Trump is widely understood to hold a rather juvenile, simple-minded form of transactional philosophy. It’s basically just a view that “fairness” means anything that might be seen as negative for him or the country must be balanced by something negative about the other party, whether it’s the Democrats, the so-called “deep state” or a foreign country. His trade deals, for instance, aren’t actually about trade as it’s understood in the modern world. He believes that if a country sells the US a certain product it is “unfair” if the US doesn’t sell an equal number of the same product back to them. That’s not how this works. It’s not how any of this works.
Recently, we have seen that he and his henchmen apply this same playground logic to the rule of law. If he or his associates are found guilty of a crime, it means that one of his political enemies must also be found guilty of a crime. Otherwise, the law is unjust.
Here’s one on Fox News this morning:
WALLACE: One of the president’s friends, Roger Stone, was sentenced this week to 40 months in prison for lying to congress, for obstruction, and for witness tampering. Here was the president’s reaction.
TRUMP: I’d love to see roger exonerated. and I’d love to see happen because I personally think he was treated very unfairly.
WALLACE: So here’s the question, Stone was convicted, specifically, for lying about the fact that he in fact was trying to get information from Wikileaks about what they were going to do with the thousands of hacked Democratic emails. Why does the president — and it was a treasure trove of evidence that indicated he had lied about the fact that he was trying to find out from Wikileaks what they were going to do with the emails. Why does the president think you should be exonerated?
SHORT: You know it’s possible he will get exonerated Chris…
WALLACE: I’m asking you, why does the president think he should be?
SHORT: I have no interest in being a character witness for Roger Stone. I don’t know Roger Stone. I think that lying to federal investigators, he should be prosecuted for and that’s what the Department of Justice did. But I think the president’s frustration is, you see a Department of Justice that comes in with the original sentencing guidelines four years beyond what it’s supposed to be for sentencing guidelines for his offenses. And yet when you see people like Andy McCabe, who also lied to federal investigators, referred for investigation, what they get is a lucrative contract at CNN. That doesn’t seem to be equitable justice. I think that’s what the president’s primary frustration is.
WALLACE: But, he’s not saying he got sentence for too long. Incidentally, he didn’t get the 7-9 years, he got three and a half years, roughly. Here’s what the president’s own Attorney General William Barr said.
BARR: I think it was established, he was convicted of obstructing Congress and witness tampering, and I thought that was a righteous prosecution, and I was happy that he was convicted.
WALLACE: And the judge in the case, said this about Stone.
“He was not prosecuted, as some have complained, for standing up for the president. He was prosecuted for covering up for the president.”
So when the president talks about wanting to see Roger Stone get off, to be exonerated, and even raises the possibility that he might pardon him, is that because Roger Stone protected him in the Mueller investigation?
SHORT: I don’t think so, Chris. I think the president again is frustrated in seeing what he thinks is an equitable system of justice. I think what he’s seeing is the Roger Stone investigation was born out of the Mueller Report, what’s there it started from. The reality is that the Mueller Report, as we’ve seen, did not show Russia collusion. It would seem to our minds…
WALLACE; You have the Attorney General saying it was a righteous prosecution.
SHORT: And I’ll just share with you that I think it should be prosecuted as well. I think that people who lie to Congress should be prosecuted Chris… and so… but I think that what’s unfair in the system, is that those who also were trying to prevent this president from being elected inside their position at the Department of Justice, lied about it, leaked information. The Inspector General refers them for prosecution and what they get is a lucrative contract at a TV network. How is that equitable justice?
WALLACE: Well, I suppose one of the arguments would be just because one guy gets off, doesn’t mean the other person should.
SHORT: And I’ve said multiple times on your network that he should have been prosecuted. And so we will see what happens with the second round.
This is a whining five-year-old’s definition of fairness. But that’s how Trump views everything from the simplest aspect of everyday life to monumental national security and foreign policy. He’s a fool. But you knew that.