#182 Blog Post – Wednesday, 8 March 2023
http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2023/03/182-tdf.html
Posted by Denny Hatch
The Toughest Assignment
A Copywriter Could Have.
The Donald Trump Legal Defense Fund does not exist. I made it up.
Does Donald Trump need a Legal Defense Fund? You bet your sweet bippy he does.
For starters, the Trump Organization has already been fined $1.6 million for tax fraud (hardly chickenfeed). As a result, Trump CFO Alan Weisselberg is currently serving five months in the Riker’s Island slammer.
Donald Trump may be very rich, but guilty verdicts in upcoming legal actions could result in astronomical fines and penalties that could run into ten figures.
Among the Current Actions Against Trump.
Indications from the U.S. Department of Justice and the state of Georgia that a breathtaking number of criminal and civil actions against Donald Trump seem to be coalescing with indictments imminent. The defense costs will be huge. Among them:
• The Justice Department's investigation and potential indictments into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
• The DOJ’s following the breadcrumbs that led to the January 6th insurrection and mayhem. Actually “breadcrumbs” is a misnomer. Emails and 40,000 hours of video coverage are a veritable trail of baguettes!
• The Fulton County election interference probe.
• Fulton County Poll Workers (Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss) v. Trump
• The Mar-a-Lago classified documents dust-up.
• The Manhattan DA's investigation into the hush-money settlement to Stormy Daniels.
• Capitol Police officers’ lawsuit against Trump for the January 6th pandemonium, injuries and death.
A bellwether example of the humongous amounts of money involved is the Trump-related Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News — its management (Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch), famous salaried newscasters, journalists and guest commentators. The amount Dominion wants: $1.6 billion.
About the Donald Trump Legal
Defense Fund Copy Assignment
A couple of weeks ago I had a passing thought: what if I were contacted to write and design a fundraising mailing for Trump? The assignment would be fascinating as well as hugely rewarding.
• What would the mailing look like?
• What would be the message?
• Who are the reported 40 million-or-so Trump supporters whose heads I would have to get into in order to persuade them to pony up cash?
• What research must be done before sitting down to create the mailing?
This Blog Post Shares With You How an Old-time
Direct Mail Copywriter
Goes About His Business
1. First, put politics aside. My job is to bring in cash, not make a statement.
2.
Always keep in mind the seven key copy drivers
— the seven emotional hot buttons that make people act: fear – greed – guilt – anger
– exclusivity – salvation - flattery. "If your copy isn't positively dripping with one or more of these, tear it up and start over." —Bob Hacker
3. Walt Weintz, an early boss and copy chief once said to me: “Always start with the outside envelope. It fixes the project in your head — the look, the offer, the sense of the thing. Most likely it won’t be the final envelope. But it gets you started.” So, before anything I wrote and designed the OSE above.
4. Immediate thoughts on this first-draft envelope: This is asking Trump donors for contributions to a defense fund. The money will be going to rich lawyers and paying huge fines. This is an immediate downer for Trump’s millions of hard working low- and middle income followers struggling to make a living. Many will trash the envelope without opening it. For this reason, I included freemiums — “INSIDE: TWO FREE GIFTS! This should spark curiosity and get more envelopes opened. What are the free gifts? I have no idea now. But I’ll figure out something along the way.
The Research: Getting to Know Trump
And His 40 Million Donors — Intimately.
Direct Marketing is what Stan Rapp calls “intimate advertising” — one writer talking to one reader or viewer with a profound personal me-to-you message. Good direct mail changes behavior. It results in a response, an inquiry, a free trial request, a sale (with a money-back guarantee of satisfaction) or a contribution.
To be successful in Direct Marketing it is imperative to get inside the head of the person you’re writing to — think how he thinks, feel what she feels — and mentally become that person. This is the same technique Method actors use to make the characters they portray on stage and screen come alive.
In addition, for this assignment I have to write in the voice of Donald Trump. He’s the only person his aficionados want to hear from. So, the first order of business is to learn all about Donald Trump.
The Yin and Yang of Donald Trump. Nothing
Like Him Has Ever Existed on Planet Earth
When Queens County, NY real estate developer Fred Trump assumed room temperature on June 25, 1999, his net worth was $250 million dollars ($450 million in 2022 dollars).
Donald Trump inherited a humongous fortune and has spent his entire business life as the perpetually persecuted and angry victim with a vast menu of grievances.
According to Forbes, Donald Trump’s net worth today in $3.2 billion dollars. In his four years as President (2016-2020) he was the most powerful — and most famous — man in the world.
His high-on-the-hog lifestyle is enviable. One passion is golf. He’s the owner of 16 golf resorts around the world (12 Trump-owned golf properties in the United States, two in Scotland, one in Ireland and one in the United Arab Emirates.)
