AMA Thursday
Contempting fate
For the first time in a while, Real News seems to have taken a backseat to News Concocted Out Of Boredom (which helps explain the cable news fixation on campus activism). But we beat on, boats against the current, etc…
Donald Trump has officially been convicted of criminal contempt of court. Judge Juan Merchan held that nine of Trump’s social media and campaign statements over the past weeks violated his gag order. He fined Trump $1,000 a pop (the maximum allowed under law), ordered the content to be taken down, and threatened Trump with jail if he continues to violate the order, in large part because $1,000 fines are meaningless to Trump.
Trump may have more fines and takedown orders coming his way, but to my mind the most telling thing about the whole ordeal was the fact that Trump complied with it quickly. Much has been made of Trump’s contemptuousness—he’d have us believe that he thinks this trial helps him advance his political ends, and that he might even court jail time to martyr himself. With his freedom on the line, he revealed that it’s all posturing.
He also apparently doesn’t think the trial is going very well for him, if his conspicuous under-bussing of his fancy lawyer Todd Blanche is any indication.