Former President Donald Trump, known for his questionable social media posts, reached a new low on Tuesday with a comparison that defies logic. He equated his own situation to that of Dominion Voting Systems, a company that successfully sued Fox News for defamation, resulting in a $787.5 million settlement.
In a Truth Social post, Trump displayed a staggering ignorance of the U.S. legal system, pondering, “So Dominion gets almost a Billion Dollars and I, after years of Fake News, Hoaxes, Scams, and Investigations, am entitled to NOTHING? Is that really the way it’s supposed to work? I don’t think so!”
This statement, in my years of studying Trump’s social media musings, stands out as one of the most absurd he’s published in recent memory.
To set the record straight, Dominion sued Fox News for defamation, and Fox settled by paying the company nearly a billion dollars to avoid a trial. It’s a straightforward legal matter.
Trump is free to pursue defamation suits if he believes he’s been wronged. However, any potential payout would hinge on whether he can prove actual defamation. He is not automatically “entitled” to compensation for what he perceives as mistreatment over the years.
Drawing a comparison between Dominion’s defamation case and Trump’s ongoing victimhood narrative is a false equivalency. The former revolved around false claims made by a news organization about a private company, while the latter amounts to Trump simply venting. It’s worth noting that Trump himself has been a significant purveyor of false information.
The crucial question here is whether Trump genuinely doesn’t comprehend how defamation laws function in America. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he does. In that case, his remark, “Is that really the way it’s supposed to work?” is likely rhetorical griping, not genuine confusion.
If that’s the case, it implies Trump believes his supporters are gullible enough to accept that he’s entitled to a substantial sum of money—based on vague claims of victimhood.
In conclusion, this stands as Trump’s most nonsensical social media post to date. It’s a piece of political commentary so devoid of understanding that it may well be worth preserving for posterity. We find ourselves in an era of astonishingly foolish discourse. Let us embrace this historic moment!