What did Donald Trump do today?

He promoted a self-described "Nazi" and sexual harasser.

Paul Ingrassia was supposed to be Trump's nominee to head the Office of Special Counsel, the agency that—under normal circumstances—acts as a watchdog against abuses in the executive branch. But Ingrassia quickly proved so toxic that even Senate Republicans signaled that they'd vote against his confirmation, and his nomination was pulled. 

The reason, other than the 30-year-old's lack of experience, was that Ingrassia was under investigation for an incident in which he canceled a female subordinate's hotel room during a business trip in order to force her to share a room with him. (A Trump spokesperson insisted that the woman, who withdrew her complaint under pressure, had "misunderstood" what Ingrassia was trying to do by making her share a room with him.) It was also revealed that he'd had said on a text message that Martin Luther King, Jr. deserved to be "tossed in the seventh circle of Hell," made racist jokes about "Chinamen and Indians," and that Ingrassia had described himself as having "a bit of a Nazi streak." That was apparently not a joke: Ingrassia promoted Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist and Holocaust denier. (Trump himself has met with Fuentes.)

Ingrassia had been expected to quietly leave the Trump administration, where he had been working in the Department of Homeland Security. (He also had a sideline doing favors for his former client, accused sex trafficker Andrew Tate, a celebrity Trump supporter.) But today, Ingrassia announced that he'd been promoted to a different job: deputy counsel at the General Services Administration. 

Trump did not face questions about Ingrassia's promotion today during his one very brief appearance in front of reporters, because they were shouting questions instead about the revelations in yesterday's release of sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein's texts and e-mails. Trump refused to respond as White House staff desperately tried to clear reporters from the room.

 

Why does this matter?

• It's extremely bad when promoting a racist and creepy sexual predator who describes himself as a Nazi isn't the biggest scandal of a president's day. 

• It actually matters whether the government is staffed by competent, qualified professionals or loyalists who happen to have done terrible things the president can relate to.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He said American citizens were practice for the American military.

Trump addressed a gathering of virtually all of the nation's senior military leadership today. More than 400 generals and admirals, plus their senior enlisted aides, were summoned from commands all over the world at the behest of Trump's Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. News of the meeting was leaked last week, and Trump had clearly heard about it at the same time as the rest of the world—or had been told and then forgot—because he initially thought Hegseth was meeting with foreign generals rather than demanding the entire military leadership of this country attend him. 

Trump was a late add to the program, which was originally supposed to be about ex-National Guardsman Hegseth lecturing career military officers on the "warrior ethos." (Hegseth's own aides, speaking on background, told reporters yesterday that they believe he is in the middle of a mental health crisis.)

Hegseth, whose own mother joined in accusations that he had abused women, used the speech as an occasion to announce that he would expunge disciplinary records of such "earnest mistakes" committed by servicemembers. He accused "females" of weakening combat units with their presence, and called the idea that the military should reflect the actual American public an "insane fallacy." Hegseth, who was fired from two consecutive jobs with veterans' charities for losing control during alcoholic binges, also complained at length about "beardos"—servicemembers with medical authorizations to wear neatly trimmed beards because of folliculitis, mostly African-Americans. 

Trump then replaced Hegseth on the stage, received in silence that clearly unsettled him. He made a "joke" about firing anyone who didn't agree with him, and then gave what amounted to a campaign speech. As has been especially common during his second term, Trump was meandering and unfocused and occasionally struggled to speak above a mumble. 

One thing he said clearly, though, was that Americans living in cities who oppose his policies would be "training grounds" for American military forces. Trump called Americans who oppose him "the enemy from within" and a "horrible plague" and said that fighting them is "gonna be a big thing" for the troops commanded by the flag officers in the room. 

Trump, like Hegseth, left the stage to no applause (which is military protocol) but immediately, dozens of officials began speaking to reporters about the event, calling it "embarrassing" and "garbage" and "deeply troubling." Some outright questioned Trump's fitness for office—an astonishing breach of the usual deference the professional American military shows to civilian command. 

Why does this matter?

• Americans are not the enemy the American military fights. 

• Americans are not the enemy the American military fights. 

• Americans are not the enemy the American military fights.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He said that the victims of a horrific sex-trafficking operation were a "Democrat hoax."

Survivors of the child sex-trafficking ring run by Trump's former close friend and confidant Jeffrey Epstein asked Congress today to fulfill Trump's campaign pledge to release the Justice Department's criminal investigative files. 

The nine women who spoke out today described being groomed and manipulated by Epstein at ages as young as 14, isolated from their families, and forced to have sex with him, his partner Ghislaine Maxwell, and men who paid Epstein for access to them. They spoke, as they had to investigators and at trials, of the lingering effects of the physical and emotional abuse. One of his victims, who met Epstein while she was employed by Trump as a "masseuse" at Mar-a-Lago, has committed suicide. 

Today, speaking specifically in response to their call for action, Trump called it a "Democrat hoax."

