Trump 24: Stuck in the Groove (September 8, 2024)

Trump was at it again in New York this past Friday. He called a press conference to deliver an angry 50-minute ramble and then not answer any questions. He happened to be in New York City to attend an appeal with a bunch of his lawyers for one of his decided legal cases (civil) where his attendance was not required and he couldn’t participate. Just the day before he skipped a trial proceeding in one of his criminal legal proceedings in Washington with another bunch of his lawyers where his personal liberty, not just his money, is at risk. You know, priorities.

To an objective onlooker, this multiple day public conglomeration of masses of $1,000 an hour attorneys is jaw dropping. The legal bill meter rolling over faster and faster is frightening to imagine. Even for a multi-billionaire on paper whose public company stock value was tanking in real time to the tune of a 60% loss in 6 months, while his shares are locked up and unsellable. Drip, drip…

This doesn’t count the non-courtroom legal events last week like the letter from the Judge postponing sentencing for Trump’s 34 felony convictions from another state criminal case he lost in May. More lawyers (but in their offices, not in public). Hell, even a practiced observer needs a guidebook to keep track of Trump’s full legal jeopardy and events calendar. Maybe even two, or three, or four published guides to all the formal moving legal pieces.

This convoluted mess has never happened anytime in America’s history over two and a half centuries. Not once. Not in peace time or war time. Never before for an ex-President. Never before has an ex-President been indicted, or convicted. Never before has an ex-President tried to run for office again with this kind of mess hanging over his head during the campaign.

A fair question from American taxpayers today is: “Why aren’t you paying full attention to dealing with your personal mind-blowing legal and financial crises that may cost you $500 million and put you in jail in the next 6 months”? Which leads to another question:“ Why are you trying to make your mess into our mess”? And the collective reaction is that if Trump were a good neighbor, he would mind his own damn business.

Anyway, since Trump had no talking part in either courtroom this past week, he felt impelled to offer his legal wisdom, free from perjury concerns attached to speaking under oath, to any who would listen. To preserve the dignity and seriousness of the occasion, Trump the Scene Master orchestrated a backdrop of not one but seven American Flags with golden eagle tops proudly displayed, fronted by an array of silent attorneys (men and women) standing at attention with straight faces, while Trump in his Presidential look-alike dark blue suit and red tie stood at a podium with a 2024 campaign seal stuck to the top edge, ignoring his lawyers’ expensive collective legal advice, and attempted to lecture the general public and the various Judges about the real deal, legal-wise.

**Trump Stage Manages Out of Court Appearance 09062024**

This picture of his New York lawyers in a Trump inspired line-up is painful to look at, even as a still photo. Imagine what was churning in each of their heads, standing mute on public display for nearly an hour, even if they were billing Trump at a significantly increased hourly rate for court proceedings. There is only so much monetary balm you can apply to a bruised professional self-image. Standing in silence, lambasted live on TV by an ignorant client who wants to constantly chisel you down on your earned fees, knowing there will be video tapes in perpetuity of your participation.

**Trump Speaks Before Lawyer Lineup NY 09062024**

And then Trump went off on a gratingly familiar circular loop. To older folks listening in, it conjured up sad youthful memories of the times when you put a favorite record album on the stereo turntable and lowered the tonearm to hear some classic tunes. And five minutes into playing a 78-rpm album, the needle got stuck in a groove from some overlooked damage to the record, and a sound fragment played over and over again, until you had to physically displace the needle to render the music listenable (intelligible) again. It happened to everybody at some point if you were a serious music lover with records and a phonograph.

Trump is increasingly becoming like that broken record. We try to listen to the music, but it skips and jars and grates. The musical notes are off-key and unpleasant. Worse, the more you try and play it, the worse the damage to the record becomes. The sounds are less and less bearable until you have to replace the record entirely.

We know that Trump has a few favorite mental loops he keeps trying to play in public. Several were on display again in his Friday performance. Let’s go with the Jessica Leeds groove.

