Donald Trump’s hush money case is now in the hands of jurors, who received instructions this morning from Judge Juan Merchan on how to deliberate. Soon after, the former president spoke to reporters and shared a few thoughts about the proceedings:
“Mother Teresa could not beat these charges. These charges are rigged. The whole thing is rigged. … Something’s going on. Because I think the people of this country see that this is a rigged deal.”
At this point, it’s tempting to note that a majority of “the people of this country” actually think the former president is guilty. It’s also worth noting that this is the latest example of the Republican engaging in pre-emptive expectations management: If Trump is found guilty, he’ll say, “See? It was rigged.” If he’s acquitted, he’ll declare, “My defense was so strong that I was able to overcome a rigged process.”
But it’s also worth pausing to appreciate the familiarity of his choice of words — because in Trump’s mind, practically everything he dislikes deserves to be labeled as “rigged.”
Ahead of the 2016 elections, for example, the then-candidate told supporters, “We’re in a rigged system, folks. This is a rigged, rigged system. … Our system is rigged, and I was the first one to use that term.”
Trump also believes polls are “rigged.” And the Republicans’ 2016 primary process was “rigged.” And the Democrats’ 2016 primary process was “rigged.” And the Commission on Presidential Debates is “rigged.” And the NFL’s schedule is rigged.”
At one of the 2016 debates, Hillary Clinton told viewers:
“Every time Donald thinks things are not going in his direction, he claims whatever it is, is rigged against him. The FBI conducted a year-long investigation into my emails. They concluded there was no case; he said the FBI was rigged. He lost the Iowa caucus. He lost the Wisconsin primary. He said the Republican primary was rigged against him. Then Trump University gets sued for fraud and racketeering; he claims the court system and the federal judge is rigged against him. There was even a time when he didn’t get an Emmy for his TV program three years in a row, and he started tweeting that the Emmys were rigged against him.”
That’s true: He really did claim that the Emmys were “rigged.”
Even after Trump won the 2016 race, he said it was “rigged,” too. While in office, the then-president said the Mueller investigation was “rigged.” And Google search results were “rigged.” And, of course, he condemned the 2020 election cycle countless times as “rigged” — before and after his defeat. This is a partial list, though we could keep going, which is precisely the problem. Trump appears to work from the assumption that he’s a brave hero, constantly having to fight valiantly to overcome a world that’s been “rigged” against him, reality be damned. In reality, his overreliance on the term has had the opposite of the intended effect: Given his track record, whenever Trump describes anything as “rigged,” the public can safely assume the opposite is true.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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