Trump campaigned on a promise to make the files public, in order to shed light on the extent of Epstein's criminal empire. But in July, his former defense attorney Pam Bondi (now Attorney General) suddenly declared that there was nothing of interest in them. In response to bipartisan fury at the abrupt change—and the attendant suspicion that Trump might be covering up his own misdeeds, or his friends'—the Trump administration released about 3% of the total files, most of which had already been made public before.

That's not to say that Trump hasn't taken action, though. Through another former personal defense attorney, Todd Blanche (who is now the Deputy Attorney General) Trump arranged to have Epstein's co-conspirator and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell "interviewed" in July under a grant of immunity from prosecution. 

Prior to the interview, Maxwell's attorney made clear that she expected to be rewarded for "assisting" Blanche. After claiming that she never saw Trump commit any untoward acts in her presence, Trump moved her to a minimum security facility described as a "country club," something a convicted child sex trafficker with most of a 20-year sentence left would normally never get under Bureau of Prison rules. 

It's not clear why Trump thinks Maxwell's assurances about her good behavior will do him much good. Maxwell also claims she never saw Epstein himself do anything wrong either, something that dozens of survivors of the sex-trafficking ring have testified under oath is a lie. She was indicted for perjury as a result of making that claim in a civil trial against Epstein before his death.

The kid-gloves treatment Trump has shown Maxwell isn't a new development. After her sex trafficking conviction in 2020, he refused to condemn her or her actions, and would only say "I wish her well." 

Trump has not yet been accused by any of the survivors of taking part in Epstein's crimes. But dozens of women, including at one point his first wife and the mother of three of his children, have independently accused Trump of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape. 

Why does this matter?

• Victims of the most horrific sex crimes imaginable don't cease to exist just because they're politically inconvenient to Donald Trump. 

• It's just about impossible at this point to come up with an innocent explanation for Trump's handling of this scandal. 

What did Donald Trump do today?

He tried to say that defaming a woman he raped was part of his presidential duties—again.

In 2020, while he was still president, Trump had his Justice Department attempt to intervene as the defendant in E. Jean Carroll's defamation and sexual assault suit against him. As this site wrote at the time:

DOJ lawyers argued, in effect, that when Trump called Carroll a pathological attention-seeker who was endangering women who had been assaulted, he was doing so in his official capacity as the President of the United States.

This kind of move is routine in the many lawsuits involving the executive branch, but using it to keep a president out of civil court for personal attacks on the character of a woman he's accused of raping is totally unprecedented.

The attempt to make Trump's problems the government's was unsuccessful, but the inevitable appeals dragged the case on two years longer than it otherwise would have. Once that question was finally settled, the case proceeded to trial and Carroll won not one but two judgments against him, because Trump repeated the defamatory claims in defiance of the first judgment. The total damages awarded to Carroll were $88.3 million—$5.3 million for the first verdict, and $83 million for the second.

The jury in that trial found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation. The judge's final ruling made clear that the jury's verdict and the facts established in the case meant that Trump had raped Carroll in the sense that the word is commonly used.

Today, five years after the first time he tried this, Trump once again had his DOJ file a motion seeking to have the United States government stand in as the defendant while he appeals the original verdicts—the exact same stance as before, on the exact same matter, in the exact same case.

In his unrelated crusade against law firms who have opposed him or his administration in court, Trump has called for severe penalties for those who file "frivolous" legal claims. That term has a specific legal meaning, and it encompasses claims meant to delay justice that are "based on an indisputably meritless legal theory."

Why does this matter?

• "L'etat, c'est moi" is the slogan of a king, and presidents are not kings.

• Government lawyers don't exist to protect Donald Trump personally—even if most of them got their jobs because they used to be his criminal defense lawyers.

• Lying about a woman you raped in order to discredit her claim is still not part of the official duties of the President of the United States.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He lost yet another appeal of the civil judgment against him for what a judge found most people would call rape.

In 2023, a jury found that Trump had sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll and defamed her by accusing her of lying about it for personal gain, and awarded her $5 million. Trump then defamed her again by repeating the same allegations, and a second jury awarded her $83 million in damages.

Trump appealed that original verdict to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Among other things, he claimed that it was an error to allow testimony from two of the dozens of women who reported that he sexually assaulted or harassed them. Trump also claimed it was an error to allow jurors to hear the infamous Access Hollywood tape, on which Trump tells a TV host about his habit of grabbing women "by the pussy" whether they want it or not, because he knows his fame and money mean he'll be able to get away with it.

Today, the court dismissed all of Trump's arguments and upheld the verdict against him. The panel of judges found that there was no error, and that even if there had been, the effect on the jury's ability to reach a fair and accurate verdict would have been negligible.

Recently, Trump has tried to reframe the Carroll case by pointing to the fact that the jury found he didn't rape her (in a certain technical sense of the term used in New York law). Earlier this month, he pressured ABC News into a settlement for using the word "rape" to describe what he did to Carroll. 

