The coward Trump
Trump tells the MAGAs he will go to jail to uphold their free speech rights. The MAGAs swoon at the virility of it all. Too soon. Today, he proved he is just a yellow-bellied windbag, scared of being locked up.
Everything Trump says is a lie. On April 6, to give the base more to worship, he boasted that he would be honored to be incarcerated — just like the 20th century’s most famous political prisoner:
"If this Partisan Hack wants to put me in the “clink” for speaking the open and obvious TRUTH, I will gladly become a Modern Day Nelson Mandela — It will be my GREAT HONOR,"
The boast did not age well.
By “Partisan Hack” the all-talk Trump is referring to Judge Merchan — the jurist managing his trial for falsifying business records to hide his brief, tawdry and adulterous encounter with porn star Stormy Daniels.
On Monday, Trump faced something new. Merchan fined him for the 10th time. Something he expected. But the Judge told Trump that the next time he broke the rules, he would put him in the “clink.”
On Tuesday morning, Trump seemed to have ignored that ultimatum - and posted this rant to Truth Social.
Someone must have told Trump that he had screwed the pooch. With zero fanfare and no further reference to it, Trump quickly deleted the post. Trump does not do introspection and will not admit error, so I assume that one of his lawyers managed to get the D-student to realize this would see him locked up.
Facing this grim reality, Trump’s braggadocio disappeared like a fart in a hurricane. Given the chance to show he was a man of steel, he proved he was a cotton candy coward.
Fact check
The reason Trump did not know who the witness was until the last moment is his fault. Merchan ruled that the prosecution did not have to identify who they were calling until the last minute to limit Trump's opportunity to target them. If you do not obey the rules, expect to get penalized.
However, Trump and his lawyers knew that the prosecution would call Stormy Daniels at some point during the trial. If his attorneys were competent — which, in this case, I think they are, although they are spineless — they would have already prepared the questions they would ask. In addition, every defense cross-examination of a prosecution witness is not final until the defense hears what that witness says in direct testimony.
Legally, the prosecution is not required to provide their witness schedule. And they usually do not in trials where defendants or their supporters may threaten witnesses — as is SOP in the Trump trials.
If Trump, like any defendant, feels there were errors in the trial — a compromised Judge, for example — their legal recourse is an appeal. The law does not recognize a social media rant.
The only “Legal Scholars and Experts” on Trump’s side are Jonathan Turley and the rest of the right-wing cable news legal crew.
Lastly, the media would be telling lies if they reported Trump’s version.
Conclusion
To repurpose an old joke:
Q. How could you bury Trump in a shoe box? A. Give him an enema.
And you would not have to worry that courage would take up any space.