At Trump’s first trial in May 2023, Jessica Leeds, a friend of E. Jean Carroll, testified in Federal Court, under oath, in front of a jury:

A woman who says Donald Trump silently molested her on an airliner in the late 1970s testified Tuesday in support of the writer who alleges that a flirtatious 1996 encounter with the future president ended in a violent sexual attack.

Jessica Leeds, 81, of Asheville, North Carolina, said Trump accosted her with what seemed like “40 zillion hands.” She joined other witnesses who supported the testimony of E. Jean Carroll, a longtime advice columnist who publicly aired her claims against Trump in 2019, when she published a memoir…

Leeds said she was in her late 30s and working in sales when she was invited by a flight attendant aboard a daytime flight from Dallas or Atlanta to New York to sit in the only empty aisle seat in the first-class cabin.

“The gentleman sitting by the window introduced himself as Donald Trump,” she said.

Conversation between the pair was mostly forgettable, Leeds recalled, as they ate a nice meal, before “all of a sudden Trump decided to kiss me and grope me.”

“There was no conversation. It was like out of the blue. It was like a tussle. He was trying to kiss me, trying to pull me towards him. He was grabbing my breasts. It was like he had 40 zillion hands. It was like a tussling match between the two of us,” she recalled.

On May 9, 2023, a unanimous Federal jury of 6 men and 3 women in Manhattan found Trump liable in the rape lawsuit for battery sexual abuse and defamation of E. Jean Carroll and awarded her $5 million in damages plus interest.

Where was Trump during this trying time when he claimed women were ganging together, making up sex stories, and falsely accusing him? In Court, defending his honor and reputation and proclaiming his innocence in public under oath for all the World to see and witness? Nope. He took off for Scotland on May 1, 2023 to inspect his great properties and open a golf course.

The very same golf properties in Europe (Scotland and Ireland) that have lost money ever since he bought or built them. The same course in Scotland where his Windmill (Offshore Wind Turbine) fetish began in 2013, and where he was forced to pay the Scottish Government $300,000 in 2019 after yet another losing lawsuit to stop an offshore wind project Trump said was blocking his view from the links. This time his bitter legal defeat was international, not domestic. There are deep states everywhere.

From the Guardian article (May 1, 2023)

Donald Trump said it was “great to be home” as he arrived in Scotland to cut the ribbon on another golf course near Aberdeen.

The first former US president to be charged with a crime said on Truth Social, the social media platform he owns, that he was going to the Menie estate near Aberdeen to open a second course.

Trump and his son Eric arrived at Aberdeen airport at about 11.30am on Monday and were met by two pipers, a red carpet and a 10-vehicle motorcade.

Before getting into one of the cars, he said: “It’s great to be home, this was the home of my mother.”

Trump could have testified to the truth in open Court in New York (USA), his hometown and business center. He passed. He ducked when he had the chance. He decided to fly. Now he blames his lawyer for giving him bad advice. 18 months later, after he lost, he wants a legal Trial Mulligan, a factual do-over so he can get it perfectly right in real life, like the imaginary version already spinning inside his head. Got it.

Back to Jessica Leeds and Trump’s looping on Friday.

All good stories have persuasive details that flesh out the bare outlines of the plot and help convince an audience. The mantle of assumed veracity to cover the bones. And this is where Trump during his “I don’t know this woman” and “She’s not my type (not the Chosen One)” and “She made it up” triple dinger introduced a previously less-voiced detail to the thread about Ms. Leeds. As he describes the non-story from his perspective, he tells us Friday:

From the Daily Mail (September 6, 2024):

He said he could not have molested a woman on a plane in the late 1970s because immobile armrests would have made it impossible.

Last year, Jessica Leeds had testified that he put his hand up her skirt and grabbed her chest as they sat side by side in first class.

‘Think of the impracticality of this. I’m famous, I’m in a plane. People are coming into the plane, and I’m looking at a woman, and I grab her and I start kissing her and making out with her,’ he said.

