WORD TO THE WISE

Donald Trump can’t help himself. He’s convinced that he’s always the smartest person in the room, even if the only time that could possibly be true is at Trump family reunions. Most of the time, Trump confuses being rich with being smart. Having lots of money means you can buy your way out of a lot of trouble, and that’s how Trump has lived his life up until recently. He thinks he outwitted his opponents, when he really only outspent them.

But if you’re president, your life is under a microscope. Getting away with things becomes harder. Nevertheless, Trump has doubled down on bluff and bluster. It’s not surprising, really, since it’s all he knows. If Trump were 10% smarter and 10% less arrogant, he’d be 100% better off. But then he wouldn’t be Donald Trump, would he? Trump can’t resist explaining to the world how smart he is, even if it means telegraphing his strategy to his opponents.

Thus it was that early Tuesday morning, Trump dropped a tweet that helped turn what was supposed to be Mike Flynn’s uneventful sentencing process into something pretty weird. Flynn had been cooperating with Mueller. He’d reached a plea deal with the Special Counsel’s team. The plan was that everyone would show up in court and Judge Emmet Sullivan would sign off on the deal, and everybody (except Donald Trump) could get on with their lives.

But wingnuts never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Out in the right-wing fever swamps, an idea was taking hold, and soon the phrase “perjury trap” was on every wingnut’s lips. It quickly became an article of faith on the Right that Flynn had been entrapped by cunning FBI agents, who baited him into lying by not telling him not to lie. Or something like that. You expect that sort of tortured logic from the people at Fox, but for some reason, Flynn’s attorneys decided to stick a version of this claim into their sentencing memorandum.

Then Donald Trump added fuel to the fire by encouraging Flynn to stand tall. On the morning of the sentencing, he tweeted “Will be interesting to see what he has to say, despite tremendous pressure being put on him.” The tweet was worded in a way that suggested Trump expected Flynn to say something unexpected.

But why would Flynn say anything at all? I’m not a lawyer, but it seems like a guy who’d benefitted from a generous plea bargain agreement would be coached to keep his mouth shut. “Yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir. I’m dreadful sorry, and I promise not to do it again.” And exit stage right.

But keeping your mouth shut is an option that wouldn’t occur to Donald Trump. If he gets an idea, he immediately blurts it out to friend and foe alike. Trump telegraphs his strategy to anyone who’s paying attention.

In this particular case, it kinda makes you wonder if somebody on Fox floated a harebrained scheme about Flynn repudiating his guilty plea and complaining that he’d been railroaded. Was that supposed to be the cue for Donald Trump to step in with a pardon? Who knows?

Judge Sullivan obviously smelled a rat, and it appears that he decided to set a perjury trap of his own. He took the unusual step of placing Flynn under oath at the sentencing, and got Flynn on record affirming his guilt. Sullivan repeatedly asked if Flynn wanted to proceed with his guilty plea, seemingly daring the defendant to retract his confession.

It took them awhile, but Flynn and his attorneys finally grasped that Sullivan was prepared to reject Mueller’s lenient sentencing recommendation and send Flynn to the pokey to teach him a lesson. Flynn decided that discretion was the better part of valor and agreed to delay sentencing for a few months while he proved that he was committed to helping Mueller rather than simply angling for a pardon.

In other news, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has submitted a letter of resignation, in the form of a scathing critique of Trump’s whimsical moves – I won’t dignify them by calling them policies – in the international arena. Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, and Turkey are calling the shots, and Mattis got tired of it.

Kyle Smith, writing in National Review Online, put it succinctly: “Trump knows almost nothing about almost everything. And yet his stupidity wouldn’t be so troublesome if it weren’t for his arrogance, and his arrogance wouldn’t be so troublesome if it weren’t for his stupidity. If Trump was smart but arrogant he might steamroll over some more experienced people and do some necessary things. If, by contrast, he were merely stupid but diffident, he might easily be tricked into thinking he was in charge while mature, rational people like Mattis were actually making the important decisions.”

As we head into the high holidays, that’s where we stand. The ship of state is sinking, and anyone with half a brain is heading for the lifeboats. The rest of us are trying to bring a stupid, arrogant man to justice, and in the process, restore American democracy. It’s a job worth doing.