The jury did find that he sexually assaulted Carroll, and the judge in the original case clearly stated that what the jury did find Trump had done would be considered "rape" in the way that most people typically use the term outside of a courtroom.

Through a statement issued by a spokesperson, Trump once again called the "Carroll Hoax" a "Witch Hunt" and complained that it was all a "Democrat-funded" "weaponization of our justice system."

He has made similar claims against all 88 criminal indictments against him (including the 34 felonies he was convicted of), his impeachment for trying to blackmail the government of Ukraine into a phony investigation of then-candidate Joe Biden, his impeachment for trying to overturn the results of the election that removed him from power in 2021, and most of the dozens of assault and harassment charges that women have levied against him.

Why does this matter?

• Donald Trump is the one responsible for Donald Trump's actions, not the media or the entire justice system or his political opponents or the women he assaults.

• The thing that ordinary people call rape is a vicious and disgusting act, whether or not that's the term defense lawyers would use for it.

What did Donald Trump do today? 

He succeeded in getting the Department of Justice to act as his personal defense lawyer.

One of the literally dozens of women who have accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct is E. Jean Carroll, who said last year that Trump raped her in the mid-1990s. Trump responded by calling Carroll a liar, an attention-seeker, a victimizer of other women, and—in a Trumpian twist—too unattractive for him to consider sexually assaulting. 

Carroll then filed a defamation lawsuit against Trump, which has been proceeding ever since. Recently, Trump lost a bid to prevent it from going forward while he was in office.

Today, with his permission, the Department of Justice intervened, asking to have private citizen Donald Trump replaced as the defendant with the United States of America. DOJ lawyers argued, in effect, that when Trump called Carroll a pathological attention-seeker who was endangering women who had been assaulted, he was doing so in his official capacity as the President of the United States.

This kind of move is routine in the many lawsuits involving the executive branch, but using it to keep a president out of civil court for personal attacks on the character of a woman he's accused of raping is totally unprecedented.

Because the United States is immune from certain kinds of lawsuits, if the request were granted, that would end the case immediately. And, critically, it would shield Trump from having to give a deposition under oath, or allow Carroll's lawyers access to evidence related to the suit—all of which would have happened in the near future. (According to Carroll herself, that would have included a DNA sample.) Legal experts say Trump is not likely to succeed, but the inevitable appeals will work as a delay tactic.

Trump has often gotten confused about whether lawyers representing the government are also his own private defense lawyers, but with the appointment of William Barr, he seems to have succeeded in getting a "defense attorney general" who is willing to adopt his view of things.

Why is this a bad thing?

• "I am the state" doesn't work in a democracy.

• The president is not above the law, including civil law.

• The presidency is a big job, but defaming the character of women in the hopes that people will think the president might not be a rapist after all is not part of the job description.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He threatened a reporter.

Washington Post reporter David Farenthold won a Pulitzer Prize for his series of articles exposing Trump's long history of lies and illegal behaviors around charities. He's also known for breaking the Access Hollywood tape story, where Trump was recorded admitting to sexual assault of women and claiming he could get away with it because he's famous.

Today, Farenthold was on the byline of a new story about Trump's ongoing attempts to profit from the presidency. It ran under the headline "Room rentals, resort fees and furniture removal: How Trump’s company charged the U.S. government more than $900,000."

In response, a White House spokesperson was dispatched to threaten Farenthold with blackmail. In a statement, spokesman Judd Deere wrote, "The Washington Post is blatantly interfering with the business relationships of the Trump Organization, and it must stop.” 

He added, “Please be advised that we are building up a very large ‘dossier’ on the many false David Fahrenthold and others stories as they are a disgrace to journalism and the American people.”

Deere is a government employee. The Trump Organization is Trump's private business. The statement did not dispute the accuracy of the article's claims.

Farenthold appeared unworried by the threat, but blackmail is one thing Trump knows a thing or two about. He is famous for his attempts to hush up uncomfortable truths about himself with nondisclosure agreements—even forcing White House employees to sign legally invalid ones as a scare tactic. 

Trump has also dabbled on the supply side of blackmail. According to his former "fixer" Michael Cohen, it's how he got the unexpected endorsement of Jerry Falwell Jr. Cohen described a quid pro quo in which Trump got Falwell's endorsement—at a time when he was widely disliked among the evangelical community—in exchange for Trump getting the National Enquirer not to run sexually compromising photographs of Falwell's wife.

Why does this matter?

• The United States government doesn't exist to protect Donald Trump's private interests above everyone else's.

• Threatening the press when it publishes things that make the leader look bad is what authoritarians do.

• Making unlikely threats doesn't make you look strong.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He lied about DACA.

DACA is the government program that gives certain children, brought illegally to the United States by their parents, the lowest priority for deportation. It also allows people given this designation—many of whom do not remember their native country, or speak its language—the ability to work legally, get driver's licenses, and otherwise lead a relatively normal life.

