CHRIS CRUCIAL: Donald Trump wimps out

PLUS: The Dean comeback is....off.

Welcome to Chris Crucial. This nightly newsletter — in which I summarize all the political news you need to know from the day that was — is for paid subscribers only. Check out my mission statement on why you should invest in me. It’s $6 a month/$60 for the year! 👇

1. Trump ain’t testifying

Well it’s official. The defense in Donald Trump’s hush money case will not be calling the former president as a witness.

If that surprises you, you haven’t been paying attention for, oh, the entirety of Trump’s adult life.

Yes, I know that Trump has, repeatedly, said he was going to testify in this case.

“I would have no problem testifying.” Trump said in March. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I’m testifying,” he said in April. “I tell the truth. I mean, all I can do is tell the truth. And the truth is that there’s no case. They have no case.”

“I would like to,” Trump said earlier this month.

And then there was this gem from Trump attorney Alina Habba today: “It’s not as much as what he wants to do. We know he wants to testify. He is willing. He is able. He has nothing to hide at all. It would be pretty quick…in terms of the questions asked…because he had no part in this.”

The legal reality, of course, was always directly counter to Trump’s insistence that he would testify. Why? Because Trump under oath in this case — which involves alleged hush money payments to a porn star with whom he had an affair — would be an abject disaster.

Why, you ask again? Because, well, in theory, he would have to tell the truth — never his strong suit. And he would have to tell the truth about some very unsavory things— including whether he ever consummated a relationship with Stormy Daniels.

As you might suspect, Trump has not done well under oath in the past. Here’s The Atlantic (from way back in 2018) on how being under oath changes Trump:

Transcripts, and in one case video, of three depositions taken over the last decade provide a fascinating look into how the prolifically dissembling president behaves when he is under oath. The Donald Trump who emerges from these depositions is the same but different from the one familiar to Americans today. He is just as apt to bluster and braggadocio, and sometimes peevish. But within the confines of conference rooms and offices, he is calmer, more restrained, and more deliberate than his public persona, and with the tether of his oath holding him back, often acknowledges when he is wrong or has misrepresented things in the past.

And there’s this from Tim O’Brien, who won a libel suit brought by Trump against him in 2007:

Hammered by White and her deputies, Trump ultimately had to admit 30 times that he had lied over the years about all sorts of stuff: how much of a big Manhattan real estate project he owned; the price of one of his golf club memberships; the size of the Trump Organization; his wealth; his speaking fees; how many condos he had sold; his debts, and whether he borrowed money from his family to avoid going personally bankrupt. He also lied during the deposition about his business dealings with career criminals.

Trump's poor performance stemmed in part from the fact that he was being interrogated by shrewd attorneys wielding his own business and financial records against him. But there were lots of other things that went wrong as well.

Trump is impatient and has never been an avid or dedicated reader. That’s OK if you’d rather play golf, but it’s not OK when you need to absorb abundant or complex details. Lawyers typically prepare binders full of documents for their clients to pore over prior to a deposition, hoping to steel them for an intense grilling. My lawyers did that prior to my own deposition in the Trump lawsuit. But Trump didn’t appear to be well prepared when we deposed him, a weakness that my lawyers exploited (and that Mueller surely would as well).

It’s VERY important to remember that Trump has — for his entire adult life — lived in a bubble of his own creation. His wealth and fame have allowed him to ONLY surround himself with people who affirm his distorted view of himself and the world.