It’s almost enough to make you feel sorry for Donald Trump. Judgment Day looms. He can’t seem to find an underwriter to back him on the $435 million bond he needs to pay the State of New York for being a wall-to-wall fraud for most of his life. He may have to start selling properties—maybe even Trump Tower, maybe 40 Wall Street—although you’ve got to suspect both these edifices are mortgaged up the wazoo. I’ve always suspected the boy is peddling from an empty pack.
To compound the conundrum, the judgment against Trump is excessive—as my podcast partner John Ellis argues convincingly—and may well be overturned, or diminished, on appeal. Deutsche Bank accepted Trump’s bloated evaluations. They were repaid. No one got hurt. Arguably, the case wouldn’t have been brought if the defendant’s name weren’t Donald John Trump. So, should we feel sorry for Trump?
Naaahhhh.
The man has unleashed so much evil in the world of business, let alone politics—including a multitude of frivolous lawsuits, including the multitude of small businesses and big lawyers he has stiffed. Turnabout is surely fair play…And yet, a fundamental precept of Sanity Clause is, well, sanity, which I define as basic fairness. Surely, the prosecution of Donald John should proceed fairly…
Naaahhhh.
The man tried to overthrow the government of the United States in 2020—not just the January 6 riot, but the far more serious fake elector scheme (which I hope Jack Smith will get to prosecute before November). He has made our country an international embarrassment. He has lowered the standard for acceptable public behavior precipitously. Democracy isn’t easy; he has made it near-impossible. So, forgive me, I’m really hoping the New York fraud case pushes Agent Orange over the brink into full-blown gonzo, foaming at the mouth crazy.
He’s getting there. He’s on a narcotic withdrawal binge when it comes to vitriol—like a heroin addict, he needs an ever stronger dose. Every day brings another crazython. Yes, he was only talking about the auto industry when he predicted a bloodbath, but “bloodbath” is the sort of word that no sane politician should use and he uses words like that all the time. It’s easy to believe—and Trump may well believe—that he really means the whole society will implode if he loses the election. He continues to encourage the Timothy McVeigh wing of his party, who are also in a withdrawal whirlwind, getting nuttier and better armed by the day. Now he wants to put Liz Cheney in jail. Now he says Jews who support Biden “hate” Israel. I haven’t checked the news in the past few hours, but there’s probably been another vomitation today.
Will there be a backlash? Well, I’ve been expecting one since Trump slagged John McCain in the summer of 2015. So, once again:
Naaahhhh.
But there are signs of unrest among the saner sections of what was once the Main Street Conservative Party, now gone Jacobin. The most important is Mike Pence saying that he will not support Donald Trump in 2024. There have been three overriding themes in Pence’s career: faith, loyalty and conservatism. I suspect, but I don’t know, that Pence’s Christian faith—I’m still very much under the influence of Tim Alberta’s terrific book, The Kingdom, The Power and The Glory—had a lot to do with it: You just can’t endorse the Antichrist for anything except damnation. But Pence’s statement is very important, not just because he turns out to be a man of honor, but because his action will encourage other people of honor to eschew Trump.
A great source of such people is the U.S. Military. And yes, there are the General Mike Flynns of this world, sadly lapsed into toxic Trumpoid buckraking these days. A substantial portion of the officer and enlisted corps are conservative by nature and react against the left’s disdain for their honorable profession. (Years ago, the Democratic Party launched the Truman Project to instruct Dems running for office on the difference between a battalion and a brigade.) There are plenty of veterans I know—many of them non-partisan like James Mattis—who are beginning to sound the alarm. Jennifer Rubin wants to mobilize them:
A “duty to warn” group of former Trump advisers with eyewitness accounts of his rhetoric, conduct, intellectual limitations and emotional state during his presidency should band together, travel the country, submit op-eds, make media appearances and cut ads that argue against his election. Even if they decline to endorse Biden, their dire warnings about Trump collectively should make clear that his mental and emotional defects make him a danger to the country.
