It appears to us that Trump knows he’s in real trouble if his impeachment trial comes down to a “guilty/not guilty” vote on principle. Obviously, he would have been in real trouble had the last trial been overseen by such lofty standards.

The last one was not. It was a purely political exercise, as proven by Mitt Romney, the Republican senator with the least to fear in Trump. Trump had already slammed Romney any number of other times about losing to Obama. Utah was one of the only red states that allowed itself to resist much of the “MAGA charm,” and Romney is rich. A billion dollars helps anyone just say, “fck you” and move on if things get difficult.

The rest of them had to fear Trump and got in line.

Thus, Trump is scrambling again. He needs something to instill fear into the GOP Senate and that is incredibly difficult to do without the presidency this time. Trump has to go with all he’s got, the Mad MAGA vote, and hold it up against whatever Senator might vote “guilty.”

In recent weeks, Trump has entertained the idea of creating a third party, called the Patriot Party, and instructed his aides to prepare election challenges to lawmakers who crossed him in the final weeks in office, including Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Rep. Tom Rice (R-SC), according to people familiar with the plans.

“Multiple people in Trump’s orbit, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, say Trump has told people that the third party threat gives him leverage to prevent Republican senators from voting to convict him during the Senate impeachment trial,” The Post explained. “Trump advisers also say they plan to recruit opposing primary candidates and commission polling next week in districts of targeted lawmakers. Trump has more than $70 million in campaign cash banked to fund his political efforts, these people say.”

That is all Trump does. Absolutely everything is transactional, with no larger purpose for anyone and anything. He figures they, too, operate on “Me me me me me” and he’s too often right. But Trump cannot hurt those “me’s” much as he might like.

But it’s Junior that we worry about even more than Don Don. We suspect Trump Sr. is done. He’s not young and these four years aren’t going to be easy on him. At some point, the impeachment or criminal charges are either going to catch up with him or his health will catch up with him. One or the other.

Junior speaks MAGA and he’s promised to “come after” these people and “enjoy doing it.” We actually believe him and we think he’s one to watch.

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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMiciak