296 Comments

I love all your posts - that's why I subscribe, after all - but today's is particularly perceptive / enlightening. And so, many thanks.

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Yes, I had not even realized that no one is there to support him. So sad. He also looks like he has aged five or 10 years. I guess it has been almost 4 years since he was in office. The image of the police officer who did not hold the door for him at a prior arraignment was powerful. It's so sad to me because there is a certain gravitas the office of the presidency usually holds and he has so besmirched it.

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You wrote, « The reality is, the future of the country is, to a significant degree, tied to the future of Donald Trump. » Very true, but not just the future of the country, but also the future of the world, & that’s scary.

Thank you for what you do.

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Agree!

Trump claimed the trial is a "persecution," adding that it "is an assault on America."

When he says "America" he really means "Donald Trump." He is always talking about himself. If he cared about the country, he wouldn't be running!

Imagine wearing this in front of MAGAs: t.co/qamICK599Z

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You're right, he doesn't care about this country. I don't think he even really cares about the Presidency. I think he's only running, and hoping to win, in order to avoid incarceration, and to further inflate his ego.

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And to fill his bank accounts back, Grifters don't stop Grifting....

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OMG! Another wonderful shirt. I absolutely have to have this.

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Thank you so much for your insight…. I am truly enjoying it .

I am a US citizen who lived in Canada for 40 Years due to my husband’s job. …. We came back in November of 2016. I must say that I am finding it difficult living here again. I am really frightened when DJT said if he looses the election there will be “blood on the streets” ! My problem is that I believe him … I am 72 yrs old person who is petrified . Oh well, no one in the country cares …. I am just one of many seniors .

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@MaryR: I am an 84 year old senior living in a Red state, and I must say I am not frightened about the prospect of DJT again becoming president. The corporate media and poll takers have juiced up this drama to keep us anxious--reading and listening to what they write and say. I think Mary is doing a terrific job of neutering them, and I feel hopeful that Biden will prevail. The right wingnuts are a loud, threatening bunch, but in the end I do not think they will win all the swing states and the electoral college. The MAGAs are hopeless, to be sure, but they are not a voting majority, and I am already reading that Latinos are not abandoning the Democratic party as the media has predicted. I think my greatest hope is WOMEN! I do not think most women, in the end, will vote for a predatory narcissist who has raped at least one woman and disrespected all of us. Biden has clearly established himself as pro-choice and has

strong women on his team. DJT has a surfeit of loony ladies in his ranks. I hope you keep reading what Mary writes here, and says on Tee Vee. And watch what happens to The Orange Menace as he continues to disintegrate in his trial(s). I, for one, am enjoying his deserved downfall.

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Kate Madison, what a perceptive informed response to fear, sometimes described as false-evidence-appearing-real. But I certainly can empathize with MaryR’s post! My heart rate increases etc… Your post restores me to a very different pov

as does Mary Trump’s deep take on her uncle as he melts in court.

Violence simmers here on Cape Cod, MA. Guns. It amazes me that here where I grew up in what seemed to be many bucolic summers of the 20th century there exists an undercurrent

of threat which I experienced yesterday as I walked a trail w my dog.

Someone shot a gun off from the moment I parked the car until the moment I returned; about 1/2 hour. I didn’t flinch outwardly. Inwardly would be something else: anger, some fear, and sorrow. It was otherwise a gorgeous early afternoon in Spring.

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@Samm. Yikes! It feels to me like "Guns" and "Cape Cod" together are an oxymoron. I lived for many years on the coast of Oregon, where most of us believed and practiced Nature as Mother!

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I agree with you that Donald will not be a President.

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I'm a senior and I don't believe anything Donald says, recently he asked people to come and not many people did. He is a bully. He is a mob boss. That is how they speak. Don't believe him and keep your eyes on The Almighty. Welcome back. Know that we are still A Nation Under GOD who is 100% Love. Love is more powerful that hate and evil. Stay in prayer. You will be okay. Believe and whatever you believe comes. Do not fear, whatever you fear comes. So, trust GOD to have everything under control. The seen and the unseen. Angels are working on our behave. Some we can see and others we can't see. This is when trust comes.

