#184 CEO's TV Spots

http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2023/03/184-ceos-tv-spots.html

#184 Blog Post – Wednesday, 29 March 2024

Posted by Denny Hatch

 

Corporate CEOs Who Became Famous
On TV For Pitching Their Own Products 

The TV was on the other day and suddenly I was smacked in the chops with a 60-second razzle-dazzle, highest of hi-tech ads for the 2023 “Limited Edition” Chrysler 300C.  Pounding beats of music… dizzying hocus-pocus… giant buzzwords cooked up by a bunch of techies.

Have a look at this 60-second sucker:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKe1TQq7GZ0

• Mind-bending? Yes.

• Was I persuaded the 300C Chrysler is so deliciously desirable and affordable that I itch to take it for a test drive? Absolutely not.

• This TV spot is the product of techies — non-marketers showing off their electronic wizardry without one jot of empathy or emotion.

Your Geezer Blogger Recalled Lee Iacocca's
Passionate Message to Me About Chrysler.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IGp1nM01hI

Lee Iacocca was president and CEO of Chrysler from 1978 and chairman from 1979, until his retirement at the end of 1992. I felt he was looking me straight in the eye talking directly to me about the benefits and guarantees of excellence and satisfaction.

This is personal Lee-to-me direct marketing — an old fashioned letter in the form of a TV ad. 

I Went on a YouTube Search to Find Famous
Spokespersons Who Loved Touting Their Products.

Some were already household names — Oprah, Martha Stewart and Bill Gates.

Others became famous by being featured on TV ad spots — chicken farmer Frank Purdue and obscure businessman Victor Kiam.

What All these Celebs Had in Common.

They flat-out believed in their products. Their overflowing enthusiasm and passion for what they were selling is infectious. Coming from their own lips is far more powerful than anything a hired copywriter and actors out of central casting could come up with.

Here was a favorite from my early days of TV watching,  a CEO spokesman discovered by advertising legend David Ogilvy.

In 1947 Commander Edward Whitehead was an economic advisor to Sir Stafford Cripps (then Chancellor of the Exchequer), working on training and productivity in British industry. He joined Schweppes in 1950, being responsible for foreign expansion. In 1953, he was made president of Schweppes American operations. In those early years the commander caught the eye of legendary adman David Ogilvy who was creating advertising for Schweppes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-O0aMoVMG0

This spot is a hoot — a send-up that not only amuses the individual viewer but also pounds home the desirability of “Schweppes bubbly effervescence.”

Ya Want Laffs? Have a Few with Martha Stewart.

 

It’s an old saw — axiomatic — that humor doesn’t sell. “People don’t buy from clowns,” proclaimed David Ogilvy.  Oh yeah? Have a look at this gem by Martha Stewart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueEKYyzMdKA

“Martha Stewart is channeling her inner psychopath in a gory Halloween video spot for canned water company Liquid Death, created to promote the brand's 'Dismembered Moments' candle. The candle, which was created in partnership with Stewart, resembles a dismembered hand clutching a can of Liquid Death.” —thedrum.com

Meet Chicken Farmer Frank Purdue Who
Became a Legend from His Intense TV Spots.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Z789aLNfXo&t=45s

How Fame Came to Victor Kiam with his TV Ads.

Hardly anybody knew of Victor Kiam, one-time owner of the New England Patriots. He became immediately famous when he bought Remington Products. Kiam, a cheapskate who always flew coach (“I arrive at the same time as everybody else on board.”) opted to save money by starring in his own highly believable TV spots. The iconic line that made him known nationwide: “I liked the shaver so much I bought the company.” It’s the ultimate testimonial!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qf22bddvLnc

A Powerful Confession in Oprah Winfrey’s
First TV Commercial for Weight Watchers.

In 2015, Oprah — in a desperate lifelong battle against obesity — became a minority shareholder in Weight Watchers. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiVIsS6wSMY

All you can say is… Wow! Laying bare her deeply personal problem… willing to show her worst, downtrodden  self… and coming up with this extraordinary message of positivity and hope. I found it amazing.

