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If you’re not on the Trump campaign’s mailing list, you probably can’t appreciate the full spectacle of lies and fabrications to which his followers are treated. Or why they cling so tenaciously to their guy, no matter what.
A major theme of his mailings since his felony fraud conviction is the portrayal of Trump as an innocent martyr, completely denying responsibility for the crimes of which the jury found him guilty.
He’s basically making himself out to be another Alexei Navalny — a political opponent of an evil, authoritarian national leader, a voice of reason destroyed for speaking truth to power. Of course, the illogic of Trump’s assuming the guise of a maltreated rebel of conscience — when he has long paraded his bromantic attachment to Navalny’s executioner, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin — no doubt flies right by his MAGA worshippers. But let’s leave that aside for now.
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Political rhetoric has always been a bit hyperbolic and inflammatory, but now there is no limit; campaigns will try literally anything to attract voters’ attention
The Trump extravaganza, however, is on another plane.
Americans have never witnessed the level of recklessness exhibited by the Trump campaign. Their completely insane declamations confound the rational mind. But the Trump Team understands that the Trump followers are, if not deeply stupid, then tragically uninformed.
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Team Trump did not hit on what I am calling his “Navalny strategy” right away. First, they had to deal with a basic problem: A jury had just decided that he was a liar, and a thieving, self-serving criminal. Below, I quote excerpts from his messages, which are interspersed with hints about the recipient’s loyalty and how it relates to donating. (Punctuation and emphases are unchanged from the originals.)
On June 1, he wrote:
I am a political prisoner
I was just convicted in a RIGGED TRIAL meant to interfere in our elections.
Their sick & twisted goal is simple: Pervert the justice system against me so much, that proud supporters like YOU will SPIT when you hear my name.
Since this might not have been enough, that evening this one went out:
They found me guilty of 34 felonies!
Witch Hunt, Witch Hunt, Witch Hunt!
The next morning, one learned:
I’ve been convicted despite no crime!
Biden prosecutors are trying to steal an election for him that he has no chance of winning.
But I know Timothy would NEVER let that happen. [Timothy is the recipient]
This is the GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME, but your support will keep our movement alive.
The same day, another email appealed directly to the self-interest of the recipient:
They want to silence ME because I will never let them silence YOU.
Then a Trumpian version of what Navalny faced before his death this February in a Russian penal colony north of the Arctic Circle:
June 4, 7:28 AM
I sat in a freezing cold courtroom for WEEKS ON END and watched as Crooked Joe WEAPONIZED the courts to make me a POLITICAL PRISONER.
And, now, expanding on a theme introduced last year, he returns to how this will supposedly harm the recipient too:
June 4, 9:49 AM:
If they get away with this mob-style attack on the most popular president in AMERICAN HISTORY, imagine what they’ll try to do to YOU!
And then he summons everyone to war.
On June 5, he wrote:
I’m digging a trench big enough for two…
if we lose, WE’LL HAVE NO COUNTRY LEFT AT ALL!
So we DIG IN right here, right now – and we don’t give these DEEP STATE CROOKS AN INCH OF GROUND.
That’s an echo of his notorious speech on January 6, 2021, preceding the mob assault on the nation’s Capitol, when he said:
We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.
Next, he dips into his usual antisemitic “George Soros” conspiracy talk:
June 4, 9:20 PM:
They put my family through hell!
My beautiful family home was raided and torn apart!
My children have been TARGETED by CORRUPT SOROS-BACKED District Attorneys….
But no matter what these SICK FREAKS do to ME, I will never stop fighting for YOU!
But that’s still not enough.
At this point Trump is way behind Biden financially. So now, besides selling tasteful selections from his long list of Trump accouterments — e.g., the golden sneakers, idolatry NFTs, and blasphemous Bibles — every Trump email, regardless of the subject matter, contains his martyr’s plea for donations.
And it works. Huge amounts come in, as The Washington Post noted in an article headlined:
Trump’s conviction fueled donation surge that could reshape contest
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That surge came about thanks to the cleverly-engineered email bombardment.
On June 11, Team Trump’s pitch-messages toggled from “Trump, criminal” to “Biden, criminal”:
Trump Campaign Statement on the Hunter Biden Trial Verdict and Biden Crime Family:
“This trial has been nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family, which has raked in tens of millions of dollars from China, Russia and Ukraine. Crooked Joe Biden’s reign over the Biden Family Criminal Empire is all coming to an end on November 5th, and never again will a Biden sell government access for personal profit.” — Karoline Leavitt, Trump campaign National Press Secretary
On June 12, less than two weeks after his New York trial concluded, it was apparently necessary to go from “political hit job” to actually claiming Trump’s life is in danger:
They Want the Death Penalty
If we fail to have a MASSIVE outpouring of patriotic support — right here, right now — they’ll TAKE ME OUT and move on to their real target: Timothy!!
Now his enemies want him executed — and you’re next!
In case that wasn’t clear, the same day he sent this one:
Haul out the Guillotine!
Remember when that Sicko Kathy Griffin made the rounds parading my BEHEADED head when I was President?!
The SAD and HORRIFIC TRUTH is that this is STILL the Sick Dream of every Trump-Deranged lunatic out there!
Two days later, he downshifted to melodrama:
Would you still vote for me if I’m arrested…. gagged…dragged through court….
Later that day, he again says, essentially, I am Navalny, you are Navalny’s loyal, oppressed public:
Biden’s political firing squad is lining up TO PUT MAGA DOWN
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This is a bit much, and even the most hardcore need a break from all this fabricated horror, so, in the midst of it, suddenly we meet our lovable President Trump. He wants to have dinner with us. His son would appreciate it if we joined him in signing a birthday card for dad.
June 4, 3:26 PM
Want to take a trip together?
Just the two of us, Timothy
We’ll talk about my rigged conviction, we’ll have an amazing dinner, and at the end of it all we’ll take a picture so we can remember this day FOREVER!
I couldn’t think of anyone else I’d rather share this experience with than YOU.
….Chip in any amount RIGHT AWAY and you’ll be automatically entered to win the trip of a lifetime!
And finally a smarmy, self-serving smooch:
I will always love you…
Why? Because you’ve always loved me!
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