Tag: Mango Mussolini

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E. Jean Carroll Gets Her Money, and None Too Soon

She also won $83.3 million in a later defamation case. A federal appeals court upheld that judgment in 2025, but Trump’s crack legal team is still flailing around, trying to avoid paying up. 

And, you know what? If Trump defames her some more, she’s going to sue him again. 

Lastly, with my apologies, a point of personal privilege. Back in the day, it was my great honor to work with Lewis Kaplan—now a senior federal judge, and the person who presided over the two E. Jean Carroll/Trump lawsuits, then a litigation partner at Paul Weiss. Together with my colleague Rick Holwell of White & Case, we achieved victory in a landmark antitrust case, Consolidated Gold Fields v. Minorco, see https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/698/487/2356328/

Mr. Kaplan was a gentleman and a scholar back then, and one hell of a litigator, and he remains today one hell of a federal judge. 

Unlike his unworthy successors at Paul Weiss, Kaplan knows how you have to deal with someone like Mango Mussolini. Congratulations to the judge. Well done. 

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Mango Mussolini’s Moronic Manufactured Mayhem

Today, many talking heads are talking about the events in Los Angeles as a step on the road to authoritarianism—and an attempt to distract from Team Trump’s many failures.

All true.

And yet there remains an elephant in the room for Team Blue.

As a movement, we do not yet have a coherent and politically viable answer about

  • How to deal with the undocumented people currently present here, 

or about

  • What the rules and procedures for political asylum ought to be,

or about

  • Apart from people with legitimate asylum claims, how many—and who—should be permitted to enter the United States.

Not to have coherent and politically viable answers to these questions is political malpractice.

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Trump’s Authoritarian Playbook: Sadism Toward Your Own Base

Amanda Taub (N.Y. Times), Trump’s Judicial Defiance Is New to the Autocrat Playbook, Experts Say: The president’s escalating conflict with federal courts goes beyond what has happened in countries like Hungary and Turkey, where leaders spent years remaking the judiciary.

Stephen I. Vladeck (N.Y. Times), The Courts Alone Can’t Save Us

Plus: Did someone say “tariffs”?

My strong sense is that Trump’s mental illness has advanced to the stage where his situational awareness is severely, severely diminished. As so many have noted, he does indeed have an authoritarian playbook. But it’s not the playbook of a rational wannabe authoritarian. 

Perhaps through confirmation bias, this afternoon I call your attention to Amanda Taub’s essay, which draws a sharp contrast between Trump’s approach and that of the dictators presiding over Hungary and Turkey. 

Trump—and his MiniMes like Rep. Hageman of Wyoming—seem to think that their own base are a bunch of masochists.

Trump’s Right About One Thing: Only Trump Can Fix It

An authoritarian playbook based on madness and sadism toward your own supporters is a dog that won’t hunt.

Trump is right. The one person who can defeat Donald Trump—the one person who is going to defeat Donald Trump—is none other than Mango Mussolini himself. 

All Hail Mango Mussolini, savior of the Republic.