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Justice

Mark Meadows, mugshot
Mark Meadows mugshot for the Fulton County, Georgia conspiracy case. Photo credit: Fulton County Sheriff's Office

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What’s a stable genius to do after a long day of watching his former consigliere Michael Cohen testify against him in one courtroom while Jenna Ellis, one of his lawyers, pleaded guilty in another; torpedoing the House speaker bid of a Republican not sufficiently subservient to him; and getting word that his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, may be the latest individual to have flipped on him?

For Donald Trump, the answer to that question was: get on social media, risk violating a gag order, and subtly try to remind Meadows where his loyalties should lie.

“I don’t think Mark Meadows would lie about the Rigged and Stollen 2020 Presidential Election merely for getting IMMUNITY against Prosecution (PERSECUTION!) by Deranged Prosecutor, Jack Smith,” Trump wrote in a late-night rant.

There is a lot to unpack here.

Most importantly, he is clearly worried after reports surfaced Tuesday that Meadows has been granted immunity in return for his testimony in the former president’s coup trial in Washington, DC.

As chief of staff, Meadows was likely privy to more information than just about any other potential witness. In addition, he has been a loyal soldier to Trump in the past.

For example, Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide, said Meadows burned documents in the final days of the Trump presidency, ostensibly to destroy evidence.

With the walls closing in on him, the former president issued a not-so-subtle reminder to Meadows as to where his allegiances should lie.

In his post, he is insinuating that all of the people who have already flipped on him — three lawyers in the past week alone in the Georgia case — are lying to save their own skins.

“Some people would make that deal, but they are weaklings and cowards, and so bad for the future our Failing Nation,” Trump wrote. “I don’t think that Mark Meadows is one of them, but who really knows?”

You can always tell when Trump is concerned about something because he starts talking like a mobster.

In this post, he is also coming dangerously close to violating a gag order that allows him to criticize his prosecutor but not in derogatory terms.

While Trump has dropped the term “thug” from his repertoire of descriptions for special counsel Jack Smith, the term “deranged” might earn him a rebuke from the presiding judge.

Finally, Trump either doesn’t know how to spell “stolen,” which is a typo he has made many times before, or he thinks that this will protect him from prosecution (“I never said the election was stolen, I said it was stollen, which is a type of fruit cake”).

That being said, the former president can be forgiven for making a few errors.

He had a rough day.

Author

  • Klaus Marre

    Klaus Marre is a senior editor for Politics and director of the Mentor Apprentice Program at WhoWhatWhy. Follow him on Twitter @KlausMarre.

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