Not surprisingly, Republicans want to have it both ways concerning Trump’s indictments.
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Donald Trump makes so many stupid and ridiculous claims that it can be hard to keep track of them, or to figure out which of them is the dumbest. However, his repeated assertions that being indicted for attempting a coup is an act of “election interference” must be way up there.
That’s why we decided to give it a closer look.
First of all, there is the hypocrisy. Three of the four indictments are specifically about Trump’s actions to interfere in an election. Once he allegedly did so by keeping information hidden from voters (that he paid hush money to a porn star to keep their affair hidden), and twice he is charged with trying to overturn the results.
Projection is classic Trump. Every time he levies an accusation against anybody, you can take it to the bank that he is guilty of whatever the behavior is or would at least engage in it if given the opportunity.
And this is a textbook case. Maybe Trump assumes that, just because he would (and did) go to any length to overturn an election, everybody else would, too. But, fortunately, not everybody is like him, and the indictments are really just an attempt to hold to account the man who attempted a coup.
But that’s not the dumbest thing about that claim. What’s truly stupid is that Trump will assert that the indictments constitute “election interference,” but then, in the next minute, he will say that being charged actually increases his support.
What’s it going to be?
Obviously, it’s not just Trump saying this but everybody else in the MAGAverse. They are all making the case that the former president benefits every time he is indicted, that his poll numbers improve, and that his fundraising figures soar.
And, in the same breath, they often repeat that ridiculous “election interference” narrative.
Not a single one of them seems to realize that the two claims are totally contradictory.
The only way both things can be true is if the indictments are a deliberate attempt to make Trump more attractive to the Republican base so that he will become the nominee and then lose to a Democrat again.
But what kind of a hare-brained scheme would that be?
Logic, of course, has never been one of Trump’s strengths.
Which is why it shouldn’t be surprising that he took things to another level on Friday.
Clearly irked by revelations that New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) had alleged in court filings that Trump had inflated his net worth by up to $2.2 billion, the former president took to his social media website Truth Social to tell his side of the story.
He stated that he has a net worth that is “billions of dollars” more than James “viciously & falsely claimed,” and then gave a brief overview of his financials.
“VERY LITTLE DEBT, BIG CASH, A POWERFUL DISCLAIMER CLAUSE, PAID OFF LOANS, NO DEFAULTS, ‘HAPPY’ BANKS, GREAT ASSETS,” he wrote.
All of this should be taken with a truckload of salt, of course. After all, Trump has a long history of lying about everything from his wealth to his weight.
So what’s surprising about that? Nothing. What was, however, is that the former president then (inexplicably) claimed that somebody accusing him of inflating his wealth also constituted “election interference.”
In Trump’s mind, everything that doesn’t go his way must fit that category.
In fact, if he misses a putt on the golf course or stubs his toe on a golden toilet, he probably also yells “election interference”… which makes just as much sense as claiming that being held to account for attempting a coup is.
