Trump's Towering Stupidity, Part II: He Cannot Use Unlawful Threats Of "Free Expression App Bannings" As Blackmail Fodder. Sheesh.

China or no, this president pretends to powers. . . he plainly will never possess. [Prior backgrounder of mine, on this, here.]

This morning, apparently -- he seeks to force a blackmail payment, out of Microsoft -- for his role in "facilitating" a Tik Tok deal (though his role was that of a official government. . . blackmailer). There are dozens of public corruption cases that squarely hold this conduct -- if completed -- is a jailing offense for both Trump, and whoever pays the bribe.

And of course, all of this is simply to deflect attention away from a staggeringly bad US job market, and a pandemic approaching 160,000 dead -- and rising ferociously, in many reliably red states.

Still, we must keep an eye on his absurdist theatre, as the law will need to be brought down upon him, swiftly -- if he tries to block the emerging Microsoft deal in principle, with what would be clearly ultra vires "powers".

No, Mr. President, it is not like "real estate" -- at all. Contractual bargaining is very different than using federal threats as blackmail, to extract "tribute" payments. [Trump is not the "landlord" -- to any form of US free enterprise. It is. . . free.] This man is both colossally corrupt, and colossally. . . stupid. [A truly lethal combination, as he apparently slips into an increasingly persistent state of. . . dementia.]

Here is a bit of CNBC's morning reporting:

. . . .A transaction of the type the president envisions could also prove more expensive than the one Microsoft described on Sunday. Trump said Monday that part of the amount paid to buy TikTok would have to come to the U.S. Treasury Department because it would be making the deal possible.

“It’s a little bit like the landlord/tenant; without a lease the tenant has nothing, so they pay what’s called ‘key money,’ or they pay something,” Trump said. “But the United States should be reimbursed or should be paid a substantial amount of money, because without the United States they don’t have anything, at least having to do with the 30%. . . .”

This man is out in the open now, with his attempts to use the threat of lawless bureaucratic action -- to extract "felonious tribute" from Microsoft. I say let's charge him with state level blackmail felonies, for the attempt, under state law in Washington [Redmond is home to Microsoft]. It can be done -- and perhaps. . . it ought to be done, by the patriotic local prosecutors, there -- and shortly so.

Onward -- laughing at his. . . increasingly obvious lunacy.

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