Consequences Matter?

Last week, Trump lost a case to E. Jean Carroll, to the tune of $83 million. As the lawsuits stack up, they’re starting to actually have consequences. Will it hurt him? Probably not, given his current assets. But he’s not using his money anyway. There are all sorts of Republicans who are interested in giving Trump money to cover his legal bills. One example is a law proposal in Florida to use tax dollars to help pay Trump’s legal bills. (Probably the only thing we agree with DeSantis about is that this proposal is ridiculous.) The fact is that Trump may never feel the full impact of the law, and not because of his prowess or any thing like that. He’s got a nearly endless supply of suckers to pull money from, so as long as the recourse from the law is financial, he’ll be covered by his base. It’ll be interesting to see how many of his “campaign donations” are actually going toward his legal bills. Until we see a criminal consequence, i.e. imprisonment, he’ll be able to do whatever he wants to spend the money to pay the fines for.

Which apparently, isn’t E. Jean Carroll any longer. Do we believe he’s been reprimanded into acquiescence? Not at all. But he does have other legal bills to consider at the moment, and being struck down twice makes trying again a money pit. Make no mistake: he hasn’t reformed because of anything looking like moral reprimand.