Robert Mueller and Donald Trump in the court of public opinion.

[kentuck]

As the investigation continues, is Donald Trump becoming stronger or is he slowly being exposed for the fraud and con-man he has been for his entire life?

Is it part of Mueller's plan to expose Trump thru the media and to slowly change perceptions about the criminal element in the life and finances of Donald J Trump?

Just as with Richard Nixon, about 40% of the people will never change their minds, no matter what facts are exposed. Their loyalty is to their Party, not their country or the Constitution. That is just the way it is.

Trump is probably the most media-savvy person to ever sit in the White House. He is skilled at manipulating and propagandizing his followers in a way that protects himself from legal jeopardy. That makes Mueller's job that much more difficult.

It will be difficult to convict in a real court if the people cannot be persuaded in the court of public opinion. I think this is a big part of Mueller's plan.

[unblock]

1. media-obsessed, yes; media-savvy, no.

it doesn't take much media-savvy to maintain the approval of an cultishly loyal party that's constantly brainwashed by an extensive propaganda network while more than 50% of the country strongly disapproves.

as to your main point, i think mueller is completely focused on the cases at hand and is virtually ignoring the media.

[Girard442]

2. Totally agree about the court of public opinion.

The only good outcome I can see is that the Republicans get so totally hammered in the midterms that the surviving ones desert Trump en masse and he's either impeached or forced to resign under the threat of impeachment and prosecution following his exit from the White House.

I'd love to see Trump convicted in a courtroom and taken out of the White House in cuffs, but he'd probably just deny the legitimacy of the proceedings and the Deplorables would flock to his defense.

[genxlib]

3. I have a lot of trouble imagining a court conviction in any scenario

How do you even seat a jury of "peers" for the most powerful person on the planet? How can you find 12 people with a pulse that isn't already tainted with preconceived opinions about the case? Not to mention, some of the testimony would be classified.

Even if successful, I would expect appeals. And how do you do that when some of the judges were appointed by Trump or Obama.

The whole thing would be a mess.

Frankly, I think the court of public opinion is the only court that we have to work with because the real courts don't seem prepared to deal with something like this.

[Kentonio]

4. Nixon fell to 24%, not 40.

[Alethia Merritt]

5. I predict that Trump may very well be in a straight jacket by the end of the year.

He is in way over his smarmy head and since he is interested in all things anti-Obama and all things pro-Trump, just a few visits of President Obama to EU cheering crowds or USA cheering crowds for a few public appearances will send him over the edge. And please have Hillary make a few visits to some special events where she will get cheering standing ovations. That will surely drive him over the edge. And keep talking about the popular vote.

If only the media could be as indifferent to the Trumpians as they are to the people needing good affordable healthcare, the women and children needing food stamps, the minority men who need employment but who can't get hired into good paying jobs because they are being held for less qualified whites, the banking red-lining of loans and capital to stave off financial ruin for so many hard-working families, the environmental assault by deregulated industries, and the lack of affordable housing for even middle-class working families and education bereft of relevance to todays economy and social-well being (mental health).

I generally do not complain about what the media does report on as much as I complain about what they don't report on.