“Former President Donald Trump faces various legal and political challenges, but few seem to have gotten him as agitated as a routine, expected, unsigned decision by the Supreme Court on Monday. Trump had already lost a bid to prevent Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. from acquiring his financial records via subpoena. The former president then sought a stay while he searched for other means to stall. As anticipated, the justices rejected the request. Trump then issued one of just a handful of public statements he’s issued since leaving office, blasting ‘the Continuing Political Persecution of President Donald J. Trump.’ His vehemence is part of a long-running pattern: Trump dislikes all investigations, but nothing rattles him like probes into his finances.”

“Reading Trump in the medium of the emailed statement, post–Twitter ban, remains disorienting. His statements maintain the vitriol of his tweets, but they have none of the concision, instead meandering through long lists of grievances. Nonetheless, the outlines of how Trump might try to frame his defense against legal investigations in the next stage of his career are starting to emerge. Trump makes four main claims: I’ve already been investigated, and I was found innocent; this is a fishing expedition by prosecutors; this is a politically motivated prosecution; and I got 75 million votes in the 2020 election. There’s a mix of the true, false, and irrelevant here worth teasing apart, but it’s the last claim – that the fact that so many people voted for him means he can’t be guilty of any crimes – that is most likely to endure, and most dangerous” – The Atlantic.