Today, Trump tweeted this:

It's true that some DACA recipients are "no longer very young," although it's not clear why Trump thinks this matters. Every other part of this is false—in particular the part about "some" being "tough, hardened criminals." This is a callback to the first days of his 2016 campaign, when he said that Mexican immigrants were rapists and drug dealers. 

By definition, DACA recipients cannot have been convicted of a felony, or a "significant misdemeanor" (including charges related to domestic violence, sexual abuse or exploitation, unlawful possession or use of a firearm, drug sales, burglary, or drunk driving). Three minor misdemeanors (like, for example, public intoxication or littering) also completely disqualify an applicant, and even one can result in a DACA recipient's status being revoked.

Trump himself is "no angel," having been credibly accused of felonies ranging from sexual assault to tax fraud, which would likely result in his being discretionarily excluded from DACA participation if the Department of Homeland Security were aware of the accusations. Among the people in his orbit who would also be barred from DACA by virtue of being "tough, hardened criminals" include:

• Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign manager (convicted of 17 felonies)
• Michael Cohen, Trump's personal lawyer and "fixer" (convicted of campaign finance violations related to Trump's attempts to pay hush money to his sexual partners, and of making false statements to the U.S. Senate)
• Rick Gates, Trump's campaign co-chair (convicted on two felony counts of making false statements and conspiracy against the United States)
• George Papadopoulos, Trump's campaign national security advisor and Russia contact (convicted of one felony count of making false statements)
• Michael Flynn, Trump's disgraced national security advisor and campaign surrogate (convicted of making false statements during the Russia investigation)

Other Trump-connected individuals whose criminal trials are ongoing or whose convictions haven't yet been finalized—which would be enough to prevent them from renewing DACA status, especially if they were incarcerated during their trial—include:

• Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, "associates" of Trump's current lawyer Rudy Giuliani who were involved in the Ukraine bribery scandal, currently facing charges related to illegally funneling foreign money to U.S. political campaigns
• Roger Stone, currently on trial for seven counts of witness tampering, obstruction of justice, and perjury related to his role as a conduit between the Trump campaign and Wikileaks, which Russia was using to illegally help Trump get elected

Trump's position on DACA has varied wildly during the course of his term, to the point that he has occasionally forgotten what it is entirely during negotiations with Congress about it. One political reality he appeared to forget today was that DACA recipients are much, much more popular than he is.

Why should I care about this?

• It's wrong to accuse people of crimes they have, by definition, not committed.

• Bigotry is as bigotry does.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He said that the media was bad because James O'Keefe said so.

After a busy Saturday of 82 tweets (and no work-related activity), Trump was relatively restrained today with his screen-time, but it did involve him tweeting this:

James O'Keefe is a convicted criminal who specializes in hoax videos in which he supposedly catches liberal organizations or media outlets in misbehavior. He's been caught trying to sneak into a senator's office to tamper with the phones. Last year he attempted to plant false allegations of sexual assault against Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, in order to discredit Moore's actual accusers by uncovering the hoax later. (The targeted paper, the Washington Post, refused to print the uncorroborated story.) In 2010, he planned to try to discredit a CNN reporter interviewing him by renting a boat, stocking it with sex toys, and seducing her—and then called her a "bubble-headed-bleach-blonde" when the plan backfired. 

Like a number of professional trolls, O'Keefe has been running out of patrons lately. But Trump has made no secret of his desire to discredit all media sources that he doesn't directly control. And given that Trump's ability to escape criminal prosecution seems increasingly tied to his ability to stay in office, it is more important than ever for Trump that his supporters tune out any evidence that doesn't fit with the Trump narrative.

Who cares?

• There are more important things for a president to do than promote internet trolls.

• In a democracy, leaders defend free speech even though it might be used against them.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He once again declared that women who report sexual assault are lying.

Yesterday, the New York Times released an excerpt of a forthcoming book on Trump-appointed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The authors corroborated the claim raised by his former Yale classmate Deborah Ramirez that he pulled down his pants at a party and pushed it towards her face, forcing her to swat it away. The excerpt also reports on a separate party where witnesses say Kavanaugh pushed his penis into a woman's hand.

Ramirez's accusations did not get the same attention as those made by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, whom Kavanaugh reportedly assaulted while drunk at a high school party, and who testified against him directly at his confirmation hearing. Trump stonewalled allowing an FBI investigation until it became clear that Kavanaugh's nomination was in jeopardy, and then only allowed one that lasted a few days and had to carefully observe certain limits. 

The NYT report makes clear that the FBI was either unable, or—given Trump's absolute insistence that Kavanaugh must be found innocent—unwilling to pursue most of the leads they had about Kavanaugh's alleged crimes against women.

Today, Trump waded back into the debate, calling all of Kavanaugh's accusers liars and saying that Kavanaugh should sue them for "liable." (He later corrected it to "libel.")

