GODZILLA

Donald Trump says he's done nothing wrong. He claims he's being targeted by various agencies of the US justice system, purely for political reasons.

They're all out to get him, he says, in this disgraceful and un-American Witch Hunt. (Oh, how low the country has sunk since his glory days in the White House!)

These nefarious and corrupt agencies are acting in furtherance of a political weaponization of the country's legal apparati. Remarkably, it's happening at all levels of government.

Trump knows this for a fact.

His followers know it.

In fact (as Trump likes to say), everybody knows it.

Certainly, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy knows it, and he's mounting congressional investigations to prove it. He wants NYC prosecutor Alvin Bragg to defend the alleged fairness of actions taken against the former president.

In the meantime, it seems unlikely Trump will triumph in every single one of his many courtroom engagements. Let's take a look at current and future entanglements:

In Manhattan, he has now been indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records when he signed documents reimbursing his former fixer for paying off a porn star named Stormy Daniels.

In Georgia, he's being investigated for attempting to interfere with the 2020 presidential election. ("I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have." Have? Doesn't he mean need? For one of his patented "perfect phone calls" this statement seems downright imperfect.)

DOJ's special counsel Jack Smith is looking into Trump's role in setting off the Jan 6 Riot at the Capitol, as well as the ex-president's hoarding of National Archive documents, many of them classified. An obstruction of justice charge seems more and more likely here.

(Trump concentrates on the classified nature of the documents, claiming he has the presidential power to declassify items with a shrug of his imaginary mental machinery. He doesn't get that these things simply don't belong to him, classified, declassified, or otherwise.)

Back in New York, folks are interested in how Trump inflated or deflated the value of his properties depending on whether he sought to get loans or avoid taxes.

In Trump's mind, all these hassles are the result of a weaponization of the legal system by political foes. Some of his enemies are Republican Never-Trumpers. The majority are likely Democrats or sodden denizens of the Deep State (aka CHUDs).

But isn't there another possible explanation? Earned or not, Donald Trump does appear to have a reputation of playing fast and loose with the rules.

(It's almost as if he feels he's entitled to do so.)

What if people attack him simply because he's out there rampaging through the city, knocking over buildings, bellowing his displeasure, spraying his radioactive fire-breath in all directions?

What if shooting at Trump is quite natural, given his legendary destructive nature?

Another of Trump's features is his Godzilla-like inability to communicate.

(Remember "covfefe"?)

Trump has a problem with words and their meanings. Asked during a presidential debate to tell white supremacists to "stand down," he famously said: "Stand back and stand by," a statement the Proud Boys quickly adopted as their new motto.

I suspect Trump thinks he did say "stand down," as requested. After all, he used the word "stand" twice in that sentence. That's gotta count for something, right?

Whenever he makes a verbal gaff, you can expect a pair of knee-jerk responses: supporters will excuse him, and the man himself will double-down on his statement.

His enormous ego demands he own his words and defend them. Very rarely will he back down, usually by saying he was just joking. (Though he has also said: "I don't kid.")

(At the Helsinki news conference with Putin, Trump seemed to believe Vlad over US security personnel. Not only did Putin not interfere in the 2016 election, "I don't know why he would have." Trump later claimed he'd misspoken; he'd meant to say "I don't know why he wouldn't have." That just makes no sense at all, but the American people have moved on.)

Trump's gigantic ego makes him look silly much of the time, but he seems unaware of it. Maybe that just makes him human, the folks who are by nature stupid, crazy, and unaware of it.

(This trio of traits make a happy life on this planet nearly impossible.)

Donald Trump points out his legal problems are not even his problems. "They're not coming after me. They're coming after you," he tells his howling mob.

While taking their money hand over fist.

The man seems poised to keep on keeping on, staggering his way through the countryside toward the 2024 election.

I wonder if the nation can survive the damage of this burned-out path of destruction.