For someone so cowardly, Donald Trump is not a man gifted with a sense of prudence. Once at a safe distance from immediate danger, he's always been possessed by a sociopath's impulsivity and haunted by a narcissist's inability to accept criticism with a modicum of grace. And, as I detailed in Tuesday's Standing Room Only newsletter, Trump loves to boast about his crimes and troll his critics by flaunting his apparent immunity from consequences.
With all that in mind, it seems inevitable now that he would learn nothing from a jury declaring definitively that he sexually assaulted journalist E. Jean Carroll in the 90s, and that he defamed her with insults and lies when she spoke out about it during his presidency. Despite facing a $5 million judgment, Trump went straight onto CNN and defamed her again. To make it worse, after his perfunctory denials, he bragged about the assault. When asked how he feels about men getting away with sexual assault, he replied, "Fortunately." As the MAGA crowd laughed in approval, he blamed Carroll for the assault, saying, "What kind of a woman meets somebody and brings them up and within minutes you're playing hanky panky in a dressing room?
