Targets Too Hot To Troll – Above the Law

Donald
Trump
has
met
his
match.

Twice.

First,
Trump
has
probably
learned
that
one
should
not
pick
online
fights
with
the
Vicar
of
Christ. Those
fights
are
hard
to
win
—
maybe
because
the
Pope’s
got
a
certain
someone
on
his
side.

Having
failed
in
jousting
with
the
Pope,
Trump
decided
to
up
the
ante. The
President
suggested
that
the
Pope
is
merely
the
Vicar
of
Christ,
whereas
Trump
is
Christ
himself. But
when
Trump
posted
a picture
of
himself
as
Christ —
dressed
in
a
toga,
surrounded
by
angels,
and
hands
glowing
with
heavenly
light
—
even
the
MAGA
faithful
wouldn’t
buy
it.
Trump
had
to
explain
his
blasphemy. He
decided
to
say
that
he
didn’t
realize
this
was
an
image
of
Trump
as
Christ;
he
thought
it
was
an
image
of
Trump as
a
physician.

How
many
ways
is
that
excuse
pitiful? Let
me
count
the
ways. First,
look
at
the picture. Any
person
who
thinks
that’s
an
image
of
Trump
as
a
physician
is
a
moron. But
Trump
says
he
thought
the
picture
was
of
him
as
a
physician. Is
Trump
a
moron?

The
alternative
is
that
Trump
is
not
a
moron. He
knows
full
well
that
the
picture
shows
himself
as
Christ,
but
he
decided
to
lie
about
the
picture
in
order
to
excuse
himself.  

How
does
this
explanation
reflect
on
Trump? He’s
ready
to
lie
about
his
understanding
of
the
image. He
disdains
the
public,
thinking
that
the
public
is
stupid
enough
to
believe
this
obvious
lie. And
his
previously
keen
political
instincts
are
fading,
as
Trump
believes
that
blasphemy,
coupled
with
telling
an
obvious
lie,
coupled
with
disdain
for
one’s
voters
is
somehow
a
useful
public
relations
strategy.

Protip: Politicians
should
not
pick
fights
with
the
Vicar
of
Christ. 

Or
Christ
himself.

Got
it?

What’s
another
target
that’s
too
hot
to
troll?

Iran.

In
the
battle
of
military
might,
the
United
States
is
defeating
Iran. The
U.S.
is
destroying
the
targets
that
it
attacks,
and
the
Iranian
counter-attacks
are
doing
only
modest
damage.

U.S.
1;
Iran
0.

In
the
battle
of
political
wills,
however,
Iran
is
winning. Iran
may
be
suffering
economically,
but
the
Iranian
government
consists
of
religious
fanatics
who
aren’t
worrying
about
the
Iranian
people. And
the
Iranians
have
managed
to
close
the
Strait
of
Hormuz
with
relatively
little
firepower,
thus
creating
a
crisis
for
the
U.S.
and
the
world. The
Iranian
government
may
be
feeling
less
political
pressure
than
Trump,
who’s
haunted
by
higher
gas
prices
and
upcoming
midterm
elections.

U.S.
1;
Iran
1.

In
the
battle
of
controlling
the
narrative,
the
victor
probably
depends
on
how
you
look
at
the
situation. Iran
says
Trump
started
this
war
two
months
ago
by
launching
an
unprovoked
attack
on
it. Trump
says
the
war
actually
started
in
1979,
with
the
Iranian
revolution
and
later
attacks
that
Iran
or
its
proxies
launched
on
American
targets. Iran,
of
course,
could
say
that
the
war
started
in
1953,
when
the
United
States
returned
the
Shah
to
power
in
a
coup
against
Prime
Minister Mohammad
Mosaddegh.  

And
why
stop
there? I
bet
historians
could
keep
going
back
in
time,
blaming
the
United
States
and
Iran
for
various
things
that
occurred
ever
since
the
sixth
century
B.C.,
when
King
Croesus
misinterpreted
the
prophecy
saying
that,
if
Lydia
attacked
Persia,
a
mighty empire
would
fall. (Oops! His
bad.)

But
think
about
it
differently. You
don’t
need
to
go
back
2,500
years
to
see
how
this
problem
started.
The
Obama
administration
negotiated
the
Iran
nuclear
deal,
which
restricted
Iran’s
right
to
enrich
uranium.
Trump
decided
this
was
the
worst
deal
ever
negotiated,
and
he
tore
it
up
in
2018.
Relieved
of
the
obligations
of
Obama’s
deal,
Iran
started
to
enrich
uranium
to
a
higher
level.
This
posed
a
threat
to
the
United
States,
which
the
U.S.
supposedly
obliterated
in
its
attack
on
Iran
last
year,
and
had
to
re-obliterate
in
its
follow-up
attack
on
Iran
this
year.

I’d
say
the
war
is
Trump’s
fault,
because
he
never
should
have
abandoned
the
Obama
nuclear
deal,
but
I
guess
there’s
room
to
argue
about
that.

Finally,
who’s
winning
the
battle
of
the
online
trolls?

It’s
very
hard
to
troll
Iran.
Even
if
Iran
is
an
Islamic
republic
with
a
theocratic
core,
thousands
of
its
people,
many
of
them
innocent,
have
died.
Pete
Hegseth
can
post
his
online
images
of
powerful
American
weaponry,
but
that’s
not
really
trolling.
It’s
more
like
showing
the
bully
kicking
sand
in
the
face
of
the
98-pound
weakling.
Trump
can
spout
about
how
he’s
going
to
instruct
the
military
to
bomb
Iran
back
to
the
Stone
Age,
but
at
this
point
those
repeated
bluffs
sound
like
a
senile
old
man
who’s
had
one
too
many.

So
the
U.S.
is
not
trolling
Iran
effectively.
But
the
Iranians,
for
their
part,
are
actually
pretty
good
at
trolling.
Iran
has
done
a
remarkably
good
job
of
using
images
created
out
of Legos or artificial
intelligence to
poke
fun
at
Trump,
divide
America,
and
move
global
public
opinion
to
its
side.

Trump,
the
ultimate
cyberbully,
is
getting
out-cyberbullied.
Iran
is
owning
the
Trumpists.

And
the
Pope
and
Iran
are
targets
too
hot
to
troll.

Who’d
a
thunk
it?

---

Mark Herrmann spent
17
years
as
a
partner
at
a
leading
international
law
firm
and
later
oversaw
litigation,
compliance
and
employment
matters
at
a
large
international
company.
He
is
the
author
of The
Curmudgeon’s
Guide
to
Practicing
Law and Drug
and
Device
Product
Liability
Litigation
Strategy (affiliate
links).
You
can
reach
him
by
email
at [email protected].