Trump Jokes about fleeing to Russia
thehill.com
(Apologies for yet another Trump post.)
But given his court appearance Thursday, just funny how he'd start joking about this. I wonder if he actually would, and what would follow. I mean, how would he try to spin it?
If bail is supposed to be a disincentive to flee, what effect is $200k supposed to have on a "billionaire"? A pauper would get that high a bond in this case, and no pauper has access to a private jet.
We need Swedish day fine systems for all levels of government.
If a fine costs a month's wages for someone working minimum wage, it should scale up and still cost a month's wages for people who earn more.
That said, cash bail is an incredibly stupid system. If someone is a flight risk, put an anklet on them. If there's a sincere belief they may flee the jurisdiction, then they need to be deprived of their freedom to travel. And if they aren't any kind of flight risk get them the fuck out of jail. The punishment should not precede the trial.
We have the same system in Finland, and it also accounts for income for capital gains. It does not, however consider assets or the increase of value in assets except during years when assets are sold (when the increase in value is converted to income).
Still, a better system than fixed fines.
We don't have the concept of cash bail and suspects and convicts do occasionally flee. It does mean their belligerence is no longer a direct threat to our society, which is something.
Yeah, $200,000 is laughable for somebody like him. I feel like appropriate for someone from upper middle class.
Shouldn't this joke be treated like joking about bombs at an airport? At minimum adding a couple of zeroes to the bond?
This. Have we really not learned this lesson? We need to take what he says literally and seriously.
For real. He needs to be in custody right now to ensure he doesn't flee. And no I do not trust the secret service here.
I wonder if they're intentionally giving him an opportunity to escape.
Wow, talk about your serious flight risks.
Only 200k bond though.
Lol maybe the government is daring him to try to flee!
That's... actually not a bad idea? Fleeing would solve as many problems for the country as anything. Would love to see him run to Putin or Kim or some other dictator idol; One for the history books! Unfortunately, he'll probably need more humiliation and losing to get to that point.
Would it solve any problems though? Unless they're set up to catch him in the act of trying to flee, he flees to a country that doesn't extradite to the US, his supporters become even more incensed than they already are, and the GOP gets an out for whoever they pick as their candidate for the 2024 election since they'd no longer have to fight trump. The con base is now solidified under a single candidate after the primaries, and they're galvanized against "the deep state liberal socialist commies".
The alternative is trump staying, causing further damage to the GOP as he splits the conservative voterbase between his populism and typical republican politicians, and likely gets convicted of multiple felonies. Imo, him leaving just let's the problem fester, while him staying likely splits the conservative vote
How wild that would be. Withdrawal all his campaign donations and just up and go to Russia. He could put a spin on it and make his base extremely upset and violent because the evil left forced him to flee because it's all rigged.
They should have never allowed a bond to be set. He should have just been kept in jail until the trial. Any of us normies would have had to...
Rules are for poor people
He violated his bail conditions almost straight away, of course. Just as everyone expected him to.
https://www.meidastouch.com/news/trump-appears-to-violate-consent-bond-order-in-fulton-county
The question will be whether he gets locked up for that.
Who says he has to forfeit campaign donations? He can just have it all funneled to some Swiss bank account or Bitcoin. His followers are total morons and will gladly send whatever money they have, wherever he's located.
Withdraw as in cash out and carry it to Russia in a canvas sack with a dollar sign on it
Ah, my bad. Thanks for the clarification.
His spectacular lack of self-awareness means that everything he says is projection.
If he does flee can he please take elmo with him?
Bad nickname. Elmo is more of a man than Musk will ever be, and Musk is more of a muppet.
If he flees, can we shoot down his jet?
That would be pretty tricky since he is an ex-president. But could the government really risk letting an ex-president and their information fall into another countries hands?
I would be a pretty tough incident to handle.
Most of that government consists of that other country's assets, so yes.
No, but Russia can.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66599733
And jr. And Eric. And Ivanka. And jared.
Eric is probably getting left behind "Home Alone" style.
What about Tiffany, she likes to travel.
This probably isn't of interest in the GA indictment in which Trump is commenting about, but I'd have to imagine Jack Smith is taking notice that a criminal defendant accused of mishandling classified information is joking about flying to Russia. It's plausible that Trump has classified information at other properties. While less plausible as Trump is a total dope, it's technically possible he's got classified information digitized and ready to go with him to Russia. This should be setting off alarm bells everywhere. Anyone else with four major indictments with 91 charges would have been locked up in jail by now.
If he was locked up, his supporters would burn some parts of this country to the ground. I assume that's what is on the government's mind.
Ooh so scary, gravy seals in their depends
I wholeheartedly agree with this. Time to call their bluff.
Just imagine a charge of them on mobility scooters waving AR-15s. It'll be hilarious.
Now imagine their battle music is Flight of the Valkyries. On kazoos.
I can hear it!
"Gravy seals" belongs right next to "Y'All Qaeda" as one of those perfectly pitched nicknames that both encapsulates and decimates the right-wing freak show.
