What an absolute psycho.
How is anything beyond the pale for someone who incited an insurrection to block the peaceful transition of power and who has spent his entire life cheating and grifting and only caring about himself? No one, to my knowledge, has given any LEGITIMATE reason for him taking the documents and he's gone through a long list of explanations/excuses to explain it. The fact remains that whatever his reason, he knowingly committed a crime by taking them and he knowingly obstructed justice by not fully responding to the subpoena to return them.
Trump is known to avoid emails and communicate via disposable post it notes. He has a long record since he entered the business 50 years ago of skirting the legal line without crossing it. As egregious as his transgressions appear to us, this one seems oddly out of character for someone so carefully concerned with self-preservation, I mean, holding onto top secret documents, really? What did he expect to do with them?
This is exactly what I looking for, thanks. It's speculation yes, but as good as we're going to get for awhile...at least it helps make some of it make sense. God, the thought that he almost certainly used his executive power to peek at intel on his perceived opponents...ugh. Add it to the list of despicable things.Columnist Jack Colwell (South Bend Tribune, Indiana) did write up a piece on possible reasons: Revenge. Blackmail. Profit.
I don't think any one of those is a stretch as motive. On the other hand the columnist didn't provide evidence.
Colwell: Why did Trump take documents? Three likely reasons.
A lot of people care about the issue, some because of what he took, and others because it was taken back.www.southbendtribune.com
Honestly I don't think that anything is absolutely beyond the pale for Trump. When he wants something, and there are legal obstacles, he tries to have his way anyhow, or get someone else to work around the situation.
Revenge: his own sitting government ticked Trump off by essentially making him leave when his term in office was over. He wanted to stay, and couldn't make it happen. So maybe he took sensitive government documents to Mar a Lago in sheer rage and "because he could" -- figuring he'd decide what to do with them "to get even" later on. He always seeks revenge when he feels he has been crossed. Ask anyone who had worked for him, or with whom he has had some dust-up in Congress or out in the corporate world.
Blackmail? Trump is on record saying in a press conference once that he might "have something" on an unnamed US Senator, but would hang onto that in case he might later decide to write a memoir. And really who doubts that Trump "has something" on Lindsey Graham.
Profit? Some of the documents seized at Mar a Lago apparently had to do with intel on French president Macron. You decide if Trump would have been more likely to use that info to blackmail Macron for money, or just to try to get some real estate easement or something in a pricey part of that country. Why would he take that information with him if not meaning to use it somehow in future? Some of the other sensitive documents might conceivably be used to get money or favors from foreign governments. But If there's proof of that, it's not yet been confirmed to the public.
We can speculate, and I wouldn't rule anything out, but it's up to the DOJ to discover what he might have already done with them. Remember the empty folders?
Maybe Trump was offended by Macron's extra friendly clasping of hands with Melania, so he took some documents that could be used for revenge. Wouldn't put anything past him.
Do we need him though? If he’s out of the picture, we are almost certain to have DeSantis as the R candidate.
You mean clean the floor with him?
This. Trump is nothing if not vengeful. His rage knows almost no bounds at this point.
when it comes to giving full-throated and clear condemnations of Trump.
