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I hate saying it but this fool is still winning. Everyone else is losing.
Or maybe everything in life has nuance and can't be simply boiled down to "winning" and "losing".
Trump is not only mega rich, but he's also the head of an actual cult of personality. Those are feathers in his cap no doubt. On the other hand, not only has he lost multiple elections, he's a twice impeached criminal with 91 very serious charges (and counting) against him and a pile of hard evidence to back it all up. The odds of him spending what few remaining years he has left behind bars are non-zero, and no matter what happens he will incur massive financial costs one way or another.
In an alternate reality he could have sat out 2016 and spent the last decade of his life golfing and stuffing his fat fucking face, and he would have still been rich enough to live however he wanted. But instead he has put the world's biggest magnifying glass up his own corrupt asshole, and it's all not looking so great.
Trump is actually very bad with money, historically. His father was the clever businessman, and Trump apparently squandered his inheritance. His partially public tax returns reveal as much. He’s lost absolute fortunes. He couldn’t even get a casino in Atlantic City to stay afloat. I’m pretty sure that everything about his public image is a lie.
I’m pretty sure the Atlantic City bankruptcy was intentional, and was the result of a money laundering scheme. His high rise condos are the same thing but easier to manage (because he is not that smart and has alienated most of his more intelligent co-conspirators at this point in his life.)
Well said.
At that point at his age you may as well just go for broke. I'd do the same thing. Leave a legacy. Cement your family name in the history books.
What else are you gonna do? Not like the uber wealthy lack for luxury and entertainment. Billionaires get bored and start doing things like submarines and space tourism.
Anyhow, obviously there is no clear distinction between "winning" and "losing" unless we define a clear set of qualifications. If we were to define "how well is Trump dominating the Republican party" he is absolutely winning.
Remember some short months ago him and DeSantis were neck and neck in the polls. Now Trump has shot ahead and DeSantis might even lose his #2 spot to an Indian.
Trump is going to win the Republican primary. This much is clear unless he has a stroke.
Criminal charges will ultimately do nothing to stop him and would probably help him. His base is now convinced there is a concerted effort by the state to hold him down. And to be honest, they're not wrong.
I don't think these indictments would have happened if Trump didn't have a serious chance to win in 2024. It's too risky. It's what really worries me. Feels like an attempt at a hail mary pass. If the establishment is so concerned they're willing to take these types of risks, the future is very uncertain.
No offense but I seriously doubt it. At 78 years old you'll probably just be hanging out, not trying to commit as many crimes as you can. I can't read the future or anything, but I think Trump's legacy is going to be one of unprecedented corruption and selfishness.
He's certainly winning the Republican primary in terms of polling and fundraising, no question about it. But skipping the debate was a sign of vulnerability, projecting to everyone that he and his team believe that he has everything to lose and nothing to gain by going. In order to win a game of tug-o-war, you gotta keep pulling though, and I'm not sure that any of this helps him in a general election especially as there are many more shoes to drop.
This is a conspiracy theory. It makes perfect sense if you don't think about it too hard.
Trump has been indicted in 3 different and unrelated cases so far: 2020 election interference with the goal of overturning a democratic election (federal and state charges in Georgia), mishandling of classified documents (federal charges), and finally hush money payments to Stormy Daniels as campaign action in 2016 (New York). In each case there is a significant pile of evidence against him, and in each case due process has been upheld. 4 separate grand juries have now seen fit to charge him and these cases are going to trial.
Unfortunately for Trump, he is a high profile criminal and his legal woes are very, very real. Presidents should not be above the law, and that goes for ex-presidents as well. He could be on his death bed and a lot of people, including myself, would still want to see him brought to justice for the crimes he has committed against our country.
People like Trump or Biden aren't built like regular people. Me or you at 78 would have put our hat down a decade prior. But these guys feel some sort of need to continue, for whatever reason.
And as long as they can a) speak with lucidity and charisma and b) make decisions then they are fine. Any hard work is done by advisors.
Skipping the debate I think was probably the right move. If he gets on stage, he's one guy in a crowd of many having to wait his turn to speak. In addition he could get difficult questions about his legal position for example.
By doing the interview with Tucker Carlson not only is he cementing this weird alliance between Carlson / Elon / Trump but he's basically saying "I'm not a part of the establishment" which is a main pull from his supporters
I think the recent indictments happening now, right before Republican primaries and election season starts in ernest, and not two years ago, shows there are people pulling strings in the back here.
