Heather Digby Parton at Salon recently published an opinion piece suggesting that former Donald Trump is spending his days wondering around his home, bored, sad, and pathetic.

She says that while Trump “may be very wealthy…he’s rapidly turning into a sad and pathetic figure. According to this report in the Washington Post, the former president tends to wander aimlessly around Mar-a-Lago, bored and lethargic, depending on his attendants to call around to allies to ask them to deliver “affirmations” and cheer him up. One former adviser characterized his new life as sad, saying he wanted to replicate the grandeur of the White House but it’s more like ‘ Barbie Dream House miniature.’ Ouch.”

via Twitter

Parton continues:

“This is not a picture of someone gearing up for an arduous presidential campaign. It’s a picture of an old man trying to grapple with the fact that he’s retired and doesn’t have much of a purpose anymore.

To say that his campaign rollout has been a disaster is an understatement. In fact, it hasn’t been a rollout at all. There have been no campaign appearances or rallies, no speeches, no interviews, no book tour — none of the things you’d expect any declared candidate to do in the early phases of the campaign. Last week, Trump teased a “big announcement” that turned out to be another one of his tawdry grifts, selling NFT trading cards. As far as we can tell, he’s just been playing golf and showing up in the dining room each night to receive obligatory applause from his paying guests.

This is not someone gearing up for an arduous presidential campaign. It’s more like a retired guy who plays a lot of golf, trying to grapple with the fact that he doesn’t have much of a purpose anymore.”

Parton continues saying not to count Trump out, though:

“I’ve learned never to count Donald Trump out. When it comes to getting attention, he has a special set of skills. He may be a bit rusty but he’s about to get a big boost without having to lift a finger. On Monday, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection will hold its last hearing before the Republicans take over next month and dissolve the entire operation. Members are reportedly preparing to refer former Trump to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution. So he’s been ranting all weekend on his tiny social media platform:

via Twitter

Parton concludes:

“That particular tantrum was in response to news reports on Saturday that the panel will vote to refer charges for Trump for violating “18 U.S.C. 2383, insurrection; 18 U.S.C. 1512(c), obstruction of an official proceeding; and 18 U.S.C. 371, conspiracy to defraud the United States government.” Just as Trump was the first president to be impeached twice, he will be the first ex-president ever to be referred for criminal conduct by the Congress. What a legacy.

The Justice Department has no obligation to do anything with the coming referral, but is already conducting its own investigation, now led by special counsel Jack Smith, whose team will no doubt be very anxious to see the report and all its underlying evidence, which the committee plans to release by Wednesday. You never know what they might have turned up that the DOJ doesn’t know about.

“Donald Trump” by Gage Skidmore is licensed with CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

Trump is lashing out to get attention from his followers as much as anything else. He knows that portraying himself as the victim of government persecution usually provokes sympathy from the right-wing media and some quick cash in the campaign coffers. I think he’s still convinced that the government will never actually indict him — and he may be right. Right now, however, he needs to be back in the spotlight — and in that respect, this criminal referral is just what the doctor ordered.”

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Christopher Powell