While Trump is sometimes confused about what a libel suit would involve, he's correct that Kavanaugh could sue anyone making such an accusation. But any such trial would make Kavanaugh subject to an actual investigation, and force him to testify. This is why Trump has never made good on his own threats to sue the many women who have accused him of sexual violations ranging from harassment to rape.

In spite of some calls for his impeachment, Kavanaugh's Supreme Court seat is not likely in jeopardy, given that removing him would require 67 votes in the Senate. But it's no mystery why Trump is anxious to defend him: he has been accused of sexual harassment or assault by at least 24 girls and women. In spite of having admitted on tape to some of the same acts he's accused of here—for example, sexually grabbing women or using his status as a hotel owner to peep on pageant contestants while they undressed—Trump insists that every single one of them is lying.

Kavanaugh is hardly the only friend or supporter that Trump has defended against allegations of rape or harassment. He's also branded as liars the women who have accused former Fox pundit Bill O'Reilly, accused pedophile and Trump-endorsed Senate candidate Roy Moore, Mike Tyson (with whom Trump had a business relationship), Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, and White House aide Rob Porter.

 

In fact, there are only two times that Trump has shown any willingness to believe that a woman has been sexually mistreated. The first was during his publicity-seeking vendetta against the so-called Central Park Five, a group of black and Hispanic teenagers wrongfully charged with the rape of a jogger. The victim in that case was unconscious and did not accuse them directly. (To this day, Trump continues to maintain, in the face of DNA evidence, that they must be guilty and should be executed.) The other time was immediately before a debate with Hillary Clinton in 2016, when he invited as his guests three women who had accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct.

Why should I care about this?

• People's actions are what determine whether they're innocent of an accusation, not how Donald Trump feels about them.

• Finding out the truth about criminal acts committed by people in high office is more important than Donald Trump's political needs.

• People in power assuming that all women are lying about sexual crimes is why women don't report sexual crimes.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He tried to cut himself free from the unfolding Jeffrey Epstein child sex trafficking scandal.

Trump was forced to address his and his administration's connections to Jeffrey Epstein, the hedge fund manager who was given a notoriously lenient sentence for sex crimes against children, and who now faces new charges for child sex trafficking. He expressed sympathy for his labor secretary, Alex Acosta, whose as a prosecutor signed off on an extremely light sentence, and then illegally tried to hide the details of that deal from Epstein's victims. Trump also claimed he'd had a "falling out" with Epstein and that he "wasn't a fan."

Trump made no mention at all of Epstein's dozens of known victims.

Asked about his confidence in Acosta, Trump said, "I feel very badly, actually, for Secretary Acosta because I’ve known him as being somebody that works so hard and has done such a good job." He also floated the idea that Acosta wasn't really responsible: "I do hear that there were a lot of people involved in that decision, not just him."

As for his relationship with Epstein, Trump explained it this way:

Well, I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him. I mean, people in Palm Beach knew him. He was a fixture in Palm Beach. I had a falling out with him a long time ago. I don’t think I’ve spoken to him for 15 years. I wasn’t a fan. I was not — yeah, a long time ago. I’d say maybe 15 years. I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you. I was not a fan of his.

This is either a lie or a convenient mis-remembering. Trump was a fan of Epstein's, at least for a while. In New York magazine's 2002 profile on Epstein, Trump told a reporter, "I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it – Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”

Trump is not directly implicated in Epstein's alleged child sex trafficking, although he has openly admitted to behavior with girls and young women that ranges from creepy to criminal.

However, Trump is acting very worried by the unfolding Epstein drama. Probably the most important sign of how seriously Trump is taking the potential for scandal is the behavior of his famously Trump-protective attorney general, William Barr. Yesterday, Barr recused himself from the Epstein case, as he had promised senators he would at his confirmation hearing. Barr has several connections to Epstein that would normally prevent him from being involved: he was a partner at the law firm that defended Epstein, and Barr's father gave Epstein (then a college dropout) a job at a private school in New York.

Today, Barr "unrecused" himself.

Why should I care about this?

• The attorney general is not the president's personal "fixer."

• Presidents are responsible for appointing people who the public can trust with power.

• Reality doesn't change just because the president wants to remember it differently.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He got mad about law enforcement enforcing laws.

Trump took 27 minutes out of his mid-day "executive time" today to tweet one thread in particular, on the subject of investigations into his now-defunct fake charity. It read:

It is very hard and expensive to live in New York. Governor Andrew Cuomo uses his Attorney General as a bludgeoning tool for his own purposes. They sue on everything, always in search of a crime. I even got sued on a Foundation which took Zero rent & expenses & gave away.......more money than it had. Going on for years, originally brought by Crooked Hillary’s Campaign Chair, A.G. Eric Schneiderman, until forced to resign for abuse against women. They never even looked at the disgusting Clinton Foundation. Now Cuomo’s A.G. is harassing all of my........New York businesses in search of anything at all they can find to make me look as bad as possible. So, on top of ridiculously high taxes, my children and companies are spending a fortune on lawyers. No wonder people and businesses are fleeing New York in record numbers! That’s right, The Trump Foundation gave away 100% plus, with Zero rent or expenses charged, and has been being sued by Cuomo and New York State for years - another part of the political Witch Hunt. Just in case anyone is interested - Clinton Foundation never even looked at!

