Donald Trump's Best Shot at Acquittal: An Insanity Defense

And It Could Work ... Because Everyone Knows He's Nuts

Looks like Donald Trump is having lawyer problems. He fires some of them. Some quit. Others, when asked to defend the former president, say “No thanks.”

If I were Mr. Trump’s lawyer I know what I would do: I’d say my client is crazy and hope for the best.

I mean what sane person would be so consistently reckless? Who in his right mind plays so easily into the hands of his enemies?

According to the recent indictment against him, Mr. Trump took a classified document relating to a war plan and waved it around in front of staff and a writer. You think this is what a normal person would do?

And the indictment says he did this while he knew he was being recorded. On the recording you could hear the former president saying: “This is secret information. Look, look at this. You attack, and—”

If that’s not crazy, nothing is.

If you read the almost 50-page indictment, you see that Mr. Trump treated the law with the same disdain a mafia kingpin would — but for one big difference. A mafia kingpin knows enough to cover his tracks. So either Donald Trump is stupid — and we know he’s not because he told us he’s a “stable genius” — or he’s nuts.

And then there’s Jan. 6. In front of a national TV audience he egged on a violent mob of his most loyal fans who stormed the Capitol and tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power. Why did these not-so-smart screwballs riot? Because their leader, Donald Trump, told them the 2020 president election was rigged. Evidence for the claim? None. More proof that the man is not playing with a full deck.

Let’s imagine that Donald Trump took his loss with a certain amount of humility. Let’s imagine he told his fans that, “I lost — and now let’s move on.” That you cannot even imagine him saying that is still more proof that he’s not mentally fit to stand trial. Because had he said something like that — had he accepted the election results — “he might now be coasting to the nomination and have an excellent chance to win,” as the Wall Street Journal put it.

To back up my claim that Donald J. Trump is not all there, I’d play video clips in court where it’s obvious to even lay people that he has a severe case of narcissism. We’re all narcissists to one degree or another, but in Mr. Trump’s case, it’s obviously a severe mental disorder.

He never admits to being wrong about anything. He never acknowledges that maybe — just maybe — he made a mistake in his life. Everything he does is perfect. Everyone is out to get him. So when something goes wrong it’s always somebody else’s fault. He gives paranoia a bad name.

He talks a lot about loyalty and then casually throws trusted allies under the proverbial bus when it suits his purpose. If you don’t believe me, ask Mike Pence. This is not the behavior of a normal human being.

On top of everything else, he suffers from a bad case of grandiosity. He thinks he alone can solve major world problems in a few minutes. Or in the case of ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, that would take longer — “one day, 24 hours” is what he said on the CNN town hall last month.

Narcissism. Grandiosity. Paranoia. The Holy Trinity of Crazy.

And Mr. Trump only has more trouble looming just over the horizon. He’s likely to be indicted in Georgia for trying to overturn the presidential election in that state. More proof that he’s lost his marbles. And the special prosecutor can still indict him for his role in the Capitol riot.

These are not easy charges to contest.  The prosecution will use Donald Trump’s own words against him. The only way out is to present an insanity defense.  And the reason it could work is because everybody knows he’s crazy. Democrats know. Republicans know. Independents know. Melania probably even knows. The only person who doesn’t know is … Donald Trump.

And this (ladies and gentlemen of the jury) is the final piece of evidence that he should be found not guilty by reason of insanity. Because crazy people are the only ones who don’t know they’re crazy.