I am aware of several such proposals that would mobilize former members of the military, some reaching down to the grassroots level, where respected veterans would stand up in their communities and say, “Trump knows nothing about the military. He disdains us. He calls us suckers. You should not vote for him.”
It is not impossible to envision an army of honor—not just military, but corporate and faith leaders—mobilizing to create a moral wave that crashes next October and sends this evil sociopath out to sea without a paddle.
In the ‘Stacks
Welcome, welcome to two old friends, James Carville and Al Hunt, who have joined us in the stacks. You can find them here. I can guarantee that everything they have to say will be worth hearing and often unexpected.
Chutzpah
I strongly recommend that you read this speech by Tucker Carlson, not just because it’s smart and fun, but because of how transcendently weird it is. He starts off like this:
I think we underrate just how boring identity politics is.
Obviously, it’s an attack on Western civilization, but on a more prosaic level, it’s just very tiresome, because when you’re talking about identity politics, what are you talking about? You. As my wife often points out, there’s nothing more boring than you.
Talking about yourself was the most offensive thing you could do in the world that I grew up in. When my father would check our thank-you notes as children, if you began more than one sentence with the word “I,” he made you rewrite it…
Suddenly we have an entire country where our politics, our literature, our art is all based on me talking about me. It is narcissism at scale, and it’s yawn-inducing.
Not bad, right? But what is the great “You” threat he’s talking about? The woke left? Now I bow to no man, and certainly not Tucker, in my disdain for the academic, activist left. They are indeed snobby, patronizing narcissists. Their influence has corrupted major American media institutions. They have certainly had undue influence on the Democratic Party—I mean, why hasn’t Joe Biden done anything about the border? (Hint: Look at the backlash he got for calling the illegal immigrant murderer of Laken Riley “illegal.”)
Okay, agreed, I just can’t stand those people. Their smug certainty drives me nuts. But, a mortal threat to the Republic? Compared to Trump? To paraphrase Stalin, how many divisions do the Atheist Socialist hordes have? Nonetheless, Tucker is calling the forces of nitwit xenophobia to the barricades:
I do think this is a spiritual battle. When you’re honest, you are proud of yourself. When you’re honest, you are strong. When you lie, you become weak. Why do you lie? Because you’re hiding something—because you believe that if the people around you knew what you really thought or said or did, they would think less of you. That diminishes you. Your power ebbs when you lie. Tell the truth. Live like a decent person.
This is a near perfect autobiographical description of Tucker Carlson’s career. Is that where he’s headed with this speech? Toward an apology, an attempt at redemption?Nope. This is a call to arms against the woke left, remember. The lack of self-awareness is staggering: Tucker plumping for honesty is sort of like Donald Trump pushing The Beatitudes. (Blessed are the meek?) I mean, this is the guy who said—privately—that he hates Trump “passionately” I mean, Tucker, Jeez, you made a fortune bilking the masses into an unwarranted paranoia and pessimism about the greatest country on earth. You should be emptying bedpans in an Ukranian military hospital.
The saddest thing about this speech is that it’s a reminder of the old Tucker, the one I first met 25 or so years ago. Really smart, really clever, charming, an enthusiastic learner and listener. You sold your soul, boy, for a mess of pottage.
And Don’t Forget…
Sanity is a nice thing, a place to exhale, a place to contemplate and debate what’s true and what isn’t…at least, that’s the goal. If you want to be part of it, please consider this:
Count this Marine out of the “Army of honor” if it requires a vote for Commander in Chief Biden. Not only is he seriously underfunding our defense in his budgets but the testimony of General Milley and McKenzie on the Hill today about the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal reminded me of Abbey Gate. His cozying up to Iran is just downright perverse and while he has been good on aid to Ukraine and Israel, he is in danger of “going wobbly” in Thatcher’s famous phrase.
Trump is far from ideal but from the border to spending on defense to recognizing China as a threat, I find him less dangerous than Biden.
Unfortunately President Tom Cotton or Mike Gallagher (the Congressman) is not walking through that door.
Sanity still in tact thanks to you Joe. Your writing is in a league of its own.