It's safe to say that Trump is a little confused.

Barbara Underwood, not Eric Schneiderman, was the New York Attorney General who forced Trump to dissolve his "charity." Schneiderman was never part of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. "Campaign Chair" was the title held by Paul Manafort in Trump's 2016 campaign. (Manafort is now in prison.) Clinton's campaign chair was John Podesta, whose emails were hacked and then released by Russia as part of their efforts to elect Trump.

However, Trump is correct that Schneiderman resigned after four women accused him of physical or sexual violence against them. Trump, who bragged on tape that women had to let him "grab them by the pussy" because of his fame, has been accused of sexual assault ranging from unwanted groping to rape by at least fifteen women.

It's true that the Trump Foundation eventually "gave away" all the money it had. (Every nonprofit organization eventually does, by definition.) The reason that the Trump Foundation "gave away" its remaining assets recently is that it was forced to dissolve under court supervision. As part of the settlement, the Trump Foundation admitted to a number of criminal acts, most of them having to do with illegally acting to benefit Trump himself politically or financially.

It is very likely true that Trump's children, who were officers of the Trump Foundation, are spending money on lawyers. People likely to be sued or indicted generally do, if they can afford to. Trump's son Eric may be spending more than Ivanka and Donald Jr., since the separate Eric Trump Foundation has also been caught breaking the law and being used to make money for the Trump family directly.

It's also true that neither New York nor any other jurisdiction has ever "looked at" the Clinton Foundation for criminal activities, because it has never been accused of any wrongdoing, except by Trump himself. During the campaign, Trump floated a rumor that the Clinton Foundation had somehow laundered Saudi money for Clinton's benefit. (Trump himself is deeply financially entangled with the Saudi royal family.)

Why does this matter?

• Presidents aren't above the law.

• Fake charities are bad, and it's right to punish people who abuse charity laws for their own benefit.

• Accusing other people of bad things you have done is called projection, and it's not a sign of good mental health.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He said this:

Our radical Democrat opponents are driven by hatred, prejudice and rage. They want to destroy you and they want to destroy our country as we know it.

Accusing your political enemies of being a dangerous and malignant force that needs to be destroyed or cut out before they destroy the nation is called eliminationism.

For context, Trump also accuses his political enemies of being mentally ill, conspiring with Russia, taking bribes from Saudi Arabia, performing poorly in the polls, sexually harassing and assaulting women, and trying to let foreign countries influence American elections.

So what?

• Dehumanizing your political opponents is un-democratic, un-American, and dangerous.

• Accusing other people of doing the bad things that you do is called projection, and it's not a sign of good mental health.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He insulted the Duchess of Sussex right before he visits the UK.

In an interview with the British tabloid The Sun published today, Trump was told that called Meghan Markle—the biracial American-born actress married to Prince Harry—had opposed his election in 2016.

Trump replied, "I didn't know that she was nasty."

Apparently realizing too late what he'd said, Trump then backtracked, saying that he was sure Markle would do a good job as a member of the royal family.

Markle makes at least the third woman in the last few years that Trump has dubbed "nasty" for opposing him politically. The others are Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), who is running for president, and his 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton. 

Of course, Trump's temper and hunger for the spotlight have led him to publicly insult almost everyone and everything at one point or another. (The New York Times has counted 598 targets just going by his Twitter feed, as of last Friday.) But Trump's insults are usually much more intense and frequently obscene when he feels provoked by a woman. 

The slur on Markle means that Trump has gone after Prince Harry's wife and mother. Weeks after her death, Trump bragged in a radio interview that he "could have nailed" Princess Diana, but also said that she was "crazy." (In reality, according to a friend of Diana's, she was worried by Trump's stalker-like behavior towards her.)

UPDATE, 6/1: An official Trump campaign Twitter account called this "fake news," saying that the media was "falsely claiming President Trump called Meghan Markle 'nasty.'" The tweet included audio of Trump clearly saying exactly that.

Who cares?

• Inability to bear any kind of criticism, no matter what the circumstances, is not a sign of good mental health.

• This is a pretty low diplomatic bar for Trump to be unable to clear.

• It's wrong to lie, and it's wrong and stupid to lie about whether you said something there's audio tape of you saying.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He talked about crimes.

At a brief press availability today, Trump was asked about the arrest of Robert Kraft, his friend and the owner of the New England Patriots, for soliciting prostitution. Trump was circumspect:

Well, it's very sad. I was very surprised to see it. He's proclaimed his innocence totally, and — but I'm very surprised to see it.

