POST SUMMARY: We analyze the recently released audio tape of Trump confessing to knowingly possessing classified material and jactating about it to aides, a publisher, and a writer. We’ll wring three insights out of it: (1) Trump’s overwhelming need to respond to narcissistic injury; (2) Clarifying the motivation of Trump’s response to it on social media; and (3) The power of the audio tape in swaying public opinion. It also gives us all a great opportunity to point and laugh at the buffoon flailing away at the windmills that are closing in on him.
With Trump having been indicted on federal charges and the strong possibility of more federal charges on the way, along with promised Georgia state charges in late July, it seems we have to resign ourselves to continuing the Trump watch. Assholes just keep spewing shyte, don’t they? And, now we’ve got to cover it because news cycles and clicks and stuff… I guess.
The release of the actual audio tape of Trump confessing by CNN shows that Trump (a) knowingly possessed classified material and (b) showed it to people he knew shouldn’t be seeing it. Listening to the words stumbling from his mouth is fundamentally and magnitudinally more powerful than reading the transcript. It’s been out long enough for not only everyone to have heard, but for Trump to have social mediaed to it.
That means, we’ve got to three points to address: (1) What it tells us about Trump’s narcissism; (2) What his social media response tells us about the seriousness of the evidence against him; and (3) What makes it so powerful. Oh, yeah, and there is a fourth thing: Prepare to laugh because it is fucking funny, if Trump weren’t a clown as dangerous as he is offish, but laugh anyway.
A Ghost Story: Unveiling Trump’s Cunning Plan to Avenge Milley’s Narcissistic Injury
In the tape, Trump reveals a cunning plan worthy of Wile E. Coyote — Super Genius! All it lacks is the requisite reference to the Acme Company.
The Ghosts and Narcissistic Injury
THE GHOSTS. The tape was made by a couple of ghosts who were producing Mark Meadow’s autobiography. They were there to haunt Trump and pick up a couple of anecdotes, I suppose. Trump was accompanied by a couple of aides in the meeting, one of whom is, Margo Martin, who, apparently, resembles Melanie so closely that even Fox News can’t keep them straight. I wonder if she’s referenced in the pre-nup? Other points to the remember: He knows he’s being taped. And, they aren’t trying to trick him or play the gotcha grab ass game or anything.
THE NARCISSISTIC INJURY. Earlier General Milley had been quoted in the New Yorker saying that he feared Trump would try to start a war with Iran to justify nullifying the 2020 election. Apparently, Trump did not appreciate this revelation because it made him look like the nincompoop that we all know him to be.
Vengeance: Trump’s Plan Runs Afoul of His Incompetence
THE VENGEANCE. Trump, being the very model of a modern major genius that he is, saw an opportunity to PROVE his case against the lying libelous Mark Milley. Listen to the tape. From the wooden “acting,” you get the impression, Trump rubbed his meaty stubbies vigorously like Boris of Boris and Natasha fame, as the plan unfolded.
An aide pitched him the softball set up, …that was their coup against you…. Like when Milley is talking about, Oh, you were trying to do a coup. No, they were trying to do that before you were ever even sworn in. The other staffer chimes in, knowing it takes a lot of butter to lube the Master Fraudster up.
Trump cuts off all the happy talk about how Milley and the deep state were trying to coup him by saying, Well, with Milley — uh, let me see that, I’ll show you an example. He said that I wanted to attack Iran. Lots of paper shuffling. Trump is showing his huge stack of paper on his desk — Remember the reams of blank paper he would stack on his desk when the cameras were around? — as if to say, I’m a busy important person. He’s also showing off his command of the documents by “knowing” right where this particular paper would be.
Isn’t it amazing, Trump goes on sounding “surprised” (emphasis mine, BTW) I have a big pile of papers and this thing just came up, meaning the Pentagon’s attack plan for Iran –Plans that the military keeps in preparedness for the just in case scenario, you know.
Look, this was him. They presented me this…. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him.
Later, Trump muses (emphasis mine), I just found, isn’t that amazing? This totally wins my case, you know?
