So much for Donald Trump’s gag order

There has always been a consistent pattern when it comes to Donald Trump. Whenever he’s faced with superior force, he backs down and cowers. This is true in politics (Putin) and it’s been true in his previous trials. For instance, once the judge in the E. Jean Carroll civil trial threatened Trump with jail time, Trump immediately ceased violating his gag order until it expired at the end of that trial.

The big question with Trump’s criminal trial was whether his increasingly uncontrollable dementia-riddled behavior, and increasingly desperate legal situation, would prompt him to finally blow through a gag order – or whether he’d ultimately cower in the end like usual.

Now that all of the witnesses in Trump’s criminal trial have testified, and it’s almost over, it’s worth pointing out that Trump never did blow through his gag order. He dabbled with violating it early on, when he knew he could get away with it. But once he’d done enough of it such that the judge drew the line and threatened him with jail time, he immediately backed down and cowered – like always.

It’s worth taking a moment to think about what this means. Donald Trump, even in a desperate situation where he’s losing his cognitive abilities and he’s on criminal trial, still automatically cowered in the face of superior force. This is likely going to continue to happen for the rest of Trump’s days. We’ll see President Biden exploit this when it comes to things like debates (or as it may turn out to be, Trump’s refusal to debate). All anyone really has to do is show Trump that they’re stronger than he is, and he wilts as quickly as ever.