Trump has often stressed that men accused of sex crimes have declared their innocence, so long as those men are his friends or allies. When a high-ranking aide, Rob Porter, was accused of having physically beaten two of his ex-wives, Trump said this:

He also, as you probably know says he’s innocent and I think you have to remember that. He said very strongly yesterday that he’s innocent so you have to talk to him about that, but we absolutely wish him well, he did a very good job when he was at the White House.

When Roy Moore, the Alabama politician Trump campaigned for in a special Senate election last year, was accused of having preyed on underage girls when he was in his 30s, Trump said this:

He denies it. Look, he denies it. If you look at what is really going on, if you look at all the things that have happened over the last 48 hours, he totally denies it. He says it didn't happen, and you know, you have to listen to him also. You're talking about, he says 40 years ago, this didn't happen, so, you know. ...Roy Moore denies it, that's all I can say, and by the way, he totally denies it.

And Trump has made similar defensive remarks on behalf of Corey Lewandowski, Roger Ailes, Bill O'Reilly—all political allies—and Mike Tyson, with whom he had a business relationship. And, of course, Trump himself has said that every single one of the 22 women who have publicly accused him of sexual assault or harassment over a period of several decades are lying.

Most recently, Trump declared that Christine Blasey Ford, who accused his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of having attempted to rape her in high school, was part of a "big fat con job." He mocked Ford for not having reported the assault when she was a teenager, and also said that nothing any investigation could possibly turn up would change his mind.

But the Kraft incident was only one crime he was forced to address today. Two others concerned criminal matters the White House has stayed absolutely silent on as they unfolded this week.

When asked about Christopher Hasson, a self-proclaimed white nationalist and Coast Guard lieutenant who was caught planning a mass terror attack targeting Democratic politicians and journalists, Trump said this:

I think it's a shame.

Asked if he felt any responsibility for the actions of people incited to violence against the people he rails against and calls "enemies of the people," Trump responded:

No, I don’t. I think my language is very nice.

Hasson's internet search history included queries like "what if trump illegally impeached" and "civil war if trump impeached." Trump has publicly said that "the people would revolt" if he were impeached.

Trump was also forced to comment on the 2008 plea deal given to Jeffrey Epstein, a billionaire and close friend of Trump's, on charges dealing with sex trafficking and child rape. Epstein is believed to have trafficked in sex with more than 40 girls and women. Trump himself jokingly commented on Epstein's behavior before he was brought up on criminal charges, saying,

I've known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy. He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.

The reason that Epstein is in the news this week is that a federal judge ruled that Trump's labor secretary, Alexander Acosta, had broken the law when, as a federal prosecutor, he had brokered an incredibly lenient plea deal for Epstein and then hidden it from victims. (The law requires that victims of such crimes be notified.) Epstein pleaded guilty to only one assault, and served 13 months in the local Palm Beach jail, with daily work release privileges.

That led to this exchange today:

REPORTER: Mr. President, do have any concerns about the Labor Secretary tampering with the Jeffrey Epstein case? 

TRUMP: I really don't know too much about it. I know he's done a great job as Labor Secretary. And that seems like a long time ago. But I know he's been a fantastic Labor Secretary. That's all I can really tell you about. That's all I know about.

Trump's diffidence on pending criminal justice matters comes a day after he crowed online about the arrest of actor Jussie Smollett for falsely claiming he was the victim of a hate crime.

So what?

• It's bad if the president only cares about crimes when they aren't committed by his friends and allies.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He repurposed an anti-Semitic smear campaign to attack sexual assault survivors.

Last week, Ana Maria Archila and Maria Gallagher confronted Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) in a Senate elevator doorway and tearfully told him of their sexual assaults. The raw and emotional moment went viral, and temporarily derailed the confirmation process.

This morning, Trump accused the "very rude elevator screamers" protesting against his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of being "paid for by [George] Soros."

George Soros is a wealthy financier who has contributed to a number of pro-democracy organizations. This has made him the target of a number of false conspiracy theories, many of which attack him on the basis of the fact that he is Jewish.

Archila's employer, the Center for Popular Democracy, has accepted donations from Soros' Open Society Institute. She was not being "paid by Soros" when she begged Flake not to vote to confirm Kavanaugh.

Why should I care about this?

• Sexual assaults are hugely underreported because victims are often afraid they won't be believed, or that they will be attacked for coming forward anyway.

• Political opposition is part of democracy, not a global conspiracy.

• It's bad for presidents to take the same side as anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists, although it does seem to be the new normal.

What did Donald Trump do today?

This.

WATCH: President Trump mocks Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Trump's Supreme Court pick Judge Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, during rally in Mississippi. https://t.co/pZfWN8IFMV pic.twitter.com/81YEs8oXr5

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) October 3, 2018

Earlier in the day, Trump said that it was a "very scary time for young men in America" because women could accuse them of sexual assault or rape.

Violent sexual crimes are among the most under-reported crimes, in large part because victims tend to be shamed or disbelieved.

In between his various attacks on Dr. Ford, Trump has called her account "very credible" and said that she was a "very fine woman."

