Monroe Dispatch - No Struggle, No Progress

Donald Trump may try to sound confident when he speaks in public or writes on his new social media site, but anyone who has been watching the former president, knows that his bark is worse than his bite. It is worse for his enemies and good for his supporters, because he is reminding Republicans who disagree with him on any issues, may be out of a job after the 2022 midterm elections. But his bark doesn’t mean a thing to the federal prosecutors who are steadily gaining assess to information from Jan. 6, 2021 and his business practices that may soon become public knowledge. There is also the depositions that Trump, daughter Ivanka and son Don, Jr. will have to give, now that a federal judge has ruled that the trio must do and soon. Then, there is the shock of shockers that occurred when Trump’s long time accounting firm literally threw him under the bus by terminating their business partnership and told the world that information given to them concerning his finances, “can’t be relied on”. If that wasn’t enough, Trump’s recent lawsuit claiming “absolute immunity” went down in flames as a federal judge raked trump over the coals. The judge in his ruling said that Trump on Jan. 6 made mention of the word “we” as if he was a part of the mob that stormed the Capitol. A leader will use the word “we” if he/she is to convince their followers of a resounding victory, even though the war is already over. Dozens of judges ruled against Trump’s numerous lawsuits alleging that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. And lest we forget, there is “Flushgate” where Trump is alleged to have flushed sensitive documents that were to be preserved, down a White House toilet causing clogs in the system. If that wasn’t bad enough, Trump also allegedly took documents that were classified with him to his Florida Mar-a-Lago home. Both incidents were against the law, especially the part dealing with the destruction of federal documents. This is the same Donald Trump who, as president, wanted to send House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi to prison for tearing up his State of The Union speech a few years back, that made Trump look, well, bad in front of a national/world audience. Republicans cried “foul” as they always do when Democrats do something “unamerican”, but they forgot one little key detail. If one would notice, a president will hand out COPIES of his speech to the vice-president and the speaker. They are not the real speech that will be sent to the National Archives. A copy is in the words of Trump and one of his favorite words, is a “fake”. Pelosi was free to do as she pleased with it. It was at Trump’s expense.

While all of this is going on around Trump, the Department of Justice seems to be just waiting to drop the big shoe on Mr. Trump. While there are civil/criminal investigations going on, the concern that documents being in the hands of a private citizen which Trump is, must be of paramount concern. If an average citizen is known to have classified documents in his/her possession, the feds normally have numerous questions and want answers to all of them. Trump in this situation is no different. Or he shouldn’t be. What DOJ does is up to AG Merrick Garland and as of now he is holding his cards close to his vest.

But Mr. Trump finds himself in a legal quagmire is because of his own mouth. The Jan. 6 committee is investigating Trump and taking depositions/interviews, is because of what has been said before, during and after the attempted insurrection on the Capitol. His words to “fight like hell” to his supporters and what “we” are going to do to stop the counting of the Electoral College votes and then not show any remorse, does not sound like an individual who claims to be a patriot. When it comes to his perceived wealth, Trump is known to have said that his wealth “fluctuates”, one day he is wealthy and the next day, he is very wealthy. He knows what is going on inside of his business empire, how much his properties are worth, including to how much cash he has on hand. All of that is expected to change when he is deposed when he disputes the findings of his former accounting firm. One other thing Mr. Trump has on his plate is the alleged vote hunting expedition that he wanted the Georgia secretary of state to find “just one extra vote” that would give him a presidential victory in Georgia. It was his mouth through a phone call that federal prosecutors have to further incriminate Trump. For now, Mr. Trump must be a lawyer’s nightmare, even though they are making a small fortune off of him. Words matter. Remember, the world is watching. So is God.