It is written to fear no man.

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There are many of us who care. Let's do all we can to make sure he doesn't get near the Oval Office ever again.

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👋, 80 yr, native Harlemite, now STUCK in the Red Sedition State of South Carolina, WHEWWWW.

The orange puke is a direct payback from the total population of the racist, white supremists in this United States of Apartheid ; 8 yrs. Of POTUS Barack Hussein Obama A Mullatoe, RULING this Nation, was their greatest Fear/ hate regarding "an uppity, educated N....." These are the descendants of all those ugly, angry malicious people, whose faces are in the pictures/ on the Newsreels of the 60s( check for relatives).

Chickens coming home to roost ... For all those years of brutal chattel Slavery and killings.

If " Us" were truly a Brutal Race, " Us" would be like the Vikings.

The orange puke needs to be placed in a prison free of maga supporting correction officers or Department heads.

Voters must come out and vote or be ready to succumb to tyranny.

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Nifty tshirt!

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Double entendre… I love it.

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And its also tied to all of us and our votes!! Which is a good thing

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Mary Trump understands Donald Trumps character as if she is the chief psychiatrist for the inpatient locked division of Harvard Medical School’s McLean Hospital where I trained, was a Director, and evaluated many famous disturbed people.

Trump Is stuck at a pre-school age.

Stopping his manipulative and grandiose actions forces him to deal with emotions he is quite incapable of controlling. I have seen it many many mtimes.

He is absolutely unfit to again be President of this country. Any experience of vulnerability within him quickly coverts to paranoia and defensive aggressive threats and incitement of public violence. It is getting worse. He is so slick at it that he could ignite a revolution that breaks our democracy apart!! Attention to his policy statements compared to Biden’s is not what voters should attend to. No matter what Biden’s platform might be, we must keep Trump from being President, period. He is dangerous for the United States and with his unrestrained finger on our nuclear power, he is dangerous for all human kind. I t is that serious!! A courtroom video would show it

I have been recommending that all Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates prove reasonable mental fitness by submitting to two independent complete psychiatric evaluations and psychological testing- use our tools to help us!

Respectfully written by an Independent voter,

John Livingstone, MD ( born 1932 while Hitler began to grab power)

Former Assistant Professor in Psychiatry and Child Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School. Former consultant to UNICEF, UN.

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Dr. Livingstone I applaud your suggestion that proof of reasonable mental fitness should be a criteria for eligibility for the office of the President and VP. It’s discouraging that we have reached the point where this is necessary. I pray that Trump will self-destruct sufficiently for people to recognize how ill he really is, and if so it will motivate decision makers to implement such a policy.

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…They should also have to take the citizenship test. Many have demonstrated that they don’t know anything about the Constitution and have no understanding of the purpose of government. One more thing - Citizens United needs to be undone.

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Yes. We need Citizens United GONE.

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And the Electoral College GONE.

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Absolutely, along with Citizens United!

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Yes, and I doubt that most people realize that his main advisor early on, Roy Cohn, was also advisor and legal counsel to McCarthy of the McCarthy era, main orchestrator of the "red scare." McCarthy was also crazy but additionally, he had an alcohol problem.

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Also the Consigliore for Carmine Genovese' s crime family.

His mentor that he ghosted when Roy was dxed with AIDS; didn't visit , nor attend the funeral on Martha's Vineyard.

How's that for loyalty ?

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If most people don’t realize Roy Cohn was Trumps mentor they are uninformed and don’t really realize the depth of Trumps personality disorder.

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I agree. There should definitely be psych evals required to run. I also think that anyone running for ANY office should be required to pass a civics test. After all, we have to take tests to get a driver's license, and this is such a serious matter!

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Civics test is also essential for all primary candidates .Teachers need to learn basic civics and teach it to teens!! We have the tools to strengthen our Democratic structure. Congress should build them in and help us use them!!

