Did Trump Sell State Secrets? Explaining the Document Scandal

Happy arraignment eve, everybody! Once again we are treated to the spectacle of one of the most despised politicians face our justice system. It is an odd mixture of comeuppance, schadenfreude, fear, and loathing. The specter of violence is injected into this toxic brew by Florida’s open carry of unlicensed firearms, the presence of the stand-back and stand-by Proud Boys Vice City chapter, and the stochastic terrorism being promoted by Republican politicians and conservative media personalities.

What insight does all of the political psychology explored here on Ye Olde Blogge give us about this unique moment in American history?

Why’d He Do It?

There has been much hand-clutching, pearl-scratching, and ass-wringing by the punditing pundits on the all the cables and Internets about Trump’s motive for keeping the documents that he knew were classified, weren’t his, and he shouldn’t have as evidenced by words spoken by his own mouth, generated by his own brain, and uttered in public and to other semi-responsible and honest citizens. Why would he do such a thing?

Apparently, he actually spent years collecting documents sensitive, classified, and otherwise in boxes that he planned from eight o’clock day one to take with him when the American public told him to not let the door hit him where the good lord split him.

Grift

Trump is a grifter, and when he accidentally blundered into the White House, he recognized the phenomenal grift that the golden goose had shat in his lap. He knew that he and his family would have access to documents that governments around the world would want. He knew that any legal issues he experienced could be used to milk the MAGA losers — his words, not mine — dry and mire their decedents in debt like common student loan takers.

But, there’s always a butt when it comes to Trump, he doesn’t have the executive functioning to organize the sale of these documents. He can’t do it himself. I’m guessing after Jar-Jar got his two billion dollar pay out, he knew any further association with Trump would be detrimental to his continued freedom to narcissistically abuse Iwanka and their children, so they made themselves scarce. Don-Don and Ewic seem to have done a similar calculus sans the billions… because of course.

Who’s going to arrange the sale and delivery of any product? Boris Epshiteyn? Saltine Nada? These bumbling fools left the documents scattered hither and yon so that any intelligence service that wanted them could come in and take them for free! Why the fuck would anyone pay Trump for any of the state secrets he stole?

I’m sure many of the principles at Merd-a-Lardo have been investigated for selling secrets. If they had, I assume that whole thing woulda been shut down and made public. So, there’s that.

CONCLUSION: He may have taken them thinking he could sell them during desperate financial moments or use them to blackmail someone, but it wasn’t his primary purpose in taking them.

He’s a NARCISSIST

He’s a narcissist. Knowing this explains Trump thoroughly. What does it tell us in this case?

• EXCEPTIONS: Trump believes to his sole that exceptions to the rule of law will be made for him: the public, DoJ, judges, everybody will realize what an exceptional person he is and that he is playing elebinty-billion-infinite dimensional chess that is so far beyond our mortal comprehension that we’ll just trust him and let him do it. That’s why the Republican Party platform in the 2022 election was whatever Trump wants. In Trump’s universe that’s the only law.
• GASLIGHTING: Narcissists specialize in bullying others into accepting their narcissistic delusion, sacrificing themselves for the narcissist’s desires and wants, and doing things they otherwise wouldn’t in order to help them. How many of Trump’s lawyers have found themselves defrocked? How many of his lieutenants have gone to jail for him? How many banks and cities have been jilted? How many believers have found themselves out hundreds if not thousands of dollars they can’t afford? Narcissists can be charming and convince people to do all kinds of things that are diametrically opposed to their best interests. He’s roped or tried to rope plenty of others into joining him in his little sensitive document and obstructing justice escapade. Gaslighting is why he’s grabbed Judge Eileen Cannon by the pussy. She thinks she’s getting a quid pro quo, when all she’s getting is joining the human flotsam and debris in Trump’s wake.
• REVENGE: Narcissists are like filet mignon: they’ve wrapped the empty shell of their hearts in a hyper-inflated ego, and it is about as healthy for you as a steady diet of bacon and steak would be. Because they are essentially a cavernous void wrapped in a cotton candy shell, it is imperative that they keep any and all children, ants, and bees from eating that shell. Anytime an ant appears on it, it must be crushed to smithereens lest the rest of the colony come and carry the cotton candy away and reveal the complete incompetence at the center of their being. Anyone who dares challenge the narcissist must be utterly destroyed.

Soothing the Narcissistic Wound

Why’d he take the documents? There are two main reasons he took those documents and both are referenced in the indictment.

JACTATION: Narcissists are constantly anxious about appearing perfect because, well, nothing is perfect, so they’re like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

The indictment references several times that Trump showed people classified documents, but one text exchange between two as yet unidentified employee discussed moving the boxes of documents out of the business center.

On 5 April 2021 — this is on page 11 for those of you following along at home — Employee 2 asked Employee 1 if they could move document boxes to make room for a staff office. Employee 1 replied, “Woah [sic]! Ok so potus [sic] specifically asked Walt for those boxes to be in the business center because those boxes are his ‘papers.'” Not the use of “his ‘papers'” like they are his precious or something.

The employees hatch their plan to circumvent Trump’s ego by concluding that things not paper could go into storage. Then, Employee 2 gets a little sassy by texting, “…anything that’s not the beautiful mind paper boxes can definitely go to storage.” The emphasis is mine.

These two exchanges reveal how Trump represented these papers to Employee 2. He referred to them like they were more than just documentation like they would be going to his library or something — he hasn’t made plan one for a library because executive dysfunction and no opportunity to grift. He’s making out that these are like his working papers, like he needs to consult them on a regular basis to make decisions and stuff. Um… right.

Another example is that he wanted new lids for the boxes because he marked them too much. He’s trying to track what’s in them and organize them somehow. Yeah. Executive dysfunction and everything.

He’s not “using” these documents in any conceivable conventional business or governing sense. He’s looking at them to remind himself of his glory days. That they had classification markings on them told him how important he was. That he still had them told him how important he still is. Look! I have highly classified documents! Do you have highly classified documents? does anyone? No! Only me! I must be impo’tent!

Loosing the 2020 election is a huge narcissistic wound that Trump will never get over. He needs to boast about how important and special he is in order to sleep at night, literally. He’s using them to sooth his frayed and fragile narcissistic delusion of importance and perfection.

REVENGE: As has been widely reported he had an exchange with a book publisher, writer, and two staffers (page 3) in which he told people in a room that he had a secret document detailing our invasion plans for Iran given to him by Gen. Milley. If they could see it, he told them, it would make his case.

Not his court case, silly, his much more important case against Mark Milley who had feared Trump would order a full-scale invasion of Iran after losing the election to have an excuse to stay or just out of hubris or something. Milley’s concerns had been reported in The New Yorker not long before.

Trump felt his authority undermined by Milley and wants to demonstrate that it was Milley’s idea to invade Iran. Milley liked the idea so much, he had plans drawn up for it, but Trump wouldn’t go along with it.

All of which is poppycock. The US military has plans and contingency plans in place just in case, but the incident caused Trump a narcissistic wound, so now Milley must be disproven. It sticks in his craw. He needed those plans to prove to people it was Milley that wanted to invade Iran, not Trump. See? Justified.

Our secrets were never safe with Trump. They were always at risk. Trump was just incapable of deliberately using them without extraordinary help. This episode is just another chapter in the the of Trump’s feculent touch.

Image Attribution

“Basement Mess” by Rex Roof is licensed under CC BY 2.0.