"Who's always writing on the wall Who's always goofing in the hall
Who's always throwing spit balls . . .
He's gonna get caught just you wait and see
(Why's everybody always picking on me?)"
The Coasters, 1959
Donald Trump says the FBI is picking on him.
The FBI had better find something bad.
People old enough to remember music played on AM radio in 1959 will remember that the final line is voiced by the student troublemaker in a distinctive whine. We know he isn't falsely accused, but no doubt some teenagers identified with him rather than with school authorities. He is a rebel, and maybe more humorous than dangerous. "Charlie Brown, that Charlie Brown, he's a clown." Charlie Brown stuck to his story. He was picked on.
Donald Trump demonstrated an extraordinary fact about politics in this era. People believe one's con if one sticks to the story. Never apologize. Never accept your accusers’ frames of reference. Crimes done openly are not understood as wrongdoing by people inclined to agree with you if you stick to the story. The rule or its enforcement is put into question, not the rule-breaker. The key to pulling this off is shameless self-confidence as a performer. Create the moral reality.
Trump illegally destroyed and removed documents. His aides reported finding torn up documents in wastebaskets. Aides fished documents out of clogged toilets. Trump defied people to stop him. Even Fox News this morning acknowledges that Trump illegally brought material to Mar-a-Lago. The National Archives recovered 15 boxes of it in January. Trump's removal was a crime. But like Trump, Fox doesn't treat that as the frame for their story. Their story about the unprecedented raid, voiced with a tone of amazed outrage. How come everybody's always picking on Trump?
Trump knew the law. He had repeatedly criticized Hillary Clinton for mishandling government materials by moving them from government's electronic systems to her own personal one. He led crowds who chanted "Lock her up. Lock her up" for doing just that. Fox had endless stories about Hillary's off-site emails. Now his story--and Fox's--is that he is picked on.
America is experiencing a clash of two realities, political vs. legal. Trump demonstrates that in a political context supporters do not respond to the objective legality of a behavior. They respond to whether the politician believes his story. In theater it would be staying in character. In professional wrestling it would be maintaining the kayfabe. Trump understands that politics is more like science fiction or theater. Characters can do what the author declares they can do within the reality frame of that story. If the story presumes witches at Hogsworth, then Harry Potter can fly. Trump is the author and star character of his reality. He says he is making America great by breaking stupid rules, along with having won the 2020 election in a landslide. He is a persuasive communicator of that story. Trump's supporters are gathered outside Mar-a-Lago carrying signs saying Trump is picked on.
The political reality and legal reality will combine if, in fact, the FBI finds material that people find shocking. Trump's reality will triumph if they find nothing surprising. The legal crime is that any documents are at Mar-a-Lago. The political crime will be if the documents break the Trump spell--his supporters' willful suspension of belief that sees Trump as a populist hero. Images found on Hunter Biden's laptop of a drug abuser solidify Hunter as criminal, not victim, regardless of how the laptop images were found. Antony Weiner's text messages of dick-pics did the same. At the moment Fox News and Republicans are all-in on defending Trump as victim.
What is found, or not found, has enormous consequence. The FBI will look like politically-motivated bullies if they find nothing. There will be hell to pay if that is the story.
They had better find something big.
Of course they will find something big, and probably more