Trump doesn't joke. He doesn't know how to.
Exactly. He is literally telegraphing his next moves.
Donnie, flee to Russia before it's too late
Before it's too late
Before it's too late
Donnie, flee to Russia before it's too late
Before they blow up your world
Next press conference he will be in an adidas tracksuit crouched awkwardly on the ground saying, “It was a joke comrade”.
Watch a good chunk of the American people vote for a convicted man who fled to Russia for 2024!
Trump: Haha jk jk… unless??
So he’s absolutely going to flee to Russia
“Jokes…”
Great opportunity to sentence the orangebutt in absentia for treason
I mean, him running away to Russia would split Republicans even more. He'd still have his dedicated followers, but it would cause even more of a fight regarding DeSantis and others.
I'm trying to decide which would be more chaotically beneficial for the rest of us, him going to jail or fleeing.
Good question. I'm not sure how truly attached his followers are to him, but if they are really that tied to him and his media ecosystem, I think it would be worse for him to be in Russia. It brings a whole new loyalty into the mix with those folks.
Who knows, maybe the US will get lucky and all of Trump's followers will follow him to Russia?
Well that would be interesting, not sure it would be good for Russia 🤷
They'll take a bullet for him and die with a smile. That's how attached.
Their position on Russia is one of the more ridiculous contortions for Trump fanatics. They claim to hate communism and love freedom and yet their daddy sold out to the Kremlin so they have to find ways to act like they wanted us to be Russian apologists all along.
There's no inconsistency in hating communism and loving Putin's Russia, since Putin and today's Russia have nothing to do with communism.
Granted, but I don’t think they can really discern the difference
The crazy thing is that the reason why communism sucks is that (at least currently) it requires totalitarianism to implement it. And that comes with a lot of issues. Communism in theory looks like utopia. Russia no longer is communist, but it absolutely is totalitarian, but according to them that's somehow good.
Also what I noticed is that those tankies on lemmygrad, aren't really pro communism, they are pro totalitarianism.
There's a whole bunch of MAGAts who are pro-Russia. Just listen for the anti-Ukraine rhetoric, then go check their voting patterns.
Don't threaten us with a good time.
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-may-build-village-american-conservatives-1799809
I can live with Trump leaving and his moronic followers leaving as well. I'd prefer him in prison, of course, but exile until death is acceptable.
"Jokes"
The first, they say it was just a joke vibe
Why would he think Russia would want him?
Putin doesn't like him. He's nothing more than a useful idiot. The only purpose he serves is to sow discord among Americans, who despite all evidence to the contrary, firmly believe that Trump is "on their side" whatever that side happens to be. Usually some batshit opinion about abortions or "the libs".
I could see it... Him and Putin launching rockets at their enemies.
Him and Snowden sitting around a table... Good I think Snowden would have to resist the urge to punch him.
Some secret service agents gonna draw the short straw and get sent to Russia
I don't think treasonous defectors get a Secret Service detail
Would that make him ineligible for the presidency?
Doesn't matter how uneligible he is; his people will vote for him.
Sure, but if he's ineligible, then all that does is split the Republican vote and hand the election to the Democrats on a silver platter. Crisis averted.
I've been hoping for the MAGoo/GOP split since 2015.
I think he has to appear in person for some of the formalities... but otherwise, possibly no?
That'd make for an interesting conversation when he shows up. “Welcome back to America, Mister President. You're under arrest.”
Putin has no use for Trump as a free person. At best, he might even use him in some sort of "extradition trade" with the US, after this whole Ukraine war thing blows over.
There’s a long tradition in diplomatic history of monarchs letting deposed monarchs from hostile countries live in their state in luxury. At worst it’s a lingering thumb in the eye of the country that has to continually acknowledge that there’s a deposed king who is living it up abroad whom their government cannot touch. At best it sets up a bud to re-take the throne at some future point, with the deposed king now completely loyal and beholden to the foreign king and his government.
Perhaps also foreign income due to a bizarre form of tourism for his US based fans?
Trump was exposed to large amounts of highly classified information as president for four years, and has shown a willingness to sell it to the highest bidder. He'd 100% throw the US under the bus to stay in Russia, and his supporters will deny he ever did such a thing just as they deny he publicly called for storming the Capital or as they deny the current charges against him
Oh having the "true" leader of the US in exile would be insanely useful to Putin. Base goes crazy, GOP in disarray, propaganda tool within Russia on perils of democracy etc., bump him off if he kicks off & blame NATO (or whoever).
Sorry for the European point of view,but wtf.
A person out on bail joking about fleeing the country would literally mean a direct "go to jail now" card for anyone in any western judicial system I know.
How the fuck is that not happening in the US guys? That's absurd.
He may joke about it, but he's not going to do it
I think he's going to pull some stunt on Thursday, but I don't think he'll flee. He'll only do that if all his legal challenges fail and it looks like he'll be convicted.