Donald Trump has fallen, and he can’t get up: This could be the week the Demogorgon goes to jail

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The news for Donald Trump is not subtle: He is the target of a federal investigation.

It is historic. It’s dull. It cuts quickly.

On Wednesday night, news broke that Trump had received a target letter from the Department of Justice which is a letter federal prosecutors send to someone when there is “substantial evidence linking him to the commission of a crime and who, in the judgment of the prosecutor, is an alleged defendant,” to give them an opportunity to testify before issuing any charges.

You can’t get more blunt than that.

Once again Trump is making history not exactly the way he intended, but as the classic rock anthem he likes to play at his rallies tells us, you don’t always get what you want.

Trump is at the head of a class of people who make history the way they wish it wasn’t. He stands as proof that there is little left in US politics. Today we have too many bullies and cowards, with him at the forefront. That’s about to change.

Lawmakers like former House Speaker Tip O’Neill would remind his opponents by saying something like “I hold him in the highest minimum regard.” now? Trump calls Democrats “traitors” and Ron DeSantis screams “woke” so often you think he’s a human alarm clock.

At the end of Monday’s daily White House briefing, presidential press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about Nikki Haley’s CNN town hall and what restrictions, if any, the Biden administration supports on abortion. .

Jean-Pierre said this: “That’s why I didn’t watch this town hall, so I can’t really speak to exactly what she said. What I can talk to, what the president has said, is that he will continue to call on Congress for bring back Roe v. Wade.”

That’s a blunt pushback against those who want to limit a woman’s right to choose, but the gentleness with which the Biden administration fired Haley shouldn’t be overlooked. Jean-Pierre’s tone was neither ill-tempered nor loud, but the inference was clear; he didn’t even bother to watch Haley’s town hall because Haley wasn’t worth paying attention to.

Haley, on the other hand, is about as subtle as a loud fart on a wooden bench during a boring sermon. He said that a vote for Joe Biden in 2024 is really a vote for Vice President Kamala Harris that determines the president’s age and his chances of falling prey to actuarial tables. That was about as subtle as he could be.

Without sounding mean or loud, the White House press secretary made it clear that Nikki Haley didn’t deserve attention.

Newsmax’s James Rosen was mild-mannered Tuesday when he asked if there was concern about Biden because of his collapse on stage at a recent Air Force graduation ceremony (when he tripped over an unoccupied sandbag) and a near- when a few stone steps fell on Hiroshima. Is the White House considering “some kind of review of the preliminary methods used on behalf of this, the nation’s oldest president?”

On that occasion Jean-Pierre was not gentle. “Not us. Something is happening,” she said. (Saying “shit happens” wouldn’t fly on that stage.) “Other presidents,” he continued, “have had similar situations.”

Of course. Gerald Ford fell so often that in the first year of “Saturday Night Live” Chevy Chase made a comedy career out of teasing him for it. If Jean-Pierre wanted to gently dismiss the question, he could have reminded us that the president played golf on Sunday. But he chose not to do that.

Subtlety in our political discourse is a rare and often misunderstood art form; as rare as an honest politician and as misunderstood as John Lennon saying that the Beatles are more popular than Jesus Christ. It is also in such short supply as verified factual information. Those issues can be argued to be relevant. Donald Trump offers a case in point.

As political rhetoric morphs into verbal sledgehammers aimed at the head and heart, the need for vetted facts has never been greater, even as the supply dwindles. It is much easier, when using rhetoric full of bombast, lies and fear, to leave out truth, nuance and subtlety. Instead of solving actual problems with facts, we’ve gone into political Dungeon and Dragons complete with fictional villains and heroes who don’t exist.

Honesty? Goes to almost everyone. Jean-Pierre has received a fair amount of flack from the press for his briefing room performances, but most of us missed his withering of Haley on Monday because viewers didn’t see it for what it was.

There are times, of course, when subtlety isn’t what you want. It is too easily confused by the unthinking. Jean-Pierre showed that when he finally answered Rosen’s question on Tuesday: He was straightforward and simple.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby did the same thing at the podium when asked about Russia’s concerns about expanding Ukraine’s military capabilities. “If you are worried about the capabilities of the Ukrainian military, then leave Ukraine,” he said. When asked what the US thinks about Ukrainian attacks inside Russia, Kirby made it clear that our government does not endorse them: We are helping Ukraine defend itself against aggression, not aggression against Russia as exchange When asked about escalating tensions between the US and China, Kirby said, “We don’t want an escalation.” That is blunt, useful and realistic.

