Donald Trump isn’t “getting away” with anything by heading overseas. He’s just fiddling while his world burns around him.
Even as Donald Trump’s civil rape trial against E. Jean Carroll plays out in a courtroom, and the DOJ’s criminal probe against Trump continues to play out with the grand jury, Trump is currently overseas touring his golf properties or some nonsense. Trump seems to want everyone to think that this means he’s winning, or that he’s “getting away with it all.” But in reality the precise opposite is playing out.
For one thing, by refusing to show up to the Carroll trial and defend his version of events, Trump is more or less forfeiting the trial. Moreover, he’s tacitly admitting that there’s nothing he can do avoid the likely loss. As narcissistic as he is, even he doesn’t think he can help his case by taking the stand. Trump is, in effect, admitting defeat.
Meanwhile DOJ Special Counsel Jack Smith reportedly put yet another of Trump’s closest advisers, Dan Scavino, in front of the grand jury for several hours on Tuesday. Trump fought like crazy to try to keep people like Scavino from being forced to testify against him. But Trump ultimately lost that battle in court, and now there’s nothing that Trump can do to stop his own closest allies from helping to indict him.
So while Trump plays Tiddlywinks in Scotland, or whatever he thinks he’s doing over there, his entire life is falling to pieces around him. His life is being dismantled in real time, in courtrooms near and far, and he knows there’s nothing he can do to stop it or even slow it down. Trump had better enjoy his overseas golf properties this week while he can. Once the DOJ indicts him under the Espionage Act, it’s unlikely he’ll be allowed to travel internationally while awaiting trial. Donald Trump’s life is essentially over, and he knows it. Don’t let him try to convince you otherwise.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report