A progressive daily ledger of Trump-world self-owns, legal pain, policy blowback, and bad-faith chaos.
December 23, 2020 was a busy day for Trump-world self-immolation: clemency for allies, a fresh attack on relief talks, and a pressure call into Georgia’s election machinery.
The day before Christmas Eve brought a triple feature of Trump chaos: a pardon spree for political allies, a last-minute demolition job on Congress’s pandemic relief deal, and a Georgia election-pressure call that would only deepen the growing legal stink around the post-election campaign. The common thread was simple: Trump kept choosing escalation over stability, and the fallout was already starting to harden into a record of abuse, corruption, and political vandalism.
On December 23, 2020, Trump was still doing what he had done for most of the month: treating the presidency like a demolition derby. He was rewarding loyalists, trashing basic governance, and leaning on state officials to keep his election fantasy alive. None of it was subtle, and none of it aged well.
5 stars means maximum fallout. 1 star means a smaller self-own.
Trump’s Dec. 23 call to Georgia election investigator Frances Watson was another ugly step in the post-election campaign to bully state officials into backing his loss fantasy. The call, which came just days before Trump’s January pressure campaign exploded into public view, asked a state investigator to go looking in Fulton County and promised praise if the “right answer” emerged.
Just as Washington was trying to finalize the COVID relief package, Trump lashed out at the deal and created a fresh mess for Republicans and his own outgoing administration. The move threatened to turn a hard-won agreement into another pointless fight over Trump’s ego.
Trump’s December 23 pardon wave fit a familiar pattern: reward the loyal, excuse the convicted, and dress it up as justice. The move gave clemency to a roster of Trump-connected figures and reinforced the idea that proximity to the boss mattered more than accountability.