Hey Trump, Stop Playing the Victim & Pay Up

4 min readFeb 16, 2024

You’re not a victim because you’ve bent the rules to the breaking point, pretending you were above the law.

You’re not a victim because you dallied with a porn star and now face charges of lying about the hush money you paid to keep her quiet.[1]

You’re not a victim because you sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll in a department store dressing room in 1996, and then lost two court cases forcing you to pay her 88.3 million, both for the original crime[2] and for publicly defaming her.[3]

You’re not a victim because you can’t do business in New York State for the next three years and you’ve been fined 355 million because you’ve been convicted of defrauding banks by falsely inflating your wealth by hundreds of millions to secure more favorable loans.[4]

You’re not a victim because you asked Russia (on national TV) to spy on your political opponent and then, when Mueller and Comey rightfully investigated your election campaign’s involvement with that authoritarian government, they found evidence that you may have obstructed their efforts (and you later fired Comey)[5] even though it was proved that Russian operatives brazenly meddled in the 2016 election through cyber warfare, email breaches, social media manipulation, and incursions into numerous state’s election computer systems[6] to help you win the White House.[7]

You’re not a victim because you flouted the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution as your businesses raked in millions from foreign entities seeking to curry favor with you, prioritizing personal gain over national integrity[8] (even though the Supreme Court put an end to these lawsuits going forward because you’d vacated the presidency[9]).

You’re not a victim because you engaged in nepotism by appointing your children and your son-in-law to prominent positions in your administration, betraying the principles of a meritocracy.[10]

You’re not a victim because your White House endured a 92% turnover rate of top officials, indicative of your chaotic leadership, in stark contrast to other recent administrations.[11]

You’re not a victim because even though you lost the 2020 election[12], you pressured election officials in Georgia to “find 11,780 votes,” to try to tip the electoral college in your favor, and now face RICO charges in that state that might put you behind bars.[13]

You’re not a victim because your Vice President held his oath to the Constitution higher than his blind fealty to you by going against your demands and certifying the 2020 election on January 7th.[14]

You’re not a victim because you took highly classified documents home from the White House, bragged on tape about having them in your possession, and now face criminal charges from the Department of Justice for mishandling confidential material and obstructing efforts to return them.[15]

You’re not a victim because you were impeached twice for the high crimes of: 1) using the powers of the presidency to pressure the president of Ukraine into falsely entrapping your political adversaries; and 2) inciting a violent mob to stop the certification of Biden’s win, staining our country’s illustrious record of a peaceful transfer of power and, literally, shitting in the hallowed halls of Congress.

You’re not a victim because the justice system is finally making you pay up and be accountable for some of the deceit, fraud, and criminality that has resulted in your 91 felony indictments.

You have brought all this upon yourself by your numerous transgressions of our democratic norms and the rule of law.

No Trump, you’re not a victim but, as Judge Arthur Engoron in the NY State fraud case said, your inability to be accountable for your criminal behavior shows a “complete lack of contrition and remorse [that] borders on [the] pathological.”

References (please note, I have strived to only use unbiased, rigorously fact-checked journalism or reputable institutions):

[1] https://www.reuters.com/world/us/judge-trumps-ny-criminal-case-rule-bid-toss-charges-2024-02-15/

[2] https://apnews.com/article/trump-rape-carroll-trial-fe68259a4b98bb3947d42af9ec83d7db

[3] https://apnews.com/article/trump-carroll-defamation-trial-e4ea8b93cdeb29857864ffd8d14be888

[4] https://apnews.com/article/trump-civil-fraud-verdict-engoron-244024861f0df886543c157c9fc5b3e4

[5] https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-ap-top-news-elections-james-comey-north-america-e0d125d737be4a21a81bec3d9f1dffd8

[6] https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/grand-jury-indicts-12-russian-intelligence-officers-hacking-offenses-related-2016-election

[7] https://apnews.com/article/d094918c0421b872eac7dc4b16e613c7

[8] https://www.acslaw.org/expertforum/profiting-off-the-presidency-trumps-violations-of-the-emoluments-clauses/

[9] https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-ends-trump-lawsuits-df42ef0eec5fa57edf3e294234051d88

[10] https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-reports/nepotism-and-conflicts-of-interest-jared-kushner-and-ivanka-trump/

[11] https://www.brookings.edu/articles/tracking-turnover-in-the-trump-administration/