It would have been so easy for Trump if he had just stayed home.

[DetlefK]

Enjoy your money.
Enjoy your vulgar dictator-chic palace.
Enjoy your family of trophy-wives, trophy-hunters and grifters.

But Noooooooooo.

You wanted that real-estate deal for a Trump Tower Moscow.

You wanted the publicity of running for President.
You enjoyed the roaring crowds.
You enjoyed those masses of people cheering at whatever random shit you said.

Best. Life. Ever.

I mean, what could go wrong?

What could possibly happen? You have been palling around with russian mobsters and dirty tricksters for decades!
You have bribed and sued and threatened and cheated and lied and nothing bad has ever happened to you!
You are invincible!

Roger Stone has been running smear-campaigns for decades!
What could possibly go wrong with that?
Paul Manafort was a russian lobbyist in Ukraine!
What could possibly go wrong with that?
Carter Page was in regular contact with russian agents!
What could possibly go wrong with that?
George Papadopoulos was in regular contact with the russian agent Joseph Mifsud!
What could possibly go wrong with that?
Jared Kushner and Jeff Sessions had backroom-meetings with the russian ambassador!
What could possibly go wrong with that?
Don Jr. met with a russian lobbyist and agent of the Russian Interior Ministry to discuss dirt about Hillary!
What could possibly go wrong with that?
Negotiating a real-estate deal with Russia in violation of sanctions?
What could possibly go wrong with that?

Seriously...

Nothing bad has ever happened to you.

You are invincible.







Then you win the election.

And then the witchhunt starts.

Don't these peasants know that bad things aren't happening to you?

Don't these peasants know that there never are consequences for the things you do?







Fast-forward two years.

You have obstructed justice by trying to mess with the investigation.

You have lied under oath because you coordinated your testimony with people who thought they had gotten away with lying under oath.

You have tampered with witnesses in subtle ways and in brazen ways that would have seen lesser men already dragged away in handcuffs.

You have taken emoluments from foreigners.

They are investigating the Trump Foundation for improper dealings.

They are investigating the Trump Org for money-laundering.

They are investigating your lackeys, your children and possibly even yourself for treason.

How dare these people hold you accountable for the things you do and say?
Don't they know that you are invincible?







Oh, Donnie.

Why didn't you just stay home and enjoy your money?

[RockRaven]

1. Pride goeth before destruction,

and a haughty spirit before a fall.

[pimpbot]

2. He didn't have any money

The Trump org is a big sham. They were in debt big time. US Banks wouldn't loan him any more money so he turned to Russia and other bad actors. None of his businesses are successful, they just go bankrupt and leave someone else with the check.

He is scamming money out of the gov't for himself and those who installed him there. Look at his recent tweets, its all about market manipulation.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

5. couldn't even fly his plane

He couldn't fly that damned jet until money started rolling in from his campaign.

[MrsCoffee]

7. $83,000,000 for his golfing trips to his own businesses.

[thbobby]

3. But that awful Black Man made fun of him.

What is a vindictive idiot to do?

[libdem4life]

4. His "money" is all laundered. Thus,

what's left of it will be frozen, and what assets he purchased will be seized. Others even in his family will be indicted and possibly imprisoned. Then after he is shoved out of office...a la Nixon, I believe...they'll come after him.

[watoos]

6. He really didn't want to win.

He wanted the publicity, yes, to get Trump Tower Moscow but also the only real thing he was successful at was a reality TV show. He wanted the publicity to start a Trump News outlet on TV.

He made a mistake, he went too far. He went to a point where Putin and dirty Republicans pushed him across the finish line.

Everything you wrote, DetlefK is true. Trump made a huge mistake shining a light on his crime family. He could have lived out his life scamming people and laundering money and playing golf. (Well he still plays golf, lol, I heard it's cost us 83 million dollars.)

Trump has never been held accountable for his crimes, now that he is, he is scared shitless. Trump is not a tough guy, he just buddied up with tough guys. I still look for him to have a nervous breakdown, and soon.

[MrsCoffee]

8. Yes he did. He and Vlad made big plans and moved heaven and earth to make it happen.

He didn’t accidentally “win”. They actively stole it.

[watoos]

10. I don't know, you may be right.

I do know that the correspondent's dinner where president Obama humiliated him still bothers him to this day. Once president he has tried to undo all of president Obama's accomplishments.

To clarify, you may be right that Trump intended to win from day 1, I'm not as sure, but certainly I agree that Putin and dirty Republicans stole the election. I even take it a step farther, I wouldn't doubt that voting machines were flipped, they are never independently audited.

[PJMcK]

9. I've been saying this since before the 2016 election

From a life full of stupid, ignorant and foolish mistakes, the dumbest thing Trump ever did was run for president.

As a New Yorker, I've been subjected to this disgusting man since the early 1980s. His omnipresence in the NY tabloids and broadcast outlets means that we've seen every part of his life; it's why NY didn't vote for him.

In the past, he's always been able to skate by declaring bankruptcy or ditching his contractors or bailing on a loan. Those tactics will not work this time and he's opened himself up to an enormous amount of legal jeopardy. In this essay from The Guardian, Rebecca Solnit gives a broad perspective of the breadth of Trump's legal exposure:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/04/donald-trump-russia-robert-mueller-legal-trouble?utm_term=RWRpdG9yaWFsX0d1YXJkaWFuVG9kYXlVUy0xODEyMDQ%3D&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUS&CMP=GTUS_email

If the day comes when Trump is finally humiliated and taken down, it will be a joyous time for our country.

