Confused Donald Trump says he might cut plea deal in DOJ case if they pay him

Donald Trump made his first public appearance after being criminally indicted by the DOJ, and as one might have predicted, it went rather stupidly. Trump oddly made a point of insisting he’ll stay in the 2024 race even though he’s going on trial fairly soon for Espionage Act charges. This felt oddly defensive, given that no one anywhere was expecting him to just drop out immediately after being indicted. But then he said something truly strange.

Trump said he might be willing to cut a plea deal with the DOJ if “they pay me some damages.” No really, he said this. He really said this.

Maybe Trump was trying to be funny. But even if so, what he said still didn’t make sense. He seems to think this is some kind of civil case, where only monetary damages are on the line. He thinks this is negotiable. He doesn’t really appear to understand that he’ll be put on criminal trial, he’ll be found guilty, and he’ll go to federal prison, and the only “negotiation” he could potentially make is a slightly shorter prison sentence in exchange for pleading guilty.

Donald Trump is confused, to put it mildly. Again, even if this was an attempt at sarcasm on his part, what the hell is he even talking about? He seems to think he can get the criminal justice system to pay him to go away? All the system is going to do is put him away.

But all of Trump’s obvious confusion and lack of a human sense of humor aside, he may have given something away here. He seems to be talking about some kind of scenario where he’s paid to go away, which makes you wonder if his endgame really is to get the RNC and its donors to pay him to exit the race rather than continuing to “run” once he’s in prison. We’ll see.