People Magazine has exclusive reporting on Donald Trump’s vibe following the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago. I’m genuinely surprised by how detailed People’s reporting is, but it’s worth noting that People Mag has always had pretty good Trump sources. Anyway, the general focus is “does the FBI raid damage Trump’s plans to announce that he’s running for president again?” Nevermind the fact that Trump literally incited an insurrection because he couldn’t admit that he lost the last election. Some highlights from this People story:
Trump hasn’t been in Mar-a-Lago since Memorial Day: The former president has been away all summer; he was last seen at Mar-a-Lago before Memorial Day Weekend. While the FBI conducted its search of the property, which reportedly focused on Trump’s office and personal quarters, the former president was in New York inside Trump Tower. There on Fifth Avenue, the energy was reportedly less calm.
Bigly mad: “Donald is furious yet scared,” a source close to Trump tells PEOPLE. “He feels victimized and is calling everyone he trusts to give him advice and reassure him that this is a witch hunt. He is buoyed by the Republican support [after the] invasion of privacy.”
Bigly scared: Monday’s development, which the source said frightened Trump, could affect his political calculations as he weighs a third run for the presidency in 2024. Trump has repeatedly hinted at plans to launch a campaign and has even said all that’s left to decide is when to announce. But the source suggests that could all be an act, telling PEOPLE that though Trump will act like he’s running, talk like he’s running and raise money like he’s running, he may not actually vie for the seat.
Trump doesn’t actually want to be president again: “He has a good life now and is enjoying it,” the source says. “He is definitely making the moves to run but, in the end, I don’t think he will unless he is convinced criminal charges are coming,” adds the source. As an active candidate for the presidency, Trump could further push the argument that the criminal investigations he’s facing are politically motivated.
This is insane: “If he wasn’t running before, he is now,” a person close to the former president told NBC News in the wake of the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago search. “It pisses him off that they can do this to him. One way to get it to stop is to control the government again.”
[From People]
Many Republicans suggested that Democrats (eyeroll) organized the FBI raid and specifically timed the raid to affect the midterms. Personally, that conspiracy falls flat – if Democrats were capable of timing FBI raids and controlling DOJ investigations, surely Trump would have been arrested and charged by now, regardless of the midterms or whatever else. That being said, I do think that it’s likely that the dominoes will really start to fall over the next six to twelve months. There are so many investigations, there’s so much out there already. And of course Trump wants people to think that he’ll run again – that’s the grift. That’s why he’s “fundraising.”
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.
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