Dem
51
GOP
49
Yesterday, we had an item about the temper tantrum that Donald Trump threw this weekend on his boutique social media platform. In short, he's on the cusp of being indicted, possibly two or three times in the short timespan, and he's angry, and embarrassed, and scared. So, he sent a bunch of ill-advised "truths" in which he not-so-subtly threatened his prosecutorial persecutors. That is all kinds of illegal, such that even Trump's TV lawyer Joe Tacopina couldn't wave if off, conceding that the messages were "ill-advised."
Almost certainly the worst part of the messages was Trump's threat that if he is indicted, there will be "death and destruction." However, not far behind was the photographic montage that showed an image of Trump with a bat next to an image of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg. The obvious implication was that Trump would like to bash Bragg's head in with the bat, and that his (Trump's) followers should consider doing just that. Trump, for his part, might have the bat for it, but he doesn't have the balls.
In any event, someone has apparently persuaded Trump that threatening a prosecutor who is about to indict you is not a smart play. And so, Trump appeared on the program of Fox entertainer Sean Hannity yesterday to insist that "his people" had nothing to do with posting the photograph. His explanation is that the photograph was part of a linked article, and the linked publication changed the photograph after the Truth Social posting was made.
Here, for the record, is a screen capture of the original posting:
It is at least possible that Trump is telling the truth, though that is not usually what happens on Truth. There are three problems with his story, however. The first is that the point of posting was clearly to showcase a photo of some sort. The second is that if it was some other photo, Trump offered no explanation as to what the original photo was. The third is that the original "truth" has been deleted, so it's not possible to look into his claim in any meaningful way.
We don't know exactly why Trump is trying to clean up his photographic misdeeds and not his written misdeeds. Maybe it's because he's more a visual guy than he is a word guy, and he doesn't appreciate that his words, in aggregate, are more damning than the photo is. Or maybe it's because the photo is the only thing he can even semi-plausibly explain away. In the end, the lesson here is that Trump stepped in it badly, something that he himself has just confirmed. (Z)