Trump’s December 20, 2022 damage control edition

Edition · December 20, 2022

Trump’s December 20, 2022 damage control edition

A day after the Jan. 6 committee’s final public meeting, Trumpworld was still absorbing the formal push to refer Donald Trump for prosecution — while the wider legal wreckage around his businesses kept grinding on.

December 20, 2022 was less about a single fresh Trump scandal than about the kind of day that tells you the floor is still collapsing. The biggest development was the House Jan. 6 committee’s decision, made public the day before and still dominating coverage on the 20th, to recommend criminal referrals for Donald Trump, including obstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and inciting or assisting an insurrection. At the same time, the Trump Organization’s criminal tax-fraud conviction continued to reverberate, with the company already facing sentencing and the reputational stink that comes with a jury finding a Trump business guilty on all counts. Taken together, the day showed a political operation trying to run a presidential comeback while still being dragged around by the consequences of its own old crimes.

Closing take

If you’re looking for the Trump era in miniature, this is it: grand claims, legal exposure, and a steady stream of self-inflicted humiliation. December 20 did not deliver the most explosive Trump story of the year, but it kept the bad news machine humming in a way that mattered politically and legally. The referrals were not a conviction, but they were a formal, bipartisan-in-waiting-style alarm bell; the tax case was not new, but it was still actively poisoning the brand. Trumpworld’s central trick is to act as if all of this is normal background noise. It isn’t. It is the bill coming due, one line item at a time.

Ranked by how bad the fuckup was

5 stars means maximum fallout. 1 star means a smaller self-own.

Story

Jan. 6 panel hands Trump a criminal-referral package that won’t go away

Jan. 6 referrals Confidence 5/5

★★★★★Fuckup rating 5/5 Five-alarm fuckup

The House Jan. 6 committee’s final public meeting on December 19 kept driving the news cycle on December 20, as lawmakers formally recommended criminal referrals for Donald Trump and sharply widened the case that his effort to stay in power crossed into criminal conduct. The referrals underscored that the committee was not treating the attack on the Capitol as just another bad Trump moment, but as a coordinated attempt to obstruct Congress, defraud the public, and pressure officials into reversing an election Trump lost.

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Story

Trump Organization conviction still shadows the brand weeks later

Tax fraud stink Confidence 5/5

★★★★☆Fuckup rating 4/5 Serious fuckup

The Trump Organization’s Dec. 6, 2022 conviction was still hanging over the business on Dec. 20, with sentencing not yet imposed. A Manhattan jury convicted the Trump Corporation and Trump Payroll Corporation on 17 counts tied to a long-running compensation scheme that prosecutors said hid pay and falsified records.

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