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I broadly agree, but one nitpick:
Does it? Aren't most people pretty thoroughly cemented into their positions at this point? I know I'm basically just a hack at this point, but my basic thought is immediately, "sure, this isn't any more retarded than claiming that paying off some hooker with an accountant that recorded a detail incorrectly is a felony on the basis that it furthered an unspecified crime". Or that arguing with state election officials about how they've allowed a bunch of fraud is actually a conspiracy to deny people their rights. Or that the guy with sole discretion of classification is actually a felon for having documents that he failed to correctly file paperwork declassifying.
Meanwhile, people watching the movie on the other screen just see it as example thirty seven thousand of how Trump is a crook that commits fraud everywhere and isn't even actually all that rich.
It does weaken public perception, I think.
There was one poll recently that had Trump at 52% vs. Biden at 42%, so it's not like the only people who would vote for Trump are his core supporters.
I think Trump is a bad person and a bad President, but this case further updates me in the direction that Trump is the victim of politically motivated lawfare. Not everyone is a committed team player. In fact, independents are a plurality of the population. It's possible that ridiculous decisions such as this one will move the needle at least a little bit. Trump says he's being treated unfairly. That wasn't necessarily obvious before. But here comes clear and obvious evidence of it happening.
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Twitter and Reddit left seem to be going all in on this today and buying he’s a crook. But I also think for the median voter this gives team Trump easy bulletin board material where a casual observer can be shown a Zillow screenshot of much higher valued properties that are 20 times smaller.
I’m not even against an argument that he did mistate the value when he gave it. Palm Beach is up a lot and has established itself even more as a rich commune. Like maybe it was worth 200 million then due to land restrictions.
It’s actually a very interesting appraisal. I could come up with anything from 400-500 today or 1.5-2 billion to the right retired billionaire. Yachts go for that. And this is a giant estate no one else would have in the most exclusive neighborhood to entertain.
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