Being too gentle, in any of those instances, could easily lead the administration to be accused of making light of a serious matter.

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But blunt rhetoric is often used only to browbeat others and distort the facts. That’s where it crosses the line. The problem lies in recognizing the fact that some politicians, many members of the press and millions of American voters seem to lack the ability or desire to understand that blunt distortion often causes blunt trauma.

There are thousands of examples of this in everyday political reporting. Some of us have become numb to it because being beaten with lies happens so often, leaving us as numb as if we were physically beaten. If it’s not Donald Trump screaming “witch hunt” or “fake news,” or DeSantis sounding his “woke” alarm clock, then other Republicans are creating “alternative facts” to use as mental bludgeon against people.

Last week, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa on Fox News, “We’re not interested in whether or not the allegations against Biden are true [as vice president] is accurate.” No joke. He just wants to move the needle on Biden for the 2024 election.

They’re coming for Donald Trump. They came to him every day. There is nothing subtle about Jack Smith, the federal grand juries or the Manhattan DA

That Demogorgon act has a second leader, owned by House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer of Kentucky, who continues to press the case against Biden even though he doesn’t yet have any evidence, or any of the “whistleblowers” claimed. he has Rep. waved Maryland’s Jamie Raskin told Comer about that in April.

Where subtlety still needs to be understood, nuances deciphered and blunt facts assessed independent of emotion are in the realm of the courts. And that’s where Donald Trump’s penchant for blunt theater will be tempered by the blunt force of reason and checked facts.

They’re coming for Donald Trump; they come closer to him every day. There was no subtlety in the actions of special counsel Jack Smith, the Manhattan district attorney’s office or the federal grand juries at work in Washington, DC, and Florida.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that John Solomon, a conservative writer and one of Trump’s representatives at the National Archives, “published an article saying that federal prosecutors notified former president that he is a target of their investigation and will likely be indicted. ‘soon'” in the Mar-a-Lago documents case.

Trump flatly denied this. This has been confirmed by other sources.

Trump said something strange on his own social media platform: “How can I be charged by the DOJ, who did nothing wrong if no other president [sic] were charged … The greatest witch hunt of all time!” Except of course he typed it in all-caps. I can’t be bothered.

When his ex-lawyer Ty Cobb bluntly expressed the view that Trump was crazy, Trump responded, “Ty Cobb is a disillusioned ex-Lawyer who represented me long ago, and knew nothing about the Boxes Hoax that was done to me of the DOJ.”

That’s about as good a sledgehammer, bludgeon or cudgel as Trump can get.

This week has seen a lot of activity and rising tensions around the former president. His reaction was typical of the man, and further evidence of his character. He cannot make a subtle statement or take a subtle approach to anything. Those who believe he can are exactly the marks he is looking for. He is a man of rough taste, rough bearing and rough actions.

To paraphrase Gene Wilder in “Blazing Saddles,” you have to remember who Donald Trump is; because of his inability to use anything but blunt force, he only appeals to the common people, the people of the land, the common clay of our country you know, morons.

There hasn’t been a day within the Trump administration that he or those who have spoken for him have been as mild or soft on a throwaway comment as Jean-Pierre was on Monday.

Donald Trump represents the worst in American politics. He represents the breakdown of unity and the rise of dunces who are elected officials incapable of holding any job outside of Washington and determined to maintain their power by manipulating voters through gerrymandering, rhetoric, repression to the voter and fear.

They no longer have the ability to think more rationally than the initial, brutal instinct to drive you into a corral while spewing venom. These people that Donald Trump brought to power are the Demogorgon. Their inability to be subtle, whether in word or deed, is the easiest way to identify them.

The “target letter” delivered to Trump this week is the federal government stating that there are still rules you can’t break and get away with. This is a shot across the bow not only to Trump but to all who aspire to be like him. This is an indication that justice is more than a cynical game manipulated by powerful people.

Your roll, Donald.

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