John Livingstone MD

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They have removed Civics , Social Studies, Cursive Writing and the Analog Clock from 4-12 curriculums in schools; for certain here in South Carolina . 😲🙄

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I agree with you that a mental competency exam should be mandatory, and not just for the POTUS and VP, but for anyone who wants to serve in government. Even in State government. They should also be tested to show they have a good understanding of the Constitution and how our government works. Since we stopped teaching Civics in our public schools we have seen more and more ignorant and unbalanced people elected to office at every level...need I give examples?

Sarah Palin, MTG, Gym Jordan, Handsy Boebert, Matt Gaetz.....

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Right on !

Have been developing a 2-page civics quiz that engages and educates.

Anybody want to help me??

John Livingstone, MD

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Thank you! That is a terrific idea, and if you can reach sympathetic Senators with it, I believe they would help you.

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Mmm. And would this be for all primary candidates, or only when you’d won the primaries, or only after success in the presidential election?

And then what if deemed unsuitable?? Restart the process?

And what threshold of psychological ‘unsuitability’ should be used?

The political nature of this process: judging fitness to be president, is yet another massively impractical aspect of this idea.

This seems (to this psychiatrist) to be just not a workable idea. Or have these issues been seriously thought through and addressed?

Perhaps you have a link?

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That was my thought, exactly. The process would be completely politicized. Not sure what the solution is. And what's sad is the number of people who voted for him in 2016 and even more people voted for him in 2020 when he was clearly even more crazy. Hillary was right about everything. Imagine how the country could have been handled under Hilary during the pandemic. Likely 400,000 to 600,000 less people might have died. I feel so sorry for families who lost family members due to his incompetence and lack of caring.

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Evaluation is to qualify for primaries. Psychological Tests are always not a judgement about a person’s beliefs, they are about their mental functions: impulse control, Distinguishing reality from made up ideas, cognitive memory , integration, and processing capacities, etc.

Driver’s license is a good analogy. Better than nothing in a democracy!!

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What about just to prove that they are "Sane ", as per the DMS and Human Growth & Development?

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Thank you!

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Dr. Livingstone, I beg to differ. Mary Trump, as Clinical Psychologist and niece to this narcissistic lunatic, understands his character far better than any "chief psychiatrist" anywhere ever would. Trained as a psychiatrist (a long, long time ago), I (as an MSW! (so now you can stop reading, because what would a mere MSW fella know, right?)), am of the opinion that the vast majority of his pathology is rooted in all of the psychological trauma and emotional abuse (in particular) that occurred in this family--not in the area of medical/psychiatric maladies. As you and I both know well, psychiatrists look for pills, medications, endless therapy, ECT, etc. to "resolve" mental health "illnesses." That ain't this guy! It's all there in the childhood dysfuncation (Adverse Childhood Experiences, anyone? Mary?), and his incredibly fragile self image and self-esteem--too weak to show any resiliency whatsoever. And so he ends up going down the rabbit hole of degradation, depravity and two-year-old temper tantrums. And American people choose him to be their leader!! And might actually do it again! In that regard, can we please stop speaking about folks in this country as having any political sense? Obviously, millions do not! Here's a thought--maybe the people who vote need to prove reasonable mental/civic fitness to cast an intelligent vote based upon some sense of knowledge and understanding of what a Democratic Republic actually is.

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We do not disagree. I consider non/treatable character disorders still to be psychiatric conditions but of childhood origin. I am a child development professional.

This is all quite dangerous.

John L

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Thanks for your responses. Indeed, I know that many of us can agree, and believe, that this is "all quite dangerous." And no one seems to know that better than Mary!

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I agree with what you have said. Trump’s condition is not a typical DSM5 “psychiatric condition”,. He has a character disorder due to his development during childhood experience. It is probably not treatable.

