out of town and put the good ones in charge again, like whatever happened to Rudy? He was a good guy but he got railroaded, when who should be railroaded is this entire court room but I guess they don't have rail roads in the jungle, do they Jungle James?
Oh my fucking God. Even Wonkette doesn't get it. Fucking Jesus Christ.
The point is not that he did throw a tantrum.
The point is that the AG office spoke for one hour, summarizing the case, and rebutting all of the key defenses. Nobody talks about that. Because everybody thinks the important part was that stupid pre-planned tantrum stunt.
I get it why the judge allowed it, but hey, why do WE care about it?
How many fucking more years does it take before you, we, WONKETTE figures that you watch the hand of the magician, and that his words do not fucking matter; as they are (most often) a DISTRACTION. The important aspect is: what is it distracting me from?
https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1745511573198610717 ---
"Dear the Press: The REASON Trump launches these tirades, is bc he knows you're all INCAPABLE of reporting on the evidence that came before it. Simply absolute incapable of reporting on anything but his tirade, allowing him to drown out facts."