#BREAKING: Trump says "temperature has to be brought down" after Mar-a-Lago search https://t.co/b8RxkWuBBs pic.twitter.com/uEJaDoQOjp

— The Hill (@thehill) August 15, 2022

The Hill’s editorial staff sees this Monday Fox News interview with the Orange Fat Bastard and promptly writes a headline selling Trump as having said the “temperature has to be brought down.” They could’ve instead picked the part where he complained about “years of fake witch hunts and phony Russia, Russia, Russia schemes and scams… nothing happens to those people who perpetuate that – nothing happens with them,” “And then they break into a president’s house – a sneak attack where it was totally—no one ever thought a thing like this would happen,” “People are so angry at what is taking place,” “The people of this country are not going to stand for another scam,” or other rants that far outnumber the insincere platitudes of comity.

But because Trump also said he wants some sort of deescalation – and let’s be fucking honest here, despite the vague offer to “help” in the middle of the rest of his hateful shit, he’s not telling his fans to stop threatening the Justice Department, he’s telling the Justice Department to back off so his fans stop threatening them – The Hill makes that the headline and lede.

You couldn’t design this better in a lab. Trump sits for an interview with Fox News, puts it on the DOJ, not him, to back down, giving his defenders something to work with just as he did when he used to word “peacefully” a few times when he incited his marauders to attack the Capitol, and The Hill just runs with it, the fucking losers and suckers that they are.