Barbara Res, a former longtime top executive in the Trump Organization, on Sunday spelled out how Donald Trump will likely see an opportunity following the $355 million judgment in his civil fraud trial.
Res last year argued that Trump enjoyed being subject to the legal processes and being able to play the victim.
MSNBC’s Ali Velhi asked her if that was still the case.
“I don’t think he likes getting buffeted around and things being said about him that are so awful,” said Res, a reference to Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling on Trump’s routine overinflation of the worth of his assets for financial gain. Engoron said the four-times-indicted Trump’s “complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological.”
“But I think that he is OK with it to the extent that he can spin it and he’s already started that,” she continued.
“I think in his heart he believes, one, he’s gonna get away with it, and two, he can make money off of this somehow, getting more fundraising, more people to feel sorry for him,” added Res, who wrote “Tower of Lies” about her 18 years working for Trump.
Velshi asked Res if the myth of Trump being a business genius had now been firmly busted.
Nothing is going to change the view of his supporters, she replied, who were made up of hardcore MAGA fans and then wealthy people “who don’t care what happens to the Constitution” as long as taxes are low and regulations are done away with.
Trump is the Pied Piper, she claimed, and someone whose emergence on the political scene in the mid-2010s had emboldened people to flaunt their racism, xenophobia and sexism.
“They love him for that,” she said, adding that “they believe he’s the second coming.”
It’s “unbelievable,” responded Velshi.
Watch the interview here:
