Of course Trump cheated on his taxes.
Of course Trump low-balled values for tax purposes.
Well, duh.
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page cited Trump's reputation for cheating as a defense. He couldn't be guilty of fraudulent deception.
No one who has ever listened to Mr. Trump will be surprised if he hyped the value of his holdings in dealing with bankers. But then no one in New York finance would ever trust only what Mr. Trump claims before signing a document or lending him money.
No one could be so naive as to believe him and act on what he says.
Humorist Andy Borowitz made a joke of it with this parody news article:
Trump is throwing up defenses regarding Mar-a-Lago's documents. I suspect one of them will give a juror an excuse to vote not guilty. Trump could say he thought they were his to keep. Or, he thought he had given them all back and he was misinformed by staff. Or someone else packed them. Or the FBI put them there. One of Trump's excuses will create reasonable doubt. When found not guilty, he will claim total and complete vindication. That is Merrick Garland's fear. I don't count on a prosecution.It will be hard to find a jury of 12 that will convict him on tax fraud either. There is always some justification or excuse that would give justification for denying what is right in front of one's eyes. Taxes are complicated, Trump's especially. Some juror will balk, or some prosecutor will fear some juror will balk. Doing an Al Capone-style incarceration on tax charges is unlikely.
The key thing for Democrats to understand is that Trump's flagrant misbehaviors are features, not bugs. Trump does not "fight fair." He is not "a good sport." He wins by hook or crook, and proudly so. Trump can be understood best by watching this 17-second scene from the Indiana Jones movie.
Even stepping into the scene mid-movie, readers probably identified with Indiana Jones. Jones is an American. He was in danger amid foreigners. He won the fight by changing the implied rules of the confrontation. Indiana Jones didn't respect rules. Jones was cooly nonchalant. He shot and killed the guy. So what?
Most American movie-goers did not watch that scene and think Jones had some moral or legal obligation to give a warning shot. The scene is done for laughs. Ha! Fooled him!
There is a lot of Trump in that scene. Trump projects that Americans are beset by dangerous "others," both foreign and domestic. He doesn't respect them. He doesn't play by rules. He is smart. He wins. And he didn't sneak or apologize. He switched the rules and killed somebody, just like Trump said he could do on Fifth Avenue.
In the legal arena, Trump might possibly be in trouble, though I suspect not. In the political arena, Trump understands that his audience likes the swagger. He could win re-election from prison. American audiences identify with Jones. He is defending himself and his American project. In real life, Trump tells a story of constant peril. He finds enemies, foreign and domestic, because he likes the fight and is good at it. Of course he cheats. Of course he is ruthless. If he is "guilty" he is guilty of fighting too well to protect us.
The problem with this argument (though I doubt it will be accepted, let alone understood, by Trump supporters and apologists) is the he is NOT doing it "to protect us." Everything is about Donald Trump, regardless of how he masks it ... and he certainly has found that populist nationalism makes a good mask.