‘What are the chances of that happening?’

‘And frankly, I know you’re going to say it’s a terrible thing to say, but it couldn’t have happened. It didn’t happen. And she would not have been the chosen one.’

So, Trump’s aggressive defense of his blamelessness is two-fold:

1. the armrests are fixed in position

2. I’m famous. People are coming into the plane, they would notice

The problem with telling porkies when you were once the most powerful man in the world and are trying to make a comeback after a very public disgrace and fall, is that there are all sorts of permanent records and videos available to review.

From CNN (October 14, 2016):

Leeds, now 74, has alleged that about 45 minutes after takeoff on a Braniff International Airways flight from Dallas to a New York area airport, Trump moved the armrest between their first-class seats and groped her. She claims the incident occurred in 1979.

Campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson refuted Leeds’s allegation Wednesday on “CNN Tonight with Don Lemon.”

“First class seats have fixed armrests. So, what I can tell you if she was groped on a plane, it wasn’t by Donald Trump and it certainly wasn’t in first class,” Pierson said.

Braniff, according to 1979 timetables reviewed by CNN, operated flights to New York from Dallas with a Boeing 727, which has a fuselage shape identical to that of the 707.

The airline’s Boeing 727-200 fleet was outfitted with what was known as its “Ultra” interior made up of 24 first and 104 coach class seats, according to documents reviewed by CNN from the Braniff Airways Foundation.

The leather first class seats were designed with the removable center armrest for cleaning or “for a passenger that wanted to stretch across the seat,” Cass said.

Cass said the armrests were typically removed by a flight attendant, but were also removed by knowledgeable passengers.

Trump is exposed here. With respect to T-Defense #1, this issue was already litigated for error in 2016 before he was ever elected. The fixed armrest gambit was investigated by CNN with the help of aviation historians who established that the first-class armrests on the Boeing 727 flown by Braniff Airways out of Dallas in 1979 were in fact removable. See pictures of a pair of first-class seats from this jet equipment interior. See the relevant page from the airline Flight Attendant’s Manual.

As Trump is nothing if not airplane knowledgeable, he could certainly have taken care of this little impediment to his desires. In 2016 Campaign Spokesperson Katrina Pierson was shown up as a liar, and the same porky is no fresher eight years later when re-cycled by Trump. Maybe that part of his permanent false memory loop skipped a groove when being laid down.

Also, to note for the record, any adult male who has driven a bucket-seat equipped American car during the 60’s or 70’s while on a romantic date can tell you, likely from direct personal experience, a fixed armrest exactly like that in the car (center console) would pose no substantial physical barrier whatever to performing the actions attributed to Trump, except for the defining issue of non-consent from the other person.

So, T-Defense #1 is gone.

T-Defense #2 is a multi-layered item. Let’s take it from the end to the beginning. Ms. Leeds said the assault took place 45 minutes into the flight, while the plane was still in the air. Of course, no people were coming onto the plane then. That is just preposterous on its face. As for noticing, see the seating chart from a Boeing mixed class727-200 below. The typical first-class section holds from 12-20 seats in sets of two across from each other along the central isle (3-5 rows). Unless the first-class passengers in the other sets were walking around during the flight (say to use the first-class lavatory), there would have been little or no visibility.

**727-200 Cabin Layout 114:20 Mixed Class**

Ms. Leeds tells us the assault occurred after the meal about one hour into the flight. Airline schedules indicate a Dallas-New York (LaGuardia) flight time is roughly 3 hours, so this would have been about 1/3 of the way into the flight when passengers are generally settled and not moving about.

It has been some time since I made such a flight, but back in the late 70’s and 80’s there was usually a heavy curtain closed between first class and coach during most of the flight, and coach passengers were strongly encouraged to stay in their own designated cabin space, and flight attendants acted as section monitors to enforce the operating rule. No wandering around for curiosity, exercise, or celebrity gazing up front in first class near the flight cabin. So minimal stray visitor traffic.