Unlikely Commercials by Two of the Richest Men in the
History of Planet Earth: Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.

 

Bill Gates was a tall, skinny nerdy guy when he started out.  But he had the magic combination of three elements: vision, genius and passion.

He changed how business in done and built one of the most valuable companies in the world (current market cap: $2.03 trillion dollars. ) In a rare TV spot, Gates’ passion pours out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYTD7Uy4lbs

The Most Unlikely Celeb TV Performer: Warren Buffett.

I recently read a biography of Warren Buffet. His earliest ambition was to be rich. His entire life and career has been spent in solitary, poring over the financials found in annual reports of companies, discovering bargain prices in the numbers and pouncing. “According to Forbes, Warren
Buffett’s net worth in March 2023 is $108.6 billion. He is currently the 5^th richest person in the world.”

“The Berkshire Hathaway CEO still resides in the five-bedroom home in central Omaha, Nebraska, Buffett purchased for $31,500 in 1958, which is about $329,505 in today’s dollars.”  --Cheyenne Devon, CNBC.

In 1994, Buffett accumulated a 4.9 million shares stake in McDonald’s (where he picks up a take-out breakfast every morning.) Somehow, someone persuaded him to make a McDonald’s commercial. No passion. No excitement. Nice Midwestern grandpa stuff and boring as hell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8FGa6N7fb8&t=19s

The Bill & Warren Show:
Two Buddies’ Ego Trip .

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are close friends. Their relationship has been called a bromance. In 2006 Buffett pledged 85% of his Berkshire fortune to the Gates Foundation. In 1997 Berkshire acquired Dairy Queen for $600 million.

Here’s a bit of silliness that I don’t understand. However, TV commercials cost a lot more than a junk mailing. These guys can afford it. Hey! Relax and enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQWkNXr2ujI&t=85s

Takeaways to Consider.

• TV spots are advertising’s big league. How big? A 30-second 2023 Super Bowl spot cost $7 million.

• Very few CEO’s have the requisite charisma — or passion — to lay themselves bare on TV and make profitable spots or commercials.

• The legendary Dick Hodgson wrote: "Of all the formats used in direct mail, none has more power to generate action than the letter."

 • A letter is an intimate message from one writer whispering in ear of one reader. Me-to-you. 

• I believe that TV spots — with their eye contact and quiet intensity — can be the modern equivalent of the direct mail letter. And take up a lot less of your time.

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#183 Method Mktg

  

 http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2023/03/183-method-mktg.html

 

#183 Blog Post        Wednesday, 22 March 2023

 

Posted by Denny Hatch

 

 

“Written in a Fun and Conversational

Tone, This Book Was Hard to Put Down.”

                — Business Insider

 

 

Stories of Entrepreneurs Who Started Huge Businesses

by Writing Powerful, Persuasive Pitches to People

Who Responded by Sending Pots of Money

 

 

The First Two Paragraphs of the Most Unbelievable Letter

 

                           

                            Friday, 10:40 PM

Dear Friend,

 

   A lady should never get this dirty, she said.

 

   She stood there with a quiet, proud dignity. She was incomparably dirty, her face and hands smeared, her clothes torn and soiled. The lady was 11.

 

 

The “Dirty Lady” letter was written by a Franciscan

Priest with Absolutely No Copywriting Experience.

His name was Fr. Bruce Ritter who presided over a small church in New York City’s impoverished Lower East Side. Every day a gaggle of grimy, scrawny teen-age children rang his bell to plead for something to eat and a place to sleep. HE HAD TO DO SOMETHING!

 

Ritter’s passionate two-page typed letter asked for donations to Covenant House — a safe refuge for runaway children who were existing and being abused on the city streets. The letter was instantly profitable and brought in an average of $10 million dollars a year for the next 16 years.

 

After Some Catastrophic Bumps in the Road,
Covenant House Is a Brilliant Achievement!

