So much for Donald Trump wanting to go to jail over his gag order
There has been a persistent narrative that Donald Trump wants to get himself locked up for violating his gag order, so that he can portray himself as a victim and fundraise off it. Trump played into this narrative today when he insisted that he would be happy to go to jail for violating his gag order. But the problem with this narrative is that it’s directly contradicted by the facts at hand.
It was one week ago today that Judge Merchan first informed Trump that he was facing potential jail time if he kept violating his gag order. Trump had committed more than a dozen violations up to that point. But over the past week Trump has committed zero gag order violations. Even as he’s ranted and raved about everything under the sun, he’s made a point of not going after the witnesses and such in this trial.
In other words Trump is very much afraid of getting locked up. The minute the judge brought up the prospect, Trump completely changed course and went silent about the topics covered under the gag order. He even went so far as to quickly delete a post he made this morning simply saying that he knew who the next witness was.
If Trump were trying to get himself locked up for strategic political purposes, he’d have done it by now. It would have only taken one sentence out of his mouth. Instead he’s spent the past week going out of his way to not get himself locked up.
We all know that Trump might still end up violating his gag order eventually, because he just can’t control himself. But if it does happen, it won’t be because Trump is trying to do something strategic. He’s already had plenty of opportunity to do that, and he’s made a point of passing it up.
So let’s put an end to this notion that Trump wants to get himself locked up for political reasons. It’s clearly not the case.