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The Loneliness of the Long Distance Criminal: I love it! So right on the mark. Mary points out that no family members or "friends," if he has any, are showing up for his trial. As a fellow retired psychotherapist I agree that is terribly disabling--even for a career psychopathic narcissist! Trump is not free from the need for support. Nobody is--especially under severe stress. The problem is that he is suffers from a lack of self awareness and what he needs, because his relationships are all transactional and founded on what materially he can get for himself. Lack of support makes Trump feel more victimized. He knows how to rant and rave about his victimhood, but nobody really will be listening, except the MAGAS. And they are getting scared about losing money they have invested in Truth Social stock and are, I am quite sure, in need of support themselves.

Let's face it: Trump has believed all along that he is one of "Life's Lovely Winners." He is on the fast track now to be one of "Life's Lonely Losers."

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Thanks for your insights. It is amazing none of his family is there to offer support. That's quite honest behavior for a dishonest family.

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McGraw-Hill MM?

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Can you imagine being the children of MAGA parents who've frittered their inheritance away on Truth Social stock??

"Thanks, Mom & Dad."

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No, they already blew it on cryptocurrency...

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Your perceptions of your uncle go a long way toward helping us understand the flaws in his psyche that led him to believe he could get away with all of the lawless excesses of his life. If he hadn’t run for president and won, he would still be plodding away at his scams, unindicted, and blissfully unaware that he hurt so many Americans. Thank you for facing the wrath of your family to tell us the truth.

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An excellent well written expose of your Uncles’ frame of mind. Can you please post when you’re on TV? I really enjoy your interviews. Thank you for all you do.

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Thank you, Mary, for today's column. 💙

Even though I wish there were courtroom cameras, I hope Donad's psyche and temper spiral out so that supporters see him for who he is as an evil maniac.

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I lot of his supporters don't care and are as sick as he is.

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Sadly, this is true. It seems like the Civil War is not very far in our rearview mirror as far as racism is concerned.

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*a lot of

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Mary, thanks for your insights.

This quote seems so very true to me. “He will be seen to be rude, weak, and incapable of controlling himself when bound by the same rules to which the rest of us must conform .” Justice needs to be upheld as our Democracy is dependent upon it.

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"The reality is, the future of the country is, to a significant degree, tied to the future of Donald Trump." It's really so repulsive that this is true. I guess the framers of the Constitution could not at the time (way before Hitler, etc.) envision someone as demented and twisted by power as Trump ever coming close to being President otherwise there would be laws in place disallowing a criminal like him to run -- again. It boggles the mind.

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It's like a non-stop nightmare. No matter what, he doesn't go away and continues with his lawless rhetoric. This trial could be what finally takes the wind out his very twisted sails and puts his ass where it belongs.

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I'm so afraid there will be a hung jury and there will need to be a retrial or he might be acquitted. He gets out of everything. I just know there will be at least one juror who gets through the voir dire process who will make a guilty verdict impossible.

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We can't even get obsolete laws off the books.

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thank you mary for your insight once again..you are closer to the situation and to the psychological profiles of mr trump than most..as far as melania,djt junior,eric and ivanka,it has been my opinion and observation from what we have seen publicly and what has been written about their family dynamics and their own actions and family history,that makes me feel money is the only glue that binds them together..today it is reported that 7 jurors have been selected.,and that the jury selection may be totally completed by friday..mr trump is showing the signs of "wear and tear"in his face and his posture,no matter how much "huffing and puffing"he does..we can only hope this trial will be a precursor of the others to come,and people will finally be able to see "the emperor has no clothes"!!

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Gone are the halcyon days of DJT spewing word salad. Now the pathetic old guy can barely manage “word coleslaw”. Sorry, not sorry- except for us and our country and OUR democracy.

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It’s just so weird to pull back and really take in that this is the Republican presidential candidate. WTF.

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A horrible candidate. The GOP better call Nikki and Christie for backup. Don is circling the drain.

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That's what I keep thinking;

that he will be convicted and Nikki will step in. I worry more about Biden running against Nikki than I worry about Biden running against Trump. Not to mention that Michael Moore has said that Biden will lose and he also called the 2016 election.