 

From the 2023 Covenant House Annual Report

• We are in 34 cities across 6 countries, working every day to help rescue, care for and protect homeless kids. LGBTQ, gay, and homeless shelters for youth. No one is ever turned away without support of some kind. 

• 2022 Annual Revenue $320 Million Dollars.
• More than 2,000 children sleep in a Covenant House bed every night.

 

Other Entrepreneurs Who Started Huge Businesses

Based Purely on the Power of Their Persuasive Copy

Quite simply they started with an idea and sent out a letter — or placed a small ad.  People sent them money and they were suddenly awash in cash. In these pages you will meet:

 

• Bill Bonner sent out a letter offering a publication — International Living — about how to retire in luxury overseas at a fraction what it costs to live in the U.S. People sent him money. He was profitable from day one. Today Bonner owns two magnificent 17^th century chateaux in France and real estate all over the world.  Agora Marketing is a billion-dollar corporation. You can read the actual letter that launched his empire.

 

• Marty Edelston held a dozen jobs before he founded Boardroom, his $125-million-dollar newsletter empire. Included is the revolutionary copy and design of copywriting genius, Mel Martin, that launched Boardroom.

 

• All his life Curt Strohacker’s passion was (and is) restoring old cars. Early in his career he invested $500 in a simple black-and-white 8-page catalog from a quick-print store and started the Eastwood company. Today he sends out a million full-color catalogs a year to do-it-yourself antique car buffs. Curt is living the American dream. He turned his hobby into a hugely profitable business! Remember, if you do what you love you’ll never work a day in your life!

 

• In Method Marketing you will meet these marketing geniuses along with Bob Shnayerson, who wrote his first and only sales letter — based on anger and salvation — that brought in 600,000 paying customers for Quest/77, a magazine that did not exist.

 

And John Peterman bought a highly unusual cowboy’s raincoat in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. So many people back East tried to buy the distinctive duster off his back that he formed a small company and ran a tiny ad. John  sold 2,500 dusters that first year. The J. Peterman catalog was born. An added bonus to receiving the Peterman catalog: the gloriously whimsical copy by Donald Staley could easily run as a series of short pieces in The New Yorker. An aside: John Peterman (played by John O’ Hurley) was a memorable character on Seinfeld for years.

Donald Staley/John Peterman Catalog Page

 

The stories of these start-up businesses will amuse you, delight you and, hopefully, inspire you to create wealth beyond the dreams of avarice. Remember, like these entrepreneurs, if you do at your job what you truly love doing, you will never work a day in your life!

 

 

A Personal Note from an Old Blogger

Dear Reader,

 

When I launched Denny Hatch’s Marketing Blog in April 2018 I decided not to charge for it. “Free is a magic word,” proclaimed my mentor, Dick Benson.

 

Sending out an e-blog costs virtually nothing. After 50+ years of 12-hour days it was time to have some fun for a change. I did not want to get into the weeds of paid subscriptions – renewals and billing series, dunning, business bank account, paying taxes, etc. Been there, done that over 20 years with the WHO’S MAILING WHAT! newsletter and archive service plus feature articles and seemingly endless travel as editor and publisher of Target Marketing Magazine.

 

So… after five years and 182 blog posts the folks at Echo Point Books & Media offered to bring Method Marketing back into print. Not only was this a nice stroke for this old ego, it was a chance to maybe make a little money.

 

I’m told by the publisher the modern way to get a book noticed is to generate online sales on Amazon and/or Barnes & Noble and then hopefully get positive customer reviews.

 

Game on.

 

Asking a Favor of You, My Reader...

That You Kindly Order a Copy of Method Marketing from Amazon or Barnes & Noble and then jot down your thoughts in a "Customer Review" on That Website.

Reviews on Amazon and Barnes & Noble from readers who like a book can give it traction in the marketplace. So I thank you in advance.

 

I think you’ll really like the paperback edition at $29.95. 

