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Six months ago, Donald Trump held a campaign event in New Hampshire, where the indicted former president suggested he was prepared to be incarcerated. “I don’t mind being Nelson Mandela because I’m doing it for a reason,” the Republican told a group of followers. “We’ve got to save our country from these fascists.”
Evidently, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee is still thinking along these lines. The Washington Post reported:
Former president Donald Trump said Saturday that it would be a “great honor” to be jailed for violating a gag order, marking an escalation in attacks he’s made against New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan and other court officials in a case about to go to trial. ... Writing on the Truth Social platform on Saturday, Trump dared Merchan to throw him in jail. He also compared himself again to Nelson Mandela, a political prisoner who became the first president of a post-apartheid South Africa.
Trump, of course, has an unfortunate habit of comparing himself to Abraham Lincoln, and the Republican recently likened his civil fraud judgment to the persecution of Jesus, so perhaps it shouldn’t come as too big of a surprise that he sees a parallel between himself and the iconic Nobel laureate.
As part of Trump’s latest tantrum, the former president published a trio of items to his social media platform on Saturday afternoon, the first of which began, “Crooked Judge Juan Merchan is not allowing me to talk, is taking away my First Amendment Rights, he’s got me GAGGED.”
In reality, there’s literally no evidence of Merchan being corrupt; gag orders against suspected felons are not unconstitutional; and Trump’s claim about not being allowed “to talk” is self-defeating, given that he never shuts up.
In the third of three missives, Trump repeated the same claim about being silenced; peddled a new conspiracy theory about the judge in his hush-money-to-a-porn-star case, before concluding, “If this Partisan Hack wants to put me in the ‘clink’ for speaking the open and obvious TRUTH, I will gladly become a Modern Day Nelson Mandela — It will be my GREAT HONOR.”
For those who have no idea what the former president is talking about, let’s briefly review. Trump, who’s repeatedly confronted gag orders in a variety of cases, recently lashed out at a variety of people across the legal system, including likely witnesses in his hush-money case. With this in mind, as my MSNBC colleague Jordan Rubin explained, Merchan imposed a gag order on the Republican a couple of weeks ago.
Trump, nevertheless kept going, launching an offensive against the judge’s daughter, which led to a revised gag order, protecting the family members of those involved in the proceedings.
A couple of days ago, the presumptive GOP nominee not only whined about these restrictions, he suggested he might ignore them, even if that means he’ll end up behind bars.
And that, ultimately, is why I think the tantrum matters. Yes, the idea that Trump and Mandela have anything in common is blisteringly stupid. And yes, the former president presenting himself as some kind of victim is ridiculous.
And yes, if Trump seriously intends to compete for the support of Black voters, this nonsense seems wildly counter-productive.
But I’m especially interested in what he does next. It would be Trump’s “great honor” to defy a court order, even if that means ending up in the “clink”? He’ll have plenty of opportunities to back this up before the scheduled start of the trial next week.