Donald Trump gives something away with his response to the Rudy Giuliani raid
These days we don’t much care what the Former Guy has to say about most things. Why would we? He’s been ousted from office. He’s banned from social media for a reason. He comes off as defeated and broken in his rare public appearances. And his favorability rating is so deeply in the gutter, he’s not making a magic comeback any time soon.
At this point the most relevant thing about Trump is that he’s in the process of being criminally indicted by a grand jury in New York and Georgia – even as we’ve waited to see whether the Feds were also building a criminal case against him. Yesterday’s FBI raid of Rudy Giuliani and Victoria Toensing – two architects of Trump’s Ukraine criminal scandal – strongly suggests that the Feds are indeed looking to target Trump, as he was the kingpin in that criminal conspiracy.
So it’s worth noting what Donald Trump had to say today in the wake of the raid. Trump ranted about how Giuliani is “a great patriot” and that the criminal case against him is “so unfair” because Giuliani only did what he did out of a love for his country.
In other words, Trump isn’t giving Rudy the coffee boy treatment. Nor is Trump trying to vaguely scare Rudy into not flipping on him. Rather, Trump is making a point of kissing Rudy’s butt.
Earlier today, Palmer Report wrote about how Rudy long ago insisted he had “insurance” in case Trump tried to sell him out. That insurance doesn’t get Rudy anywhere these days in terms of a pardon, or in terms of the DOJ backing off, because Trump no longer controls such things. But Rudy’s dirt on Trump could be enough of a threat to convince Trump not to use his own dirt on Rudy to try to keep Rudy from flipping. Yes, these two really are in that complicated of a no-win situation with each other.
In any case it’s telling that Trump is making a point defending and kissing up to Giuliani. It feels like Trump is all but begging Giuliani not to flip on him. Of course if Rudy doesn’t flip, at his age he’ll likely end up in prison for the rest of his life. Trump is clearly worried that Rudy is going to choose himself over Trump.
