bitchy | ‘Angry’ Donald Trump ‘was caught off guard’ by the indictment

Just hours after a New York grand jury handed down a 34-count indictment against Donald Trump, Ol’ Diaper Don was seen at Mar-a-Lago. There’s a TMZ video of Trump giving a thumbs up to supporters before he went into dinner. Apparently, he and Melania had dinner together. Wow, I bet Melania was acting her ass off, trying to suppress her smiles and laughs. Thankfully, Maggie Haberman at the NY Times has a piece about how Diaper Don handled the news of the indictment. As it turns out, he was a lot like the rest of us – he thought that the grand jury probably wouldn’t indict him until late April too.

At Mar-a-Lago on Thursday evening, former President Donald J. Trump was still absorbing the news of his indictment, according to several people close to him. Mr. Trump and his aides were caught off guard by the timing, believing that any action by the grand jury was still weeks away and might not occur at all. Some advisers had become confident that there would be no movement until the end of April at the earliest and were looking at the political implications for Mr. Trump’s closest potential rival, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida.

At Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach estate, Mr. Trump’s mood has ranged in recent weeks from optimism and bravado to anxiety about his future. On Thursday evening, after the grand jury indicted him, Mr. Trump was angry but mainly focused on the political implications of the charges, not the legal consequences, according to people familiar with his thinking.

He seemed eager to project confidence and calm and was seen having a very public dinner with his wife, Melania, and her parents at the club at Mar-a-Lago.

He has been keeping a relatively normal schedule at Mar-a-Lago, which he calls “my beautiful home” — dining with guests, playing golf and telling nearly anyone that he was in a good mood and that he believed the case against him by Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, had fallen apart. At times Mr. Trump has appeared significantly disconnected from the severity of his potential legal woes, according to people who have spent time with him in recent days.

He was also trying to tamp down his own behavior, after he posted to his social media site a news article with an image of Mr. Bragg on one side and Mr. Trump holding a baseball bat on the other. Mr. Trump’s lawyers were alarmed that he was doing himself damage. He did not repeat the act.

[From The NY Times]

Haberman also reports that Trump was particularly disturbed when Allen Weisselberg, his longtime business associate, was charged with various crimes. I would argue that Trump was disturbed because he knew that the walls were closing in – if they got Weisselberg, they would get him. Anyway, yes, Trump has been threatening violence and raging at people, and then he’ll aim for delusional optimism when he sees tourists and supporters around Mar-a-Lago.

This morning, Trump’s lawyer Joseph Tacopina told NBC News that Trump will surrender voluntarily to New York authorities but Trump will not seek, negotiate or accept a plea deal. Tacopina says Trump wants to go to trial. Likely story.

So far, Hillary Clinton and President Biden have not said anything on the record. Biden was just speaking a pool of reporters and he no-comment’d them when asked about Trump. I’m dying for Hillary to say something iconic. Obama hasn’t said anything either.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.