He’s trying to pretend like finding that document was just serendipity, god smiling upon him. Chesus using a cellophane condemn, could you be more transparent? Notice, though, the writer and publisher respond very little to their little kindergarten morality play. They aren’t taking the bait. They giggle and titter about the classified documents, though.
Conclusions: Trump’s Narcissism Drives Him to do Stupid Stuff
- The Milley accusation was a narcissistic injury that Trump just can’t let go of. He’s got to prove Milley wrong. The charade they put on is risible.
- Like the Three-Card Monty he tried to pull with the classified documents, it shows how poorly Trump plans and executes his plans.
- It tells us that he thinks he’s be all Snidely Whiplash here: No one could see through his cunning plan, could they? The publisher and writer will walk out of the meeting not even realizing their “scoop” until they do… You can practically hear the gears turning in his empty head.
- And, he reveals why he took the papers in the first place (emphasis mine), It’s so cool. I mean, it is, so look, he and I, and you probably almost didn’t believe me, but now you believe me. He took them because (a) It’s so cool; and (b) now you believe me. Cool points and revenge like some common teenaged boy posting deep fake revenge porn.
The Social Media Response Reveals His Desperation
We have the friends-of-the-blog over at Crooks and Liars to thank for the text of Trump’s response. Just take a quick perusal of this diatribe. Don’t spend too much time doing so, though, because it isn’t too interesting. It follows the standard recipe: one-part attack the individual by name, one-part lies, and one-part projection. We now know, Trump leaked the tape.
“The Deranged Special Prosecutor, Jack Smith, working in conjunction with the DOJ & FBI, illegally leaked and “spun” a tape and transcript of me which is actually an exoneration, rather than what they would have you believe,” the twice-impeached former President wrote last night. “This continuing Witch Hunt is another ELECTION INTERFERENCE Scam. They are cheaters and thugs!”
Trump: New Leaked Recording Exonerates Me, Thank You!
And, then the next missive. It’s like some fiendishly cleaver social media test, Can you spot one thing the deep state doesn’t want you to find? Ninety percent of liberals can’t.
“COULD SOMEBODY PLEASE EXPLAIN TO THE DERANGED, TRUMP HATING JACK SMITH, HIS FAMILY, AND HIS FRIENDS, THAT AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, I COME UNDER THE PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS ACT, AS AFFIRMED BY THE CLINTON SOCKS CASE, NOT BY THIS PSYCHOS’ FANTASY OF THE NEVER USED BEFORE ESPIONAGE ACT OF 1917,” Trump wrote. ‘”SMITH” SHOULD BE LOOKING AT CROOKED JOE BIDDEN AND ALL OF THE CRIMES THAT HE HAS PERPETRATED ON THE AMERICAN PUBLIC, INCLUDING THE MILLIONS & MILLIONS OF DOLLARS HE EXTORTED FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES!’
Trump: New Leaked Recording Exonerates Me, Thank You
To quote that sage of the big and small screen, Bugs Bunny, What a maroon!
Again, there are several take aways:
- The mean girling that Jack Smith is laying on him is working. Trump is totally freaked out. He’s met an alpha-dog that he can’t servile his through like he did with Putin. All Trump can do is stuff his tail into the groove where his thighs are compressed together, show is his throat, and piss and moan in what passes for stage whispers in our fascinating modern world.
- Trump is getting hectically hysterical. His usual coping mechanism of attacking the offender isn’t working. His flying monkey squad descending on Jack Smith and his family hasn’t worked. It’s Robert Mueller all over again, but instead of being able to rely on Bill Barr to bar-the-door, he’s got to rely on Gym Jordan and All-15-Flavors of Kevin McCarthy to protect him conviction. The stakes are much higher and flop sweat much more palpable. His only play is to play for time and hope that the 2024 election will bring some relief. It won’t.
- Take noes. This is as scared as you’re ever going to see Trump. He’s only going to kick and scream more ludicrously.
