Donald Trump in breach of payment
“There’s just two things about improper integrals,” my mathematical analysis professor once told us, “they are neither integrals nor are they improper.” By the same formula, there’s just two things about the so-called “fake Steele dossier,” it’s neither a dossier nor is it fake. So who says you don’t retain anything of value from the maths they taught us in school?
So it was that a British High Court decided in February that not only is the so-called Steele dossier not ruled a fake, it’s worth about £300,000 ($375,000) in court costs, payable to former MI6 intelligence officer Christopher Steele. And convicted felon Donald Trump is now officially in violation of that order.
The ruling came with prejudice, meaning that Trump is not permitted to appeal it. He must pay the £300,000 in costs that Mr Steele’s company, Orbis Business Intelligence, accreted as a result of the suit. Convicted felon and, ahem, “billionaire” Trump has ignored the order. Surely he can afford a measly £300,000? After all, it’s only a little more than 1/3000th of a billion dollars. He must have that much money in loose change under the cushions of his couch at Mar-a-Lago.
“The fact is we were awarded a £300,000 initial cost order in February, which was confirmed when his right of appeal was turned down at the end of March. And so he’s been in breach of that order for two months now,” Christopher Steele told British news channel Sky News. “Cost is the key issue in all litigation, and particularly in what we call lawfare, which we think this is. It is an attempt to take vengeance against us or to keep us quiet,” he added.
From Trump’s point of view, the problem with this ruling is the same problem he always has. Anytime he loses anything Trump claims it’s rigged or it’s fake. Trump’s contempt for any authority that says he’s done anything wrong is now international. The narcissist Trump never takes personal responsibility for anything he does wrong, and that arrogance he’s taken on the road.
Trump is far more hated in the United Kingdom than he is in the United States. But that hatred still has its limits. Certain of the most loathsome British politicians, such as the likes of former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, and current racist and political gadfly Nigel Farage, have all voiced recent support for the convicted felon. But most of Britain laughs at them too, so their fading political cachet doesn’t help Trump’s reputation here by much.
All of which is to say, the convicted felon Donald Trump is now an internationally acclaimed deadbeat. He’s no different than any parasitic bum who dodges child support payments. The numbers are just a little bigger, that’s all. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.