What’s more, Donald Trump has built a following of millions who idolize him. Research has found the majority of his “base” most likely is found among the 83.9 million households scraping by paycheck-to-paycheck. They wake up every morning with a renewed sense of dread.
They feel betrayed by the system—the so-called “Establishment.” All had been raised to believe “America is the greatest country on earth.” Their lifestyles would certainly be better than their parents’, and they would earn more money. Instead, they are struggling to pay bills and enslaved by credit card debt.
These are the forgotten Americans. The Establishment has let them down. Donald Trump has remembered them and touched their deep heart’s core — giving them hope — with a magical phrase:
I can think of three other leaders in human history that communicated a powerful vision of salvation and happiness. They are: Jesus, Mohammad and Siddhartha Gautama (a.k.a. The Buddha.) Today, the four have 5.1 billion followers worldwide.
Whatever the Outcomes,
No. 45 Is in a Bind.
He Needs Lawyers and
Money to Pay Them.
• “Donald Trump is
reportedly having a difficult time finding lawyers to represent him in part
because they want to be paid,” New York Times political reporter Maggie
Haberman sniped Sunday. “You are seeing many fewer lawyers who are willing to
go out and speak for him and/or hitch their wagon [to him] and maybe not get
paid — which is a big thing,” Haberman told host Abby Phillip on CNN’s “Inside
Politics.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-having-hard-time-finding-022617587.html
• “The Trump Files: Trump’s Long History
of Getting Sued by His Own Lawyers.”
—Max J. Rosenthal, Mother Jones
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/08/trump-files-time-trumps-lawyers-sued-trump/
As a result of Trump’s battles with lawyers over many years, no top-level, world-class attorney will go near him with a pair of ten-foot tongs. He has to settle for lesser lights with little experience on the international stage. In February 2022 I stumbled on Trump’s recent addition to his legal team, 38-year-old Alina Habba, Managing Partner of Habba, Madalo & Associates LLP based in Bedminster, New Jersey (site of one of Donald Trump’s U.S. Golf properties).
Alina Habba
Check out my blog post on Habba:
http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2022/03/147-lawyers-resume.html
From Habba’s CV:
“Alina Habba is 39-years old and “has experience in many areas of litigation including, but not limited to, corporate litigation and formation, commercial real estate (transactional and litigation), family law, the financial services industry and construction-related matters.”
In short, this seems to be scant experience for dealing with the complex life, wondrous lifestyle and wild activities of the former president.
Reviews of Alina Habbas’s Work
• “U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks of Southern Florida, who threw out the suit in September, said in a scathing 46-page ruling that Trump, his lead attorney Alina Habba, and her law firm were jointly liable for $937,989.”
—Charisma Madarang, Rolling Stone
• And the lawsuit alleges that Habba earlier this year lost her cool when she suffered a legal defeat to New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is Black—angrily shouting, “I hate that Black bitch!”
—Jose Pagliery, Daily Beast
What Triggered This Blog Post?
I woke up one morning last week thinking about Trump’s predicament—the sudden recent coalescence of the myriad lawsuits, DOJ rumblings and multiple grand jury activities vis-à-vis Donald Trump. He would need money — tons of it — to pay his legal bills. Pots and pots of dough.
What if somebody called and asked me to consider writing copy for Donald Trump’s Legal Defense Fund? Absolutely not. For openers, the odds are that I would get stiffed:
• “Donald Trump casts himself as a protector of workers and jobs, but a USA TODAY NETWORK investigation found hundreds of people – carpenters, dishwashers, painters, even his own lawyers – who say he didn’t pay them for their work.
—Steve Reilly, USA TODAY
• A certain commander in chief has a long history of being accused of screwing over the little guy
—Jeff
Spross, The Week
https://theweek.com/articles/783976/brief-history-trumps-smalltime-swindles
Donald Trump’s Future
Facing a blizzard of criminal and civil actions against him — coupled with his inability to get exceptional legal help — The Donald should not fare well. My bet: facing gargantuan fines Trump will likely vanish, opting to spend the the rest of his days in luxury as a fugitive rather than a jailbird. Where to? The world is Trump’s oyster. Below is a map of countries (in brown) that do not have an extradition treaty with the U.S.
Takeaways to Consider
• At what point will Donald Trump be deemed a flight risk?
• Does Donald Trump’s claim hold water that DOJ’s persecution of him is a political vendetta? Well… uh… didn’t Trump (in league with Mitch McConnell) cost Merrick Garland his seat on the Supreme Court — a glorious career capstone, cushy sinecure and a life with national approbation? You be the judge.
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