Free Republic

On Saturday, during a campaign speech in Durham, New Hampshire, Donald Trump invoked Vladimir Putin (of all people) as proof that he's being persecuted: "Putin says that Biden's—and this is a quote—politically motivated persecution of his political rival is very good for Russia, because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others about democracy." Some commentators see this and other Trump assertions about being persecuted as calculated efforts to fuel his base. But what if Trump really thinks he's being persecuted? What if he has a persecution complex? What if he believes his...

Trump has been engaged in a several-years-long attempt to undermine the institutions of the US government and it shows no sign of abatingTrump’s attempted coup against the US continues. We are now in phase three. Phase one was his refusal to concede the loss of the 2020 election and his big lie that the election was “stolen” from him, without any basis in fact. Trump’s actions in phase one were not illegal, but they were immoral. They violated the norms that every president before Trump had dutifully followed. Phase two was his plot to overturn the result of the 2020...

Finally Trump’s tax returns have been made public. Here are the 10 big things you need to know about them:  1. Did he break the law? Almost surely. Details of tax practices suggest fraud on a massive scale. As Michael Bromwich, a former inspector general at the Justice Department, said yesterday, based on the Times’s story, Trump faces federal and state prosecution for bank fraud, tax fraud, wire fraud, and mail fraud, as does his entire family. 2. How little has he paid in taxes? In 11 of the 18 years examined, Trump paid no taxes at all. In his first year...