Corn: Revenge-Obsessed Donald Trump Is Pushing the Right to New Levels of Retribution Rage

[Nevilledog]

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/04/donald-trump-new-york-indictment-bragg-revenge-rage/

Donald Trump loves revenge. Who says so? He does. For years before he became president, he gave speeches touting the value of vengeance and its critical role in his own personal success. And now, as the first ex-president to be indicted, arrested, and arraigned on criminal charges, he is once more turning toward avengement.

Trump has been straightforward about his affection for retribution and its importance in his life. In 2011, he spoke to the National Achievers Congress in Sydney, Australia, and explained how he had become rich and famous. He noted there were a couple of lessons not taught in business school that had been essential for him. At the top of the list was this piece of advice he shared with the audience: “Get even with people. If they screw you, screw them back 10 times as hard. I really believe it.” In other public appearances, he regularly voiced this sentiment. In 2013, he tweeted, “‘Always get even. When you are in business, you need to get even with people who screw you.’ – Think Big.” The following year, he tweeted an Alfred Hitchcock quote: “Revenge is sweet and not fattening.”

As a political candidate and a president, Trump put this into practice, constantly and loudly slamming and deriding—and often lying about—his foes and detractors, including aides and appointees who dared to cross or criticize him. He incited the January 6 riot that nearly led to violence against his own vice president, who Trump had privately castigated as a “pussy” for not assisting his plot to reverse the 2020 election results. At the Conservative Political Action Conference held last month, Trump told an adoring crowd, “And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution.” Avenging angel (mainly for himself)—that’s a routine pose for this man who has been haunted by insecurities and propelled by pathological narcissism his entire adult life.

Now the target—victim, he would say—of the New York City criminal justice system, Trump has let his revenge-rage run wild. Hours after he was arraigned in a New York courtroom—where supporters across in the street waved a “Trump or Death” flag—Trump appeared before a crowd of loyalists at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida and ranted. Even though Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the Trump case, that day had warned Trump against making statements that could “incite violence or civil unrest,” Trump once again demonized his perceived enemies. He assailed New York district attorney Alvin Bragg as “Soros-backed,” a reference to Jewish billionaire George Soros, the target of many right-wing conspiracy theories. He also knocked Bragg’s wife. He attacked Merchan as a “Trump-hating judge with a Trump-hating wife and family.” He claimed special counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating Trump’s retention (or theft) of classified White House records and probing the Trump-led efforts to overturn the election, was a “lunatic.” He referred to Atlanta district attorney Fani Wilis, who is investigating Trump for having pressured state election officials to flip the election results in his favor, as a “racist.” And he did the same for New York state attorney general Letitia James, who is investigating Trump for alleged business fraud. (“She’s put our family through hell,” Trump said of James. “It’s cost hundreds of millions of dollars to defend.”)

*snip*

[cynical_idealist]

1. Don't commit the crime if you can't do the time

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

2. "explained how he had become rich and famous"

Revenge had nothing to do with that. His whoremonger grandfather and abetting grandmother had a great deal to do with that.