The Power of Hearing: The Persuasive Impact of the Audio Tape
As oft noted in these posts, human beings evolved to believe. We are a very gullible bunch. When we perceive something, we believe it. The clearly perceptible it is, the more likely we’ll think it is true the next time we encounter it.
I’ve supervised these studies myself in the schools I’ve taught in. Students will get together a set of nonsense words, usually terms from an obscure language that no one is likely to know. We present them without comment in the morning announcements or posting them on bulletin boards. Then ask students to rate words on their importance or familiarity or some other similar measure. The words on the list always score higher. This is known as the mere exposure effect.
All of the headlines characterizing it as a confession or acknowledgment of keeping classified documents will stick in the subconscious of the citizenry. It will make it very difficult to undo.
Hearing Trump acknowledge that the documents are classified, hearing an aide laughingly say, We’ve got a problem. Hearing the cavalier jactation in Trump’s voice as he shows off the plan. Will be as convincing as actually being there and hearing it first hand.
This is why CGI and All-Star Wrestling work. Seeing is believing. In this case, hearing is.
Trump’s only hope is to try to normalize the behavior by repeatedly exposing us all to the tape and getting surrogates to downplay its significance. It is why he leaked the tape and then claimed it exonerated him.
I doubt it works, though. That tape just reified in the minds of 60% of the population that Trump knowingly kept classified documents and attempted to hide them from the federal government when they were subpoenaed.
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Image Attribution
“HEARING IS BELIEVING | rca victor recording” by Max Sparber is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.
The Psy of Life 
Reblogged this on cabbagesandkings524 and commented:
Calico Jack analyses the “Confession Tape”
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And, all that shuffling of papers says, “And I’ve got lots more like this.”, which he intends to (a) again show his importance, and (b) be taken as a threat to any other generals or whomever try to say he had a bad idea.
There is a special place in Hell. It is called being Donald Trump’s lawyer in a criminal case. I hope they are all getting paid cash up front, lots of it.
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Howdy Bob!
That tape was a Rorschach Test of his personality. Everything you needed to know about him right there in two minutes. When I heard it the first time, the attempt to make it seem coincidental that he just happened to find this particular document right there was laughable. It has only gotten funnier with the realization that he was trying to plant the story in these two to report his refutation. If this were just on The Apprentice, it would be funny, but since he could have the nuclear codes again, it ain’t.
One of his lawyers in this case is the one who got a $3 million up front payment before starting work. In some ways, it makes the lawyering easy. There’s no way you can win the case, so you do your best but you don’t have to put a lot in to it, know what I mean? Don’t hire that extra associate and paralegal. Forget the intern. You just aren’t going to need them.
The phrase that echoes in my mind is, “What a maroon!” every time he blunders through one of these messes. Fits him to a T.
Huzzah!
Jack
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And now he tries to clean it up by saying he was lying and just waving around a blank paper. “Trust me, I was lying”, rarely works. And, Smith is looking to get security camera footage from the location.
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Howdy Bob!
Me thinks Smith has the goods in three different cases that he either can or will bring. I suspect the one in Miami was the easiest and fastest one to bring, but not the last.
Watching Trump squirm is now a national sport.
Huzzah!
Jack
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The Miami one is the simplest to be sure, although there is getting to be some chatter about more charges coming out of that grand jury. There will be more from Smith and from the one in Atlanta.
I’ve been pondering what it will mean when lying about the security and trustworthiness of our elections is formally defined as criminal fraud by way of prosecution and convictions. That is a change of framing of what has been the consistent strategy of the Republican Party for at least 40 years.
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Howdy Bob!
Apparently, there are superseding indictments on the way in Miami and charges pending in other federal jurisdictions. I assume that means DC and New Jersey.
In many ways, these trials will be educative for most of America, but probably not MAGA. It should help further peel away a few more MAGA and insulate him from independent voters.
They sure are making the choice clear for the 2024 election, aren’t they?
Huzzah!
Jack
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Yes, they are making it clear, and SCOTUS is helping a lot with that too.
