Look, it’s well established that Donald Trump doesn’t read—like, anything. Ever. So, I’m not surprised that he, perhaps, would not know the minute details of indictments and bond agreements, because I’m sure they’re in legalese on some long documents—note the plural in indictments because he’s been arrested a lot lately.
However, I would expect someone on Trump’s team: a lawyer, a campaign manager, his spray tanner, to know at least the high-level “oopsies” that would be frowned upon by the various jurisdictions where he’s currently released from custody. That is expecting too much from anyone associated with the Trump campaign, or the Trump legal team, or just a cousin of his who maybe got in trouble with the law a lot at some point in their lives, because Donald Trump just did an oopsie: he was caught buying a gun on camera, for all the world to see. D’oh!
Here, see for yourself. Clearly, he thought it would be a fun (for his base) thing to do while on the presidential campaign trail. He thought wrong:
Here’s the truly tacky gun he purchased. Naturally, it had his face on it.
Now, here’s where the truly buffoonish part comes in: Trump himself may or may not have committed a crime by purchasing the gun. I don’t know about you, but I don’t really like to skirt that line, but then again, I don’t have 91 pending charges against me, so what do I know? Not how to incite an insurrection and interfere with a federal election, that’s for sure!
However, it was certainly super illegal for the gun store owner to have sold him the gun. From The New York Times:
Under the main federal gun law, 18 U.S.C. 922, it is illegal for merchants to sell firearms to people who are under indictment for crimes carrying sentences of more than a year. Indicted defendants are also barred from shipping or receiving any weapons that have crossed state lines.
But the statute does not appear to prohibit people under indictment from simply buying or possessing weapons.
According to HuffPost, it was illegal for Trump to buy the gun (but full disclosure, they didn’t reference a statute):
Federal law prohibits several categories of people from buying or owning guns, including people who use marijuana or any other federally criminalized drug, people who have been convicted of a felony, and people who have merely been charged with a felony.
[…]
When someone buys a gun from a federally licensed dealer, the buyer has to fill out a standard form from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with a series of questions, including whether the purchaser is addicted to drugs or whether the person has been charged with felony or crime for which a judge could levy a prison sentence longer than a year.
The form asks the buyer to sign their name under a warning that a “yes” response to any of the questions means the buyer “is prohibited from receiving, possessing, or purchasing a firearm.”
So, to summarize: The gun seller? Definitely up s*** creek without a paddle. Trump? Probably in trouble with the Feds.
That’s a rough road to go down: in trouble with the feds, tacky taste, and begging to reclaim the job you were publicly fired from. Wouldn’t want to be Trump right now.
So now that Trump could have dug himself an even bigger hole to get out of, the MAGA machine is circling their hoods around him and trying to insist to the world that Trump did not—they repeat, did not—buy the gun … despite the fact that just a few hours earlier, they were gleefully talking about it.
Here’s my favorite social post about it. All that it’s missing is the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme song to play at the end. These people really think we’re as easily fooled as they are:
Yes, that is Marjorie Taylor Greene saying she has a photo of Trump with his gun. Then, there’s an immediate cut to a social post from Brian Glenn (the other guy in the clip) emphatically stating that Trump did not buy a gun, with a “fake press” mention for good measure. Honestly, it’s so predictable. Break rules, deny, and then scream about persecution.
Look, we all know President Trump didn’t care about breaking rules because of the power of his office. However, that man isn’t president anymore. He’s just another guy, out on bond, under Federal indictment. The rules apply to him now. (Maybe? Probably? Hopefully, depending on who’s in charge that day?) Regardless, I wouldn’t want to be the gun seller or Trump right now, mainly because they’re bad people with atrocious views and tacky taste, and oh yeah, the Feds are probably at least a little miffed with both of them right now. Not a good position to be in.
(featured image: Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
