Saturday, May 11, 2019

What did Donald Trump do today?

He set yet another personal best for rage-tweeting.

Last Wednesday, Trump set what appeared to be a single-day record number of tweets, with an hourlong binge of 58 retweets at the core of it. Today, he beat that mark with 62 retweets in the space of 45 minutes.

Then, Trump's rage was directed at Joe Biden, a leading contender for the Democratic nomination. Biden may be the candidate Trump most fears, according to his friends—and the fact that Rudy Giuliani tried to strong-arm the government of Ukraine into digging up dirt on Biden's family.

Today's binge was on a wider variety of subjects, but the single most prominent theme was his son, Donald Trump Jr, who has been subpoenaed by the Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence committee. Trump Jr. appears to have lied to that committee, which is a crime, and is widely expected to respond by asserting his Fifth Amendment privileges against self-incrimination. (In the past, Trump Sr. has said that people who take the fifth are guilty, in spite of the fact that he's done it himself almost a hundred times.) 

Trump Jr., whose testimony happened behind closed doors, reportedly told senators that he didn't tell his father about the infamous Trump Tower meeting where Russian agents dangled "dirt" on Hillary Clinton in front of him. He also reportedly said that he was unaware of any other foreign countries seeking to illegally influence the election on Trump Sr.'s behalf, and that he was only "peripherally aware" of ongoing plans during the campaign to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. In reality, Trump Jr. took secret meetings during the campaign with representatives from three Middle Eastern governments, and was repeatedly briefed on the Moscow negotiations.

Who cares?

  • Even by Trump standards, this is a lot of self-medication.
  • Neither presidents nor their families are above the law.