When it comes to fighting crime, Trump fails a new test of self-awareness

A few months ago, Donald Trump complained that Americans “live in a pro-crime atmosphere.” Around the same time, he declared confidently: “You’re not going to teach a criminal not to be a criminal. » A day later, the former president repeated this line during an unrelated event.

“A criminal is a criminal,” declared the Republican candidate. “They usually remain criminals and we don’t have time to realize that.”

About a month later, the Republican candidate’s campaign spokesperson said he “believes that anyone convicted of a crime should spend time behind bars.”

Clearly, Trump and his team are still failing this rather obvious test of self-awareness. At an event in Milwaukee, for example, the Republican candidate said: “Kamala (Harris) and Joe (Biden) are creators of crime. We are crime fighters.

Hours earlier, the former president expressed the same line via his social media platform, except he capitalized the message and added an exclamation point (he loves exclamation points).

All this could constitute a more effective argument during an election period if Trump wasn’t a criminal.

It doesn’t need to be complicated. As recently as May, a jury found Trump guilty of 34 crimes. This is not to be confused with another jury finding Trump responsible for sexual abuse or the case in which a court found that Trump oversaw a company that engaged in systemic fraud.

He also still faces dozens of other pending charges in several jurisdictions. (He pleaded not guilty.)

Additionally, the former president also surrounded himself with other criminals. “With Lincoln, they had a team of rivals,” presidential historian Douglas Brinkley noted recently. “With Trump, you have a team of criminals.”

In case that wasn’t enough, during his failed presidency, Trump had a history of granting outrageous pardons to politically aligned criminals. And if he is elected for a second term, the Republican has promised to deliver even more pardons for politically aligned criminals, including those who violently clashed with police officers.

With that in mind, as the former president boasts that he and his team “are crime fighters,” it’s probably worth reminding Republican operations that a little self-awareness can go a long way.

This article updates our related prior coverage.