The dead giveaway that Donald Trump is finished

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Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial kicked off on Tuesday with Trump’s pair of newly hired lawyers offering a meandering, incoherent, lifeless, and ineffective opening argument that only served to make the Democrats’ job easier.

After Trump struggled so mightily to find anyone willing and able to represent him in this trial (even Rudy Giuliani had to beg off because he’s a co-conspirator), it’s not surprising that Trump ended up settling for lawyers who are so clearly inept at this. But is it possible that this kind of muted, forgettable defense is what Trump wants from them?

As it turns out, no. CNN is now confirming that Trump, who was watching the trial at home, was “basically screaming” at the television as his lawyers made their opening argument. This means that Trump’s lawyers are putting on a completely different case than the one that Trump would like to see. And yet he’s still refusing to take up the impeachment managers on their request that he attend and speak on his own behalf.

There are only two possible explanations for why Trump is stewing at home while his lawyers blow this, instead of taking the reins himself. The first would be that Trump very much understands that he’s going to end up on criminal trial for this, and that he’s therefore been talked out of showing up and saying anything at his impeachment trial that can be used to convict him in his criminal trial.

The second explanation would be that Trump really is so fragile and defeated by his multimillion vote loss and ejection from office, he’s simply too broken to fight anymore. The Trump we all know and hate would have put himself front and center at this trial, for reasons of narcissism if nothing else. This new Trump is clearly just a shell of himself, unwilling to even show his face, let alone mount some big offensive. It’s a dead giveaway that Trump is finished.