The Donald Trump Score Card

It's like aluminum tariffs....there are no aluminum suppliers or extruders left in the US. All the tariff is doing is inflating the price of our goods as a tax....it's not that it's forcing us to use US suppliers or to build new factories - in fact, Alcoa has closed aluminum plants here.

 

Trump's trade wars temporarily created jobs for people in other countries who tried to make up for the slack in the U.S. markets caused by Trump's trade wars. As an example, countries in South America increased soy production to export to countries that were damaged by the U.S. soy market that was damaged by retaliatory tariffs in response to Trump's tariffs.

In turn, Trump further tried to retaliate against those countries by imposing additional tariffs on them and trying to justify it by claiming without evidence that they were manipulating their currencies.

Trump also threatened American businesses with extra taxes if they moved some of their operations overseas to try to avoid the retaliatory import tariffs caused by Trump trade wars. American companies could avoid some of Trump's damage by manufacturing and selling in other countries to circumvent retaliatory import tariffs imposed on U.S. exports to those countries. It drives American businesses overseas, the opposite of what Trump wanted to happen.

Trump also praised bringing foreign companies into the U.S. to manufacture and compete against American companies, like Harley-Davidson, who Trump was trying to retaliate against for not being loyal to him and his trade wars, the opposite of what his trade wars were supposed to achieve.

 

Appeals court denies Trump's request to delay $464 million judgment against him.


Appeals court denies Trump's request to review limited gag order in federal election interference case

 

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The situation isn't as easy for Trump now as it was in the past.

Some of the legal repercussions have finally arrived.


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A half-billion dollars worth of judgments against Trump still hasn't knocked any of the cockiness out of him.

 

Hess sentenced to nine months in prison for rioting at Capitol.

His high school buddies turned him in.


Jan. 6 rioter who bragged he was 'brawling at the door' of the Capitol gets prison time

 

U.S. Supreme Court will hear Trump's absolute immunity claim.


Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Trump’s Immunity Claim, Setting Arguments for April

 

The Supreme Court ruling in favor of Trump's absolute immunity claim is near zero, assuming it stays rational.

It likely will delay Trump's criminal trial by two to three months.

The case would be resumed in summer. The trial could be delayed to late summer or autumn in the peak of the presidential campaign,

It could be delayed until after the November 2024 election if Trump pulls more stunts (such as blaming his attorneys, like Giuliani and Eastman, for his actions at the last minute, which would require discovery to be redone).

 

Toobin thinks Trump won't go to trial for the election subversion case before election day because of the Supreme Court agreeing to hear Trump's absolute immunity claim.


‘A Gift to Trump’: Toobin Says Supreme Court News Means Ex-President Won’t Face Federal Trial Before Election Day

 

It's obvious Trump was confused when he did a lengthy rant saying Haley refused the 10,000 national guard troops for the Capitol (which itself is a confusing lie Trump concocted about Pelosi).

He has so much animosity for people that he confuses one person for another.

 

Ken Block, whom Trump hired to find voting fraud in the 2020 election, torched Trump's 'stolen election' narratives and the conservative media that pandered to him.


The man Trump 'hired to find fraudulent votes' torches stolen election claims

 

Supreme Court's immunity hearing leaves prospect of pre-election Trump Jan. 6 trial in doubt

excerpt:

"U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan had originally set a trial date for March 4, saying she would give Trump's team seven months to prepare for trial. But that timeline was delayed when the case was frozen in December following an appeal from Trump's team. Trump had 88 days left on that preparation timeline, which meant that had the Supreme Court simply allowed an appeals court’s decision on presidential immunity to stand, the case would have been underway in Chutkan's courtroom as soon as early May.

The Supreme Court's decision to hear arguments in April instantaneously erased the possibility that Trump would be convicted before the Republican National Convention, which is set to take place in Milwaukee in mid-July."

 

Smith could petition Chutkan to reconsider those extra 88 days now that the Supreme Court decision will give Trump an extra two to three months on top of those 88 days.

Trump came out a winner in the delay tactic, particularly with the help of the Supreme Court taking up his absolute immunity claim and the Supreme Court having waited for Trump's claims to go through the federal appeals court system first instead of considering the claim earlier that Smith had requested.

 

Supreme Court's immunity hearing leaves prospect of pre-election Trump Jan. 6 trial in doubt

excerpt:

"The Supreme Court does hold most of the cards here,” Katyal said. "If they want to have this trial happen, they can certainly do it. They can hear the case on April 22, decide the case very quickly thereafter and allow Judge Chutkan the ability to start her trial."

The Supreme Court hearing will be held the week after the justices consider another case of relevance to Trump concerning one of the hundreds of people charged with offenses relating to the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

 

The defense attorney for the rioter recently sentenced for striking police officers with a hockey stick argued in court that his client shouldn't be punished severely considering that Trump is still lying about the election being stolen from him.


Supreme Court's immunity hearing leaves prospect of pre-election Trump Jan. 6 trial in doubt

excerpt:

"At Foy's sentencing hearing, his attorney discussed the role of general deterrence in determining the length of his prison sentence, arguing that a sentence for a random rioter wouldn’t have that much of a deterrent effect for the public when the presumptive Republican nominee continues to spread his lies about the 2020 election.

“I’m not getting into that,” Chutkan said with a smile, prompting laughter in the courtroom."

 

Smith wanted Trump's absolute immunity claim to go to the Supreme Court first before the circuit court appeals process which would have saved time.

The probability of the appeals court agreeing with Trump on his absolute immunity claim was near zero. Smith was correct that the issue would end up at the Supreme Court anyway.

The Supreme Court rejected his request with one sentence and no explanation.

 

“Grossly partisan move”: Legal analyst spots the “tells” in Supreme Court’s Trump immunity case

excerpt:

"Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, who served on special counsel Bob Mueller’s team, predicted the court will ultimately rule against Trump’s immunity claim but “they have given him the win because the D.C. case, let's just face it, is on life support now.”

“It is really, really hard to figure out how this case gets to trial before the election. I think that's the end result of what they did here. They may ultimately say that he does not have immunity, but, in fact, he will have been given immunity because the case will not go to trial before the election,” he told MSNBC.

"If Joe Biden wins, the case goes forward," he continued. "If he loses, the case is over. It is worth noting the other big picture item. Any normal politician, any person accused of a crime they did not do would want to clear his name. What's happening here is the reason one thinks it is a win for Donald Trump is he is trying to avoid at all costs the facts of what happened that are charged in this indictment, that they do not get represented in court where facts actually matter and people will hear it.”"

 

Trump has used that type of tactic in the civil docket throughout his life. He eventually concedes and loses to the other party, but he can claim he won because the settlement is often private and the public never gets to see by how much he lost.

In the criminal docket, the situation can have a grave national effect. If Biden loses the election. Trump as president can shut down the two federal cases against him or pardon himself.

At the very least, he can delay federal and state criminal trials until after he's out of office, at which point the cases would become over five years old and Trump would be at least 81 years old

The public may never have the chance to hear the facts in the court room for the federal cases.