Trump’s rationale about lots of eyeballs watching in first class falls flat here.

Now we get to the nub of Trump’s defense against the accusations. His Ace in the Hole Trump Card. He was famous. People would notice (know) him.

Ah, there’s the rub. In 1979, 33-year-old Donald Trump was, quite simply, not famous. He was rather mostly obscure, especially outside of New York City proper.

He hadn’t built any Trump branded buildings (first not until 1983). He hadn’t written a book (1987). He didn’t own any casinos in New Jersey. He had only married in April 1977 and he and Ivana were not tabloid gossip fodder until years later. He was not on the Howard Stern show yet (1993). He hadn’t been on the Don Imus Show (until 1993, then 2007). He wasn’t on TV as a guest or reality host. There was no TV show “The Apprentice.” He hadn’t done any cameos in Hollywood movies. He didn’t have a charitable foundation. He didn’t sell any Trump merchandise. There were no Trump hats. He didn’t own a beauty pageant or modeling agency. He didn’t own a private plane or an airline. He wasn’t hawking Trump vodka, steaks, men’s cologne, or mattresses. He wasn’t on Twitter or social media (there weren’t any social media apps then). He wasn’t on the Internet (it didn’t exist). And so on.

In 1979 he was just a regular New York businessman Joe Schmo Traveler in the eyes of other people on a plane. Despite whatever elevated image he might carried in his own headspace then.

About the only people in New York who knew about him were the few hundred involved in the commercial real estate and financing game in the city, where he was renovating the old Commodore Hotel at Grand Central Station which became the Grand Hyatt hotel (to be managed by the famous Pritzker family of Chicago) when construction was completed. The refashioned hotel, named the Hyatt Grand New York first opened in September 1980, a year later than the flight.

This project was Trump’s first major business development deal in Manhattan which he worked on from 1978 until 1980. Note the absence of any Trump branding in the Hotel’s name when it was opened.

So, almost no one outside a small segment of NY based realty people had ever heard of one Donald J. Trump. And perhaps careful readers of the business sections of city newspapers. He was certainly not considered famous by the general public anytime in 1979.

Trump’s assault story defenses laid out again just this past Friday are flimsy, incredible, re-cycled, and just plain unconvincing. That doesn’t mean he was guilty, only that there is no concrete evidence to support his unsworn statements then or now. And a regular person jury (with 6 men and 3 women) in Manhattan in May 2023 didn’t believe a word of the story presented by his lawyers in Court. And Trump skipped out on his chance to look each juror in the eye, face to face, testify directly, and call the women who accused him liars under oath. And the jury (all nine of them) gave E. Jean Carroll $5 million dollars in damages for Trump’s lies. A bridge too far.

So, America’s Voters are left with an annoying endless loop of Trump’s anger and grievance without substance like the fleeting sound waves transmitted through the air heard while listening to a musical record. A broken and tuneless record that is Trump today.

A damaged record he likes to play over and over at rallies and when he can get others to listen. A defective record. By itself, that is sad enough.

But there is more. Trump has digitized his faulty memory recording, and it is becoming more distorted and amplified with time. He still plays it whenever he can, at loud volume, in front of his expensive lawyers, in public, on camera to be recorded for posterity.

And he cannot see what he is doing. He cannot seem to help it or control himself. So, it seems his mental master control panel, his psychological circuit breakers that regulate normal conduct are simply failing. Somewhere in his head, critical neural circuits governing accurate memory retrieval and self-restraint are heating up and burning out. His mental temperature is rising, and the backup cooling circuits aren’t working. He can’t even pretend anymore that things are OK with him.

Trump is now going increasingly mental in full public view, and seems determined to push it until he blows, or he gets to the finish line. The mental heat and associated stress are affecting his vision, his hearing, his words, and his judgement.

That’s too bad for the rest of us while he is still running, unless someone takes away the keys and turns off his rage engine.