Hateful and self-righteous political operatives recognize no bounds. But when they target a man’s family for political advantage, they should expect him to fight back.
Early Wednesday morning on Truth Social, former President Donald Trump fought back against Judge Arthur Engoron, the New York Democrat presiding over the Star Chamber show trial masquerading as a fraud case.
“Leave my children alone, Engoron. You are a disgrace to the legal profession!” Trump wrote at the end of a lengthy post.
In her obsession with taking down the former president, New York Attorney General Letitia James brought a “fraud” case that features, as Trump correctly noted, no actual victims aside from the Trump family.
As part of that case, wherein James asserted that Trump inflated the value of his holdings to gain financial advantages, Engoron arbitrarily and hilariously valued Trump’s sprawling Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, at only $18 million.
Now, the former president’s children will have to take the stand. After all, James must perpetuate this farce and smear as many members of the Trump family as possible.
According to NBC News, James’ office plans to call Donald Trump Jr. to testify on Wednesday. Eric Trump will follow on Thursday.
Even Ivanka Trump, though not a defendant in the case thanks to an earlier appeals court ruling, will take the stand on Friday.
With the characteristic hubris of a tyrant committed to destroying her perceived enemies, James described the former president’s daughter as still “under the control of the Trump Organization.” Such sweeping language barely conceals the attorney general’s determination to persecute Trump and anyone close to him.
This broader persecution aimed at Trump’s family, of course, did not begin with James.
Lest we forget, in June the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office sought access to former first lady Melania Trump’s White House communications.
The former president has put on a brave public face, but sources have reported that in private the ordeal has taken a toll.
Amid that turmoil, Melania has acted as a calming influence. She also reportedly “shares her husband’s view — and anger — that most of these legal issues are ‘election interference by his political rivals.’”
In his lengthy Truth Social post, Trump called the current New York proceeding a “Rigged Trial.” He referred to James as “Racist” and Engoron as a “Trump and developer Hating Judge.”
None of this must strike the former president as new. After all, he has seen rigged proceedings on a national scale. He has dealt with hate-filled political opponents who made their enmity personal. He can fight them. In fact, for eight years he has not stopped fighting them, and he often has done so with a smile.
Targeting his family, however, constitutes the crossing of a line that no man can bear with good cheer.
His soulless opponents, of course, will protest that the Trump children are fair game. As adults and members of the Trump Organization, they require no special treatment.
That would be true if the entire case did not amount to special treatment of the most insidious kind. Under the cover of institutions designed to seek justice, Trump’s political opponents have targeted him for unique persecution.
Everyone knows this, including the attorney general and the presiding judge. Yet, much as they do in totalitarian regimes, they cover their state-sponsored crimes in self-righteousness.
A man can bear such evils when they affect him alone.
As history has shown, however, tyrants never stop with the man himself. Eventually, they always come for his family.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
