Donald Trump is angry as he claims the government has taken away his right to speak. It didn’t. A jury in Manhattan court found Trump guilty of libel in a private civil lawsuit on January 26, 2024. Of course, he will appeal the case. The plaintiff, E. Jean Carroll, will not receive anything until all appeals are exhausted. 

Donald Trump has sued a long list of individuals and organizations for defamation, and has lost just about every case. He knows better than anyone else, how tough it is to win a defamation case. But, he seems to like suing, if for no other reason, as a means of revenge to people who criticize him. Honestly, it seems always to backfire on him!

“We are going to take a strong look at our country’s libel laws, so that when somebody says something that is false and defamatory about someone, that person will have meaningful recourse in our courts,” Mr. Trump said during a public portion of a cabinet meeting in the White House. (New York Times, January 10, 2018)

“We want fairness,” the president said. “Can’t say things that are false, knowingly false, and be able to smile as money pours into your bank account. We are going to take a very, very strong look at that, and I think what the American people want to see is fairness.” 

No legislation was ever proposed.  Any legislation would have been opposed by civil liberties groups. As a plaintiff in these lawsuits, Trump really could not care about civil liberties. It was all about revenge and it failed almost every time.

Trump sued the internet news site, Buzzfeed for publishing the Steele dossier. Trump sued Fusion GPS for paying for the investigation. Trump also sued Hillary Clinton and many others in 2022, alleging “a malicious conspiracy to disseminate patently false and injurious information about Donald J. Trump and his campaign, all in the hope of destroying his life, his political career, and rigging the 2016 Presidential Election in favor of Hillary Clinton.” All these lawsuits were dismissed. The 2022 lawsuit was dismissed and the Judge awarded nearly one million dollars to all the defendants who had to defend themselves against Trump’s political lawsuit.

Trump sued the New York Times and the reporters over a 2018 investigation into his finances and taxes that was based in part on confidential tax records. The Times easily won the case because the information of true. Then on January 12, 2024, the Judge ordered Trump to pay the Times and three of its reporters nearly $400,000 to cover their legal costs.

However, when Trump is sued for the dissemination of false and injurious statements, then he loves the First Amendment. This is why Donald Trump is a hypocrite. You just can’t have it both ways! He lost as a plaintiff attacking the New York Times on January 12, 2024 and then big time loss as Trump was a defendant with a 83.4 million dollar judgement on January 26, 2024.

If you have information that is true, you have a right to say it, and the forum doesn’t matter. That’s freedom of speech. His fraud case is expected to conclude soon, and it is all about Trump’s dishonesty.

In March 2024, Trump will be back in court, with the charge will be that he approved payment to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougall to keep them silent during the 2016 election. He used campaign funds to keep them silent. As the evidence will show, it’s not dirty politics; it is criminal. And it absolutely runs counter to the rights of individuals to speak in public, about what they witnessed and know is true.

Trump can’t blame the government. He did this to himself.

I predict Trump will lose again in March 2024. And he will lose this presidential immunity case, now in the Appellate court. Candidate Trump is both incredibly dishonest and a hypocrite.

Stay tuned,

Dave 

PS: Almost forgot to include Trump’s attack on Marvin Ruffman, in 1990, who correctly predicted the downfall of Trump’s eighth wonder of the world, the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. You can search for this blog. It is a pattern of insults and bullying that goes back decades.