Trump Is Treated Differently Because He Insists on Being Treated Differently

When the authorities try to treat him like everybody else, he refuses to play along.

The Mamas and the Papas sing “Monday, Monday” on ABC’s Hollywood Palace.

Here is what Donald Trump had to say today about the $454 million that he must turn over to the State of New York on Monday:

THE NEW YORK A.G. USED A STATUTE TO GO AFTER ME THAT HAS NEVER BEEN USED BEFORE, NOT ONCE, FOR SUCH A PURPOSE. IT, IN AND OF ITSELF, IS SOOO UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND UNFAIR. UNDER THIS STATUTE, I GET NO JURY AND HAVE NO RIGHTS. All DECISIONS AND RIGHTS ARE GIVEN TO, IN THIS CASE, A CORRUPT, TRUMP HATING JUDGE, WHO CAME UP WITH A CRAZY, OUT OF THIN AIR AWARD, IN ORDER TO DAMAGE ME POLITICALLY, AND NOT ALLOW ME TO USE ANY OF THE LARGE AMOUNT OF CASH I HAVE BUILT UP OVER THE YEARS, THROUGH HARD WORK, INSIGHT, INSTINCT, AND DILIGENCE, ON MY POLITICAL CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT.

There’s more, all of it IN CAPITAL LETTERS, but you get the drift. For the record, the New York statute requiring losers in a civil action who appeal to post a bond or its equivalent to cover the judgment’s full amount has been used many, many times before. As for depriving Trump of money he needs to run for president, it’s well known that he spends very little on his own campaigns. Of the $957.6 million the Trump campaign spent in 2016, for example, Trump furnished a mere $66 million. I’m not sure Trump spent a dime on his 2020 re-election campaign, and his 2024 campaign treasury is in large part a slush fund to pay Trump’s legal fees.

In spite of all this, in my latest New Republic piece, I concede that Trump is being treated differently from others. But that’s only because Trump insists on being treated differently from others. You can read it here.