- Picks Tony Blinken as Secretary of State
- Speaks with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
- Didn't have any meltdowns
- Didn't insult any foreign leaders
- Didn't have to fire any of his lawyers
- Biden is going to the White House
- It's still only 10:30pm
I've gotten a lot right in four years. The one fundamental thing I whiffed on, which I'd like to have back, is that I didn't know Mueller went senile a year into his investigation. I've spent time examining the clues I missed, so I don't make a similar mistake again.
Mueller started off gangbusters in his first year. Arrests, indictments, cooperating plea deals, you name it. True to his reputation. There was every reason to expect that aggression to continue.
Then in year two, Mueller went quiet. No publicly visibly moves. I interpreted that as him building his cases behind the scenes. Turns out he spent year two not doing much of anything.
For the record, I knew Joe Biden had won the election at 8:54am on November 4th.
8:54am was when the big Michigan batch came in, and proved that the big 4am Wisconsin batch hadn't been a fluke. It meant we'd see a similarly big Pennsylvania batch, which would give all three states to Biden, which was 270. Game over. The past twenty days have just been noise.
In fairness I did not predict that Biden would win Wisconsin three times, Pennsylvania eight times, and Michigan twenty times.
I spent a long time explaining why Trump would never go out with proverbial guns blazing; he’s too much of a narcissist to want that kind of worst possible outcome for himself. Maybe he’d bluff about going out ugly. But in the end he was always going to cave meekly like this.
Trump is arrogant enough to think he can get his federal self-pardon to stick, charm the New York State trial jury into acquiring him, and rebuild his crippled financial empire from scratch. He’s wrong, but he thinks this. So why would he have just blown himself up?
Trump is now renovating Mar-a-Lago. He’s clearly trying to establish homestead there, so he can argue to the eventual New York State trial judge that he should be allowed to serve his house arrest at Mar-a-Lago while awaiting trial. That’s where his head is.
Look, Trump will end up trying some more bullshit. But he knows that his future consists of prison and bankruptcy. The antics he tries from here on out will be aimed at giving himself a softer landing. Pardons, grifting, pilfering. Focus on that if you want to finish him off.
It's not at all surprising that Trump gave up with a whimper. He talks like a strongman, but he's always been indecisive and tepid in his actions and decision making. You never cower to this kind of villain. You wail on him, until he grows unsure of himself and caves in the end.