Donald Trump’s next con

In the event you haven’t yet heard, on Tuesday a federal appeals court rejected Donald Trump’s claim that he is immune from criminal prosecution on charges that he plotted to overturn the 2020 election. In other words, and I can’t believe this actually has to be said out loud by a panel of three federal jurists, being president of the United States does NOT mean you can commit any crime you want and get away with it. The Founding Fathers never intended that unlimited criminality be one of the perks of being president. Fancy that.

In their unanimous ruling, the justices put it this way. “We cannot accept that the office of the Presidency places its former occupants above the law for all time thereafter.” So that, as they say, is that.

But my favorite part of the ruling was when the panel ridiculed, in a dry, judicial sort of way, Trump’s hypocrisy. As you may recall, during Trump’s second impeachment Trump’s lawyers insisted that the Senate had to acquit him because, according to them, only the DOJ should decide if Trump engaged in insurrection over the January 6 Capitol attack, not the Senate!

So it’s clear that Trump has completely reversed his argument to meet the circumstances. In other words, the federal appellate court was not fooled, they know Trump will use any argument and its opposite to get what he wants, and they’re jolly well not having it.

So now it’s up to SCOTUS, the ones who work in the building where the words EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW are inscribed above its main entrance. Let us hope those words are not made ironic by the men and women inside the building.

So what is Trump’s next trick? First, give him time to whine about the ruling, give him time to claim that it’s a “disgrace,” and one that “nobody has ever seen before,” and that it’s all part of the “Biden witch-hunt” and that (said with hilarious hypocrisy!) Biden should go to prison because of it!

If Trump is anything he’s predictable. Then he’s going to bake the whole thing into his campaign lament, about how persecuted he is and how “scared” the Democrats are of him, yadda yadda.

Then he’s going to claim the election of 2024 is rigged. After he loses, he’s going to claim the election was stolen. Ahem, or “stollen.”

It actually makes me tired to have to write this crap, because we’re just coming off of literal years of this bullshit, dealing with the fallout of Donald Trump’s absurd whine that the 2020 election was artificially tinkered with by Democrats. This unending jeremiad has gone on and on and on simply because his ego is too fragile to admit he lost. And now, what he’s whined about for the last four years is all going to start all over again.

But this time there could be one important difference. There’s a chance that he will have to do much of his whining from inside a prison cell. If so, get ready for a pleasant surprise. Prison does enormous damage to the enthusiasm of even the most misguided fans of the imprisoned.

I have a little bit of experience here. I spent almost four years advocating for the imprisonment of the disgusting rapist Bill Cosby. For about half that time I served as an admin for the movement’s official Facebook page, “We Support the Survivors of Bill Cosby.” Once Cosby was finally and deservedly sent to prison, his vile and stupid supporters crawled back under the rocks from which they first appeared. Most of them disappeared forever, never to be heard from again. Even when Cosby was eventually released they stayed gone. There’s very little enthusiasm left for Cosby anymore.

But Cosby’s approach to his prosecution was very different from Trump’s. Cosby refused to comment on his criminal trial, refused even to be interviewed on the subject. So when he dropped into the judicial black hole that is prison, there was no voice to silence. With Trump, however, there will be. And the contrast between his constant public whining and sudden silence will be jolting.

If Trump goes to prison then most of his utterances will have to be made by spokespeople. That alone will infuriate him. So his ability to issue public statements will be severely curtailed, and his Nuremberg-style rallies will immediately and permanently cease to happen. And unlike Cosby, if Trump goes to prison he will almost certainly die there. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.