Call it a conspiracy theory, but I've seen it in my home country of Brazil. A president conspired with members of the judiciary to charge an ex-president with a crime and got him in prison.
There are many corrupt people in Brazil who did not get charged. You see what I mean? The fact Lula went to prison was politically motivated. And it's not a conspiracy- he was eventually released because it was proven in court that it was politically motivated. Just because a system has checks and balances against this type of thing doesn't mean it's immune. Enough pressure and everything breaks. And where there's incentive to put pressure, people with power will do so
I think Trump should answer for his crimes- no president should be above the law. But I also doubt this ends well for us as a country. We're in a position where all paths lead to hell. You put such a figure like Trump in jail right before a tight election and there will be consequences. Regardless of whether it's justified or not.
And it will be tight. Last I checked polling in a hypothetical Biden v Trump was a coin flip. Unfortunately for Biden, the record inflation along with increasing interest rates will seriously hurt his chances at re-election. He obviously has that historical incumbent advantage - but so did Trump.
Are we watching the same game? Are you in a parallel universe?
So far nothing of real significance has happened to him, and there are still opportunities for fuckery everywhere.
My bet is that it ends badly for him, but he's wriggled out of many many things before, and he has the House and SCOTUS backing him, as well as every republican state legislature.
Literally unprecedented 4 indictments more on the way, the evidence and witness testimony is incredibly damning in basically all of them, he majority of the nation is taking it seriously, etc
Nothing of real significance eh? Fuck off doomer, no doubt you’ve been crying “nothing will ever happen” since 2016
I think you're misreading this. I've been varying levels of nauseous for 7 years now and every single hour of every single one of those days, I've screamed internally, "something is going to be done, this will get better, he will be stopped." And absolutely nothing happens. It just gets worse and worse and it's been deeply destructive to my mental health. It's emotionally safer to distance yourself from this. Pessimism is a shield against the arrows of disappointment.
I won't feel safe until that man expires while serving several lifetime sentences behind bars and all of his followers are shunned into obscurity. If then. Such is the nature of trauma.
I recommend listening to Legal AF. They're lawyers following the Trump case, and I think they'll give you some hope and a good perspective on how fucked Trump is (the episode titles are a bit clickbait-y, but the core information is good). It's helped me not completely give up and say, "Well, rich people always get off scot free."
Trump hasn't seen justice, yet, but he also hasn't been to court except to be arraigned. We all want justice yesterday, but he'll have to defend himself for real early next year.
I said "so far" and that "it was likely to end badly".
Thought experiment: all the cases are thrown out on procedural grounds tomorrow.
Would you feel like the inconvenience of a few court dates, an embarrassing photo, and some expenses borne by his dupes corresponded to the gravity of what he is alleged to have done?
I wouldn't.
91 indictments isn't insignificant
I'm scared, frankly. We can all pretend we know what's going to happen, but we don't and we haven't the entire time. He hasn't been convicted of anything and a good 40% of the country want it to stay that way.
Oh, well if 40% want it that way I guess there nothing to be done :(
:(
The 40% that already tried one coup because he asked nicely. Who knows what kind of crazy they try now.
20-25% of the country, max. And it's the same 20-25% that has voted wannabe dictators into office this whole time.
40% is based on his polling with republicans and assuming they make up a full half of the electorate. They do not. 50% don't usually vote, so you have to basically halve any percentage when it's just d vs r.
No he fucking isn’t. Have you been asleep for 2023?????
Winning what exactly?
7 million dollars, for one. I don't see him going to jail. I fucking HOPE he does but I have zero faith he will.
He's not in jail and he just got a bunch of idiots to give him 7 million dollars.
They gave his PAC money, not him directly. With the federal and state governments watching his every move, I'm sure one of them would love to add additional fraud to the list of charges.
It's not like he can just use it how he wants (anymore).
And as jail goes, the court proceedings haven't happened yet. He's out of jail, sure, but that doesn't mean he's free.
Honest question, can he not use this money for legal bills?
Looked it up, and sorta. If it goes to a specific 'PAC', "Save America PAC' he can absolutely use it.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-pac-pays-his-legal-bills-save-america/
https://www.nytimes.com/article/trump-donations-legal-bills.html
TBH, how do his followers have any money left? They've bankrolled all of his endeavors for the last 7-8 years, plus bankrolled the other various grifters who kiss Trump's ring.