Trumping fate
Bridge is the chess of card games. Like chess, in bridge, the player must have a solid grasp of the rules. But unlike chess, bridge requires incredibly quick and nimble thinking. Personally, I’m terrible at both. I love bridge, but I choke under pressure. And I do not have the time or patience for chess.
That brings me to the craziest thing about Donald J. Trump. Although he’s a corrupt criminal, his very name seems to have endowed him with an infuriating self-fulfilling prophecy to trump fate. Have you ever noticed people whose names seem to have dictated their destinies? For example, I recently pointed out that the symbol of redemption of mankind is the Garland.
That said, it may feel like Trump keeps pulling trump cards out of his derrière and winning the trick. But in fact, with the hands Trump has been playing, he will soon trump himself. Biden and Democrats have been playing notrump hands, finessing Trump’s high cards, winning with bipartisan legislation, a booming economy, and multiple investigations by State and Federal AG’s and the January 6th Select Committee, to collectively deliver a grand slam.
I’ll also go out on a limb and speculate that a higher power has taken a hand throwing in a trump card or two. For example, if COVID hadn’t happened and if Trump hadn’t botched the response so monstrously, he would very likely have won a second term. Instead, we have professionals much more brilliant than Trump and his minions in charge.
In the latest legal trump card, a settlement signed by Trump’s attorney Patrick Strawbridge (a symbolic name if ever there was one), Mazars has agreed to turn over key financial records. Among documents to be handed over are records: that reference undisclosed, false, or inaccurate information about Trump’s assets; related to the federal lease of recently sold Trump International Hotel; and, from Trump’s inauguration. In his deposition to NY AG James in August, Trump took the 5th 400 times. Now Mazars’ records will speak for him. Check mate.
Chicago native Lorraine Evanoff earned her degree in French from DePaul University then became a Certified Financial Manager. She worked as a finance exec in film production for seven years in Paris, then in Silicon Valley during the dot-com era, and later for various Hollywood production companies, notably as CFO of National Lampoon. She is currently living in Los Angeles with her husband.