@Dave – When you say Trump was once “New York establishment” you must be using a VERY broad definition of “establishment”. I would say he was only ever part of it in his dreams, a kinda male glamourpuss big landlord “You’re Fired” icon of vulgarity (thanks to “Spy” magazine etc.) who, yeah, owned the Empire State Building for a while and sorted out the ice rink in Central Park but from say Michael Bloomberg’s point of view that is small-fry stuff. There can’t be many residents of Manhattan who watch the wrestling. But I totally agree Trump is a NYC phenomenon, and it’s not surprising he has ended up sneering at New York (saying something like “everyone’s leaving”) given that the city is clearly MUCH bigger than he is or ever was. He hated the NYT, say, throughout his presidency but he could never do anything about it. A proper dictator would have shut it down, or at least made its editor and owners kowtow to him in public. Similarly he didn’t stop refugees finding their way to NYC, and got humiliated in that department a few days after he took office. Right now it’s interesting that Jared Kushner seems to have been keeping a very low profile. Where was Jared when Kimberly and Donald Jr were going nuts in the tent about the need to “FIGHT”, to storm towards the Capitol building, next to Donald Jr’s “Mr President” dad hopping about in the red boxing gloves? Where are you, Jared? Can you feel prison approaching? Maybe they’ll stick him in the same cell his father Charlie was in.
The reason why Trump’s video looked like a hostage video is because basically it was one. (If any readers are sceptical about that, please bear in mind that Trump does not mention himself in it. Does that sound like the kind of video he’d make unless someone had him by his short and curlies?) Pence and McConnell both told him “You do THIS, RIGHT NOW – here’s your script – or we’ll whack the sh*t out of you, you stupid berk, and you say ‘YES SIR, THANK YOU SIR’ – is that clear?”, and he said “YES SIR, THANK YOU SIR”, and that is why he is still in office.
A big question in the run-up to noon next Wednesday is pardons. His family members will want some. Then there’s Giuliani, who it takes an effort not to feel sorry for. He holds a press conference outside some small business unit because the owners of the Four Seasons hotel decide he is something similar to a dose of the clap; then he has the hair dye incident; then he farts during a legal hearing; then he rants on about “trial by combat”. At one point he was imagining he was Netanyahu and using simple graphics on a board to demonstrate his guy’s “multiple paths to victory” a long time after Biden won the election. What’s he going to do now? Sue Trump for non-payment of his legal bills? The poor guy needs a week’s rest somewhere with nurses bringing him some nice strong cups of tea.