Projection or Confession?

It's fascinating (in the same way a train wreck is fascinating) to watch Trump and Company project their very worst deeds on their opponents.

You know the old adage, you can fool some of the people all of the time, and you can fool all of the people some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.

John Heilemann, the executive producer and host of the very watchable continuing Showtime political documentary, “The Circus,” told us years ago that just about everything Donald Trump utters is either projection or confession. It’s an accurate and instructive filter through which I run most of what the ex-president says.

Here are some examples, and you can play along at home:

“[Special Counsel] Jack Smith is a deranged psychopath.” Projection, confession, or both?

“These charges make us look like a Banana Republic.” Projection, confession, or both?

About his current self-inflicted legal problems: “The most evil and heinous abuse of power in the history of our country.” Obviously hyperbole, but also, projection, confession, or both?

“I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family.” Projection, confession, or both?

“I will totally obliterate the Deep State.” Projection, confession, or both?

And just for fun, Sarah Palin, who said, “The definition of a cult is a group of people who are excessively supporting one another and a cause — all about conformity and compliance and intolerance of anyone who doesn’t agree with what their mission is.” Projection, confession, or both? (She won a trip to the social media woodshed for unwittingly defining the Trump cult-of-personality and incorrectly ascribing it to Democrats, who are famously more like cats than sheep when it comes to herding.)

And of course, the grandaddy of all projections/confessions: “Lock her up.” That one we’ll leave for comedians, historians, and mental health professionals to unravel.

What happens to the historically independent Justice Department if there’s a second Trump Administration? There have been times in the FBI’s history, particularly at the end J. Edgar Hoover’s run, when it behaved reprehensibly. It targeted John Lennon because Hoover felt that the former Beatle was a threat to national security (?!?). He also illegally surveilled MLK.

But, 98% of the time, the FBI is sharp, straight, and true. It’s hard to imagine how you can pretend to be the party of law and order and think that investigations into lawbreaking (which is to say, law enforcement) mean the FBI is corrupt.

From the NYTimes we get this: “They are condemning Mr. Biden and Democrats for what they claim is the politicization of the justice system, but at the same time [they’re] pushing an intellectual framework that a future Republican president might use to justify directing individual law enforcement investigations.”

Some grandstanders are making violent threats:

•Kimberly Guilfoyle, Fox News: “retribution is coming.“

•Kari Lake, the failed but unrepentant Arizona gubernatorial candidate warned that to get to Trump, “You’ll have to go through 74 million of us, and we are mostly card-carrying NRA members.”

•On January 6^th, vile operative, Roger Stone, egged on the Proud Boys. They did violence and many are now in prison.

•Andrew Biggs, a member of the ultra-right-wing Congressional Freedom Caucus issued a Biblical threat: “An eye for an eye.”

Neither projection nor confession, here’s a clear-eyed look at the legal jeopardy the Former Guy has bought himself, via his former Attorney General, who, by the way, was as flexible as a fifteen year-old Romanian gymnast when it came to defending Trump—until January 6th, that is. William Barr said, “If even half of it is true, then he’s toast.”

One of the more telling aspects of both the indictments he’s facing, and the public persona he’s presenting, is that his troubles come mostly from the testimony of his own people.

Both the January 6^th inquiry and the current indictments rely on testimony from his inner circle. Here’s Heather Cox Richardson quoting a senior Trump official from the actual indictment: “When our research and campaign legal team can’t back up any of the claims made by our Elite Strike Force Legal Team, you can see why we’re 0–32 on our cases. I’ll obviously hustle to help on all fronts, but it’s tough to own any of this when it’s all just conspiracy sh*t beamed down from the mothership.”

Maureen Dowd wrote: “He no doubt workshopped his stroppy mug-shot look in front of the mirror, trying to convey ‘Never surrender!’ as he was literally surrendering. And in another master stroke of projection, he accused the prosecutors pursuing him for election interference of “election interference.”

I keep seeing his minions parroting the ex-president’s projections and confessions about the legal proceedings. When asked, to a one, they cite the reigning Prince of Projection, Fox News, as their information source.

Here’s hoping you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.

©2023 Jon Sinton