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Maybe keep your worries to yourself. They don’t help.

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Superb analysis Mary!! Thank you so so much. I am very thankful and honored to be one of your Subscribers. ❤️😘

I had a feeling when I saw him yesterday and saw how awful he looked that it was going to be bad. Did I feel sorry for him at all? Nope. Not even for one second. It didn't register that no one was there to support him until you pointed it out in your piece. That's pretty pathetic. It says it all how superficial his entire life and the Maga movement are. I thought at least one of his sons would be there. Too bad Donald. You reap what you sow.

Thanks again Mary for all your amazing insights. We love you!!

❤️🇺🇸💙

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I know, even Snorty McSniffles Junior was not there. (I am borrowing Scott Dworkin's nickname here. Thanks, Scott.)

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I love Scott Dworkin too Ann!! He is awesome!! 💙

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Mary, thank you so much for this, your insight is always interesting. Each time I read what you write about your uncle, I am reminded of how awesome you are and how much I admire your courage and tenacity. Donald needs to be held accountable and if he melts down, so be it. I pray to God that he doesn’t ever get into the Oval Office again. He is a horrible, sick man. Thanks again, Mary ❤️💙

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Oh, gather 'round, you merry band of misfits and malcontents,

For a tale so twisted, it'll make your brain do somersaults and backflips!

The Orange Menace, the Tangerine Tyrant, the Spray-Tanned Siren,

Is finally facing the music, and it's a tune he can't control or silence!

In a world gone mad, where chaos reigns supreme,

One man's hubris takes center stage, like a fever dream!

Donald, the unhinged, the unrepentant, the unbelievable,

Finds himself in a courtroom, a situation most unconceivable!

The first ex-prez to face criminal charges, oh what a sight!

A Guinness Record in unprecedented history, a true delight!

The fate of the nation, tied to this buffoon's destiny,

As he squirms and sweats, in Room 1530, for all eternity!

Judge Merchan lays down the law, a Parker warning so stern,

But Donald's ego knows no bounds, he refuses to learn!

Confined to the courtroom, eight hours a day, four days a week,

His control slips away, as his sanity starts to creak!

No cameras in the courtroom, a travesty of justice, I say!

The people deserve to witness this circus, every single day!

But alas, we're left with mere tweets and secondhand accounts,

As Donald spins his lies, in courthouse hallways, like a two-bit fount!

The walls close in, the pressure mounts, the narcissist's wound festers,

His impulse control deteriorates, as his mind unravels in sequestered!

To testify or not to testify, that is the question,

Will his self-preservation trump his ego's indigestion?

And where, oh where, is his family in this time of need?

Melania thinks it's a disgrace, but not her problem, indeed!

His children, absent, their loyalty a fleeting mirage,

As Donald faces his demons, alone, in this judicial barrage!

Boredom, disrespect, and lack of control, his constant companions,

As he yearns for the fix of his rallies, his sycophantic minions!

But even they start to wane, exhausted by his endless need,

For attention, validation, and the chaos he must feed!

So let us not buy into his martyr complex, his victimhood cry,

For the dread and inevitability of justice, he cannot deny!

The narcissistic injury, so deep, so profound,

Will be his undoing, as the truth comes around!

In the annals of history, this trial will be writ,

A testament to the fall of a man, so full of shit!

The poet, the scribe, the voice of the resistance,

Watches with glee, as Donald's facade crumbles in the distance!

Oh, what a time to be alive, what a moment to behold,

As the Orange Emperor's clothes are finally sold!

Let the verdict ring out, let the truth be known,

For in the end, justice will claim her rightful throne!

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Let's hope so, but I am worried that Justice will not claim her rightful throne. The irony is how he railed against the Central Park five who were innocent. Those arrests and that trial truly were rigged against them.

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This was great! 🤣

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...and not to dilute your playful rhymes, but let's not forget Trump shits his pants, in a day countless times.

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Your poems should be televised. I love them!

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Amazing insight - u r divine ms m

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