[watoos]

11. Trump is like a balloon filled with helium,

the helium being the flattery that has been blown into him all of his life. The day is coming when his helium is going to escape leaving him a worthless piece of rubber. He is not a strong person, his balloon may pop before it gets deflated.

[Harker]

12. Hydrogen, perhaps?

He could go down like the Hindenburg.

[PJMcK]

13. Oh, the humanity! (n/t)

[TeamPooka]

19. I've always said that while his becoming president is bad for the USA, it's worse for Trump's legacy

I don't think he realizes that he's become a president and as such his ENTIRE LIFE, from birth to death will be EXAMINED, under a microscope, for the rest of time.
Writers, scholars, historians, biographers etc will dig dig dig forever.
And his being so bad at his job as POTUS will only encourage them to keep digging.
Let me put it this way.
If trump has any illegitimate children anywhere someday the world will know.
Also if he wet the bed as a kid.
Everything.
It's his worst nightmare and I don't think he comprehends it yet.
His legend will be in the hands of those he hates most, people who seek the truth.

[PJMcK]

20. It's a beautiful thing, isn't it? (n/t)

[LiberalLovinLug]

14. "Why didn't you just stay home and enjoy your money?"

One silver lining coming out of all of this might be that the nation now knows Donnie quite well. I remember before he was sworn in, many thought that perhaps he would be open to more Democratic party platforms. At least work with them more. He once said that he supports universal single payer healthcare. And he once called the Clinton's part of his society friends circle.

In fact if were a smart man, he'd have done just that, had a foot in both camps. He already had the populist thing covered. The charisma, the gift of the gab. If he had come across as a fiscal conservative, that decided to push for Republican policies, but also listen to and work out compromises on things like improvements to the ACA with the Democrats, he would probably have more than 50% approval.

If he had lost. The MSM would still be covering him every day. His tweets. Because he'd still have his own Trump Nation on high alert. How Hillary stole the election. How corrupt and incompatible she is for the office. He would help promote sites like Infowars, and might be even now starting his own network Trump TV. He'd be building his case for running again in 2020, and he'd likely win then instead of us getting him over with now.

[RVN VET71]

21. I agree.

But his ego coupled with his undeniable ignorance made him feel like a little Mussolini from the outset. And, of course, he's corrupt and a lying cheat to the core. He discarded advisors who knew how things work in Washington because he figured his new situation -- as President -- was the same as his old situation, and he succeeded in his old situation by posing, by lying, cheating, bullying, making empty promises. So why should the White House (he called it a dump, remember?) be any different?

Again, I agree with your assessment completely. If Trump had taken on the job of President and done just a few things -- including not pandering to Nazis, the KKK, and, in general, to the worst instincts of the worst people in America -- he'd be in much stronger shape today. But it was his infantile ego that made him play footsie with the racist, bigoted right wing; and his feeling of invincibility -- because he had a friend in Russia to keep his failed business practices from swallowing him and his family whole -- that gave him the confidence to continue doing what he'd always done: lie, cheat, steal, and betray.

When he goes down, I won't shed a tear or feel a nano-speck of pity. But I won't celebrate overmuch because the GOP will not go down with him. Seeing what they are doing in Wisconsin, in Michigan, in North Carolina and, let's face it, everywhere else, it is clear that the Republican Party is corrupt by nature and evil to its very core. The evil goes back to Nixon's Presidency and it has only gotten darker and more un-American since. To paraphrase Cato the Elder, the Republican Party must be destroyed. Maybe it can be replaced by a genuine American political operation, maybe the New Whigs? or the New Federalists? Regardless, the Grand Old Party has become a Party suborned to treason, enamored of evil empires in Russia, North Korea, and, now, Saudi Arabia, and cavalier about spitting on the U.S. Constitution. Time to go.

[TeamPooka]

15. now we just have to convince, i mean seriously, we have to CONVINCE the folks

that voted for him that all that stuff is wrong and illegal.
because most of them don't care if it is wrong or against the law.
They don't care about the Constitution or laws.
They only care about making liberals mad.
They are sheep bleating "lock her up!" over and over again.

[RVN VET71]

23. I think there's a lot of buyer's remorse among Trump's voters.

I also think that those who voted for Trump and still stand by him can all, each and every one of them, go straight to hell for all I care, just as long as they do it soon and quickly.

In lieu of hell, I'll accept their retreat forever from the public stage after turning in their voter certification cards.

[Buckeyeblue]

16. It was the attention and the crowds

He had never been held up by big crowds before. There is a euphoria that comes with that kind of attention. And he would speak for an hour or more, basically insulting people and saying the same thing over and over. And his followers loved it. And he couldn't get enough of it. And he kept pushing. And with the Russians help he won.

And then he came under the scrutiny of smart people. And the bullshit that the dumb people loved, became his undoing with the smart people.

The only way he could potentially beat this would be for someone big to fall on the sword for him. And at this point, I don't think that could work any longer.

[PCIntern]

17. here:

[RVN VET71]

24. Top o' the world, ma!

[NightWatcher]

18. He was beholden to Putin. He didn't have anything liquid of his own.

Putin called in his debt and wooed the dingleberry with promises of power and fed his ego.

It's all over now but for the crying and prison time.

[NastyRiffraff]

22. He thought a presidential run would build his "brand"

and of course bring him more money. He didn't expect to win, but since he did he's been busily using the presidency itself as a piggy bank.