What Rudy Giuliani is holding over Donald Trump
When Donald Trump first put Rudy Giuliani in charge of his election legal defense, things had already progressed to the point where Trump was guaranteed to lose. The only possible reason to drag out the legal proceedings was to keep up the illusion that Trump was contesting the election, and buy time for Trump to continue grifting.
At the time, I figured Trump chose Rudy because he knew it was already lost cause, and once he finished losing in court, he was going to have to explain to his supporters why he goaded them into backing such a lost cause, and he knew Rudy would humiliate himself, and this would give him an excuse to just pin it all on Rudy. But now I’m left to wonder.
Trump had to know that Rudy would embarrass him in the process of buying him time. But it all seems to be over with now. Trump just spent $3 million dollars, for instance, on a partial Wisconsin recount that actually cost him votes. Even from a grifting standpoint, there’s no way that paying for the recount was worth it.
Trump had been keeping his distance from Rudy’s stunts. But this week he suddenly decided to join Rudy at his hotel meeting with Pennsylvania legislators, only to reportedly be talked out of it by his handlers – but then Trump called in and lent his name to the farce anyway. If the point is to scapegoat Rudy for the inevitable failure, why is Trump making himself closer to Rudy at the end?
Of course there’s the cold hard reality that Rudy Giuliani, for all his obvious worsening senility and mental instability, surely knows where Donald Trump has buried all the proverbial bodies. Rudy had been representing Trump for free for a couple years, but now Rudy is reportedly demanding an absurd $20,000 a day. This isn’t money that you pay to a stooge you’re sending out there to buy you a little time. It’s the kind of money you pay to someone who’s blackmailing you.
So maybe Donald Trump can’t say no to Rudy Giuliani. Or maybe Trump is just so dejected and out of it – as his recent public appearances have increasingly suggested – that he’s on autopilot and he no longer cares.
In any case, we can likely expect Rudy to be arrested the minute Trump is no longer in office, as no preemptive pardon will be detailed enough to cover all of the charges that they’ll end up bringing against Giuliani, and at least some of them will still be prosecutable. That’s when the secrets will start to come out. We’ll find out about the true financial relationship between Trump and Rudy. We’ll see if Rudy selfishly tries to cut an immunity deal against Trump, or just starts leaking all of Trump’s secrets in senile fashion.
These two idiots deserve each other. It’s fitting that they’re each more or less precipitating the other’s downfall at this point. Much as we all wish Trump and Giuliani were off the stage already, we’re stuck with them for a bit longer, and at least we get to watch them flail and squirm on their way down.
