I have a whole new flock of fund-raising e-mails from the Donald Trump campaign about the Mar-A-Lago incident. Reading them, you wonder if whenever there's what we might call "bad news" for the man, the first thought in his office isn't "Great! We can take in a lot of dough fund-raising off this!" Wouldn't it be interesting if at this point, Trump has decided he really doesn't want to be president again and all he cares about are (1) staying out of jail and/or paying fines and (2) raising money?
I keep hearing people ask of each Trump scandal and investigation, "Will this be the one that finishes him off?" I don't think any one matter will. I think the steady drumbeat — every week or so, a new possible crime — will finally cause enough Trump supporters to decide he's no longer electable…and maybe some will get sick of him letting them down. After Biden won, a number of them wrote me to say, "You'll see! Trump has solid proof that the election was rigged!" And of course, he never had any such proof.
Some of his supporters — the kind Jordan Klepper has a knack for locating at rallies — will never abandon him. But a lot of the less hypnotized ones have got to be sick of "their guy" never being able to back up his claims…and worried about the scandals or crime allegations that could come out after he's nominated. A major argument against Hillary when she ran against Trump was that she was always being investigated.
Here's a recently-compiled list of all the investigations and cases against Trump or involving him that are currently ongoing. And since that list was posted just a few days ago, the Chief Financial Officer of the Trump organization, Allen Weisselberg, has pleaded guilty to tax fraud.
If you think that list is the end of it, just remember: Not that long ago, you didn't know anything about the F.B.I. raiding Mar-A-Lago in search of top secret documents.