The message to the MAGAs, if it is ever to work at all depends on one word, fraud, an that they have been scammed by people who think they’re stupid and gullible. But that is something that humans resist admitting. No quick results can be expected in pulling them out of their rabbit holes.
I think about all the Republicans at all levels down to the very local who ran their campaigns for election or reelection on the Big Lie in 2022. The fraudulent conspiracy did not end on Jan6. It is still running. Once Jack Smith demonstrates that convictions for that fraud are possible and how to do it, other prosecutors at the state and local levels will be emboldened.
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Howdy Bob!
I certainly hope that state and local prosecutors begin bringing cases. I hope it becomes an election issue in 2024 and that the electorate puts in place AGs who will support such prosecutions and that the DoJ begins investigations when and where it can.
The further that the Republican politicians push their culture war, the clearer it is that we need a line in the sand. Every election should be a single issue election, democracy vs autocracy. Anything that obscures or distracts from that is promoting autocracy and the apartheid state that the Republicans want.
Huzzah!
Jack
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A court in Brazil just found Bolsonaro guilty of lying about the elections there and banned him from politics for 8 years. The only effective way we have of restoring trust in our election system is to make the point through convictions and civil damages awards that lying about the trustworthiness of the election system is not free speech, not ordinary political rhetoric, not a matter of ideology or being liberal or conservative, it is a crime, it is fraud. Educating the voters (starting in grade school) on how the system is designed to make significant cheating virtually impossible would help too.
Here’s another interesting piece I picked up: https://www.salon.com/2023/07/01/theres-no-such-thing-as-a-conservative-intellectual–only-apologists-for-right-wing-power/
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Howdy Bob!
That is one of the things that has upset me the most this past week or so is realizing how much my civic education missed the mark. We were taught how elections work and even a bit about how our culture worked including slavery and the Civil Rights movement — since we were living through it — but nothing about the ways that groups, especially well-funded groups like the Federalist Society and less well known ones worked.
I feel betrayed by the system for not realizing that John Roberts was clerk to and mentored by the racist Rehnquist, for example. Bork is another example. Democrats Borked him because he was the instigator of Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre, but that wasn’t widely known during his hearing. It should’ve been so disqualifying that no one would’ve considered him for an appointment for the rest of his life. Barr was the instigator of the pardons for the Iran-Contra criminals that stopped any and all investigation into it before it reached Reagan and Poppy Bush. It should’ve disqualified him from government service ever again.
The press and Democrats let us down when they don’t make these issues front and center when these names recycle again and again.
Lying for political gain should be a crime. We should let a court sort it out, unfortunately, the courts have become politicized so it won’t be that easy. Should the Republicans gain control of the Senate, you’ll see impeachment of Biden judicial appointees or radical changes in the court to eliminate the influence of liberal judges and enshrine the conservative bend to the court.
Huzzah!
Jack
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This is why the fascist right oppose the discussion or teaching of anything systemic.
Lying for political gain meets the definition of fraud, both as a civil cause of action and criminal offense. Therefore, it is not protected free speech. This is why the prosecution of the conspirators of the Big Lie is a game changer. It will make that distinction clear and show the way to act against many other lies.
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It’s almost cliche to say that the right hates education and wants us all kept ignorant. Cliches are bad for the same reason that metaphors are bad, they stop us from thinking. We stop with the cliche with a feeling of accomplishment and understanding, but we have neither.
Hopefully, the rule of law holds, but we should all fear the Aileen Cannons on the federal bench and appeals to SCOTUS. Both have shown that they are willing to bend the law to their own preferred outcomes.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Why does the right say that liberals (the woke) are using education for indoctrination? Because that is exactly what they want it to be, but for their doctrine. Their accusations are always of things they would do if they get the power (“weaponize the Justice Department”).
It is beginning to appear that Mr. Smith is aiming to have cases in multiple jurisdictions, subject to multiple courts of appeal. That makes it much harder for one judge or even SCOTUS to upend the whole project.
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I’ve been very impressed by Smith. He seems to have a firm handle on what he’s doing. I just hope he can get it done before the election.
Jack
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Indeed
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