Team Trump melts down en masse after Rick Gates testifies

| 9:10 am EDT August 7, 2018
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Yesterday, for the first time, we finally saw one of Donald Trump’s key people testify in court after having cut a plea deal. Trump’s campaign deputy chairman Rick Gates delivered an immediate blow to Paul Manafort, who will now die behind bars, and a devastating overall blow to everyone’s prospects of remaining out of prison as well. So how did Trump and his team handle this new development? Let’s just say less than gracefully.

Donald Trump set the tone when he tried to distract from the Rick Gates testimony by posting an utterly ignorant tweet which seemed to suggest that the only way to stop the California wildfires is to drain the rivers and cut down all the trees. No one was impressed. Worse, in a sign that perhaps he’d given up trying, Trump recycled the tweet word-for-word from the day before. But you could argue that Trump’s response was the least histrionic of the bunch.

Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani was totally on the ball when his response to the Rick Gates testimony was to rant about the difference between cigars and cigarettes. This you have to see for yourself, and no, we don’t understand half of it either: “There is a moron on Fox claiming I chain smoke cigarettes worrying about the President’s tweets. Don’t smoke cigarettes. Hate ‘me. Smoke only premium cigars and I hope this idiot is not a lawyer because if he is he should sue his Law School.”

Then there was Donald Trump Jr, who tried doing an interview with a friendly host, but pretended he had a bad connection and hung up as soon as he was asked about his Trump Tower meeting with the Russians. Donald Trump’s oldest pal Roger Stone, who is probably the next major player to be indicted, didn’t post anything on his Instagram account after the Gates testimony – but beforehand he did post a giant photo of a turd. No, really. Team Trump is melting down en masse.