 

Easy to 0rder on Amazon. The Link: 

https://www.amazon.com/Method-Marketing-Denison-Hatch/dp/1648372759/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3BIGET7CI0CIR&keywords=method+marketing+hatch&qid=1679225013&sprefix=%2Caps%2C132&sr=8-2

 

To Write a Review on Amazon. The Link:

 https://www.amazon.com/review/create-review/?ie=UTF8&channel=glance-detail&asin=1648372759

 

 Easy to Order on Barnes & Noble. The Link:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/method-marketing-denison-hatch/1100485178?ean=9781648372766

 

To Write a Review on Barnes & Noble. The Link:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/method-marketing-denison-hatch/1100485178?ean=9781648372766

 

 

Below are some original reviews of Method Marketing from the 1999 edition.

 

In closing… thank you, thank you for continuing to receive this blog and thank you in advance for buying Method Marketing.

 

I guarantee Method Marketing won’t disappoint.

 

Cheers.

 

Reviews of Method Marketing

There is a hidden lesson in Hatch's latest paean to modern direct-mail methodologies: do not be too quick to pick successful companies to feature as examples in business books, because the minute they are selected, chances are 50-50 that their profits will start dropping. Despite the highlighting of J. Peterman Company, the examples chosen here are powerful--and more important, their workings are explained in detail. Best letters are dissected and parsed down to individual words, with statistics and research supporting the results. Hatch's colloquial tone attracts even readers otherwise not used to advertising matters; eloquent stories such as the fall and rise of Covenant House, for instance, will not fail to mesmerize.         
                            —Barbara Jacobs, Booklist

 

= = = = = = = = = = = = = =

 

Denny Hatch is a direct mail writer who coined the phrase Method Marketing, meaning magic and “delight” to the customer. Hatch tells the story of five entrepreneurs who built huge businesses on the power of copy alone. Three other successes (or temporary success) used other unique methods of 1:1 contact. Sprinkled throughout his book are a few short vignettes about business, direct mail facts, figures, and do’s and don’ts.
     Marty Edelston held a dozen jobs before he founded Boardroom, his $125 million–dollar newsletter business. Along the way Marty (what his 80 employees call him) met copywriter Mel Martin, who became his “secret weapon.” Martin is famous for his creation of “fascinations," or teaser copy found on the outside of envelopes, but he filled entire pages with fascinations. Martin’s copy sold the Boardroom newsletters. Hatch feels Martin’s copy was even better than the newsletters.
     Written in a fun and conversational tone, this book was hard to put down. As founder of the newsletter “Who’s Mailing What!” Hatch owns the largest private collection of direct mail. At one time, advertisers were sending him 3,000 to 4,000 mailers a month. He’s a direct mail expert indeed.
                        —Katherine Kay, Business Insider

 

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = 

 

Denny Hatch is the historian of the Direct Response Marketing industry.
     According to Denny Hatch, a key trait of the copywriters who write successful advertising is the ability to get inside the head of the customer - to understand the wants, needs, fears, etc. that drive the customer's buying decision. He calls this approach "Method Marketing." The analogy is to "method acting", the Stanislavsky technique for actors to understand how the human mind works - what causes the emotions of exclusivity, flattery, fear, greed, guilt, anger, salvation - so the actor can get inside the head of a character and become the character so convincingly the audience will experience suspension of disbelief and accept the performance as real.
     In Method Marketing, Hatch tells the stories of the use and abuse of this ability, including the actual sales letters that initially persuaded prospective customers to take action and create some extraordinary companies or organizations. Along the way, he also explains other important factors for success in direct response marketing, including the mathematics required to realize net profits.
     Method Marketing is a worthwhile addition to your marketing library for its ideas and examples to achieve success in direct response marketing.
              —Michael C. Gray, CPA, Profit Advisors

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#182 A Copywriter's Toughest Assignment

 #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 6^th 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 6^th 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

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/judge-sanctions-trump-lawyer-1-million-1234664656/

 

• 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

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trumps-defense-lawyer-alina-habba-sued-by-employee-for-yelling-n-word

 

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

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/06/09/donald-trump-unpaid-bills-republican-president-laswuits/85297274/

 

• 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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