Trump has been accused of sexual assault or harassment by at least 19 different women. He has admitted to "grabbing women by the pussy" because he knew his fame and influence would let him get away with it.

Why does this matter?

• There is no political prize so important that it is worth scaring sexual assault victims from coming forward.

• Even by Trump's standards of lashing out at women who upset him, this is pretty awful. 

• The most charitable interpretation of Trump calling Ford both "very credible" and viciously attacking her as a liar is that he is mentally unstable.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He lied about interfering in the FBI investigation into Brett Kavanaugh.

En route to a campaign rally in West Virginia, Trump promised reporters that he would not be putting restrictions on the FBI's investigations into Brett Kavanaugh, who is accused by at least three women of crimes or gross sexual misbehavior. 

Trump said that the FBI has "free rein to do whatever they have to do." But in reality, Trump has set strict limits on what the FBI is allowed to investigate in their one-week window of opportunity, according to White House officials.

The FBI will not be allowed to investigate allegations made by Julie Swetnick that Kavanaugh participated in group sex with drunk or drugged women during college parties. Swetnick is represented by Michael Avenatti, who is also the attorney for Stormy Daniels, the porn star Trump had an affair with and paid hush money to. Avenatti's brash, public taunts have infuriated Trump, and his response to Swetnick's allegations were to lash out at her lawyer.

Kavanaugh also likely perjured himself during testimony this week, and it appears that those statements will be off-limits to the FBI as well.

Why does this matter?

• It's wrong to say you'll do one thing, and then do another.

• It's bad to appoint people to the most powerful positions in government if they can't stand public scrutiny of their actions.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He lied about wages again--but otherwise laid low.

As usual for a Saturday, Trump spent the day at one of his luxury golf courses. And as is usual for Trump, if no other president before him, his public schedule was devoid of any work-related activities. 

Unusually, he has otherwise been quiet: his Twitter activity as of 10 p.m. EDT today was limited to one generic boast about unspecified economic "records," and two very brief pre-taped viedo messages.

But even a combined 70 seconds of pre-taped video was enough room for Trump to stray far from the truth. In the first of those videos, he said:

I have good news for you. It was just announced that wages, for the first time in many years, for people in the United States have gone up. ...That means you're working hard, but you're making more money.

It's not clear what Trump was referring to, but as this site noted Thursday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics's latest report shows that year-on-year wages were up two cents per hour, from $10.76 to $10.78. For a standard 2,000-hour work year, that would increase gross pay from $21,520 to $21,560.

In other words, while Trump's tax cuts have resulted in huge corporate windfalls, wages remain flat against inflation as they have since the recessions of the early 1980s.

The reason Trump is laying low today is that he may have singlehandedly ruined his own Supreme Court nominee's chances of confirmation. Yesterday's tweet, in which Trump sarcastically mocked Brett Kavanaugh's accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, for not reporting a rape attempt when she was 15, has backfired spectacularly. One of the swing votes on Kavanaugh's nomination, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) declared herself "appalled." Twitter was swamped by thousands of women using the #WhyIDidntReport hashtag.

Congressional Republicans, facing an election in which women are likely to be the margin of victory for Democratic challengers, were horrified as the damage to Kavanaugh's chances became clear. As one Republican Senate staffer told NBC, "They had a strategy, which was to keep [Trump] under wraps. I think Trump just couldn't help himself from becoming the center of attention." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had publicly guaranteed Kavanaugh's confirmation regardless of what Ford had to say, called Trump on Friday to make him aware of the damage he'd done.

Why should I care about this?

• Repeating a lie does not make it true.

• Presidents shouldn't need to be "handled" just so that they don't get in the way of their own agenda.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He mocked a woman for coming forward with her story of sexual assault.

Earlier in the week, Trump had managed to stay more or less out of the fray around his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Today he reverted to form and attacked Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Kavanaugh of drunkenly attempting to rape her when he was 17 and she was 15. Trump sarcastically tweeted he has "no doubt" that Dr. Ford "or her loving parents" filed a police report after she was sexually assaulted as a 15-year-old at a rowdy party.

Studies estimate that 70% of rapes and sexual assaults are never reported to the police. 

Survivors of these crimes often say they didn't go to the police for fear of retaliation or public shaming, or because they believed that the perpetrator would not be punished.

Trump has been accused of sexual assault or harassment by 19 different women, including his first ex-wife, Ivana Trump, who said he raped her in a deposition taken during their divorce. He has publicly defended a number of friends and political allies who harassed or assaulted women or children, including Bill O'Reilly, Roy Moore, Mike Tyson, Roger Ailes, Corey Lewandowski, and Rob Porter. 

Why does this matter?

• A president who mocks survivors of sexual violence for political gain doesn't deserve to hold office.

• It's bad if the President of the United States can't seem to believe women reporting abuse under any circumstances.

• Sexual assault survivors will be more afraid and less likely to come forward as a result of what Trump did today.