Three years after Donald Trump pardoned Trump 2016 campaign manager Paul Manafort from his 43-month prison sentence after he was convicted for "tax and bank fraud in 2018 under Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election," The Washington Post reported Monday that the MAGA hopeful "is widely expected to hire" Manafort to assist with Trump's 2024 campaign.
According to the report, four anonymous sources said the Trump ally would "likely focus on the Republican convention in July and on fundraising for Trump’s campaign."
In a Tuesday, March 19 op-ed published by MSNBC, journalist and author Paul Waldman submits that, "There may be private reasons we can’t determine, but one thing is clear: Hiring Manafort would be a provocation, a way to simultaneously tweak Trump’s enemies (including the media) and signal his supporters that he is unconstrained — by rules, laws or even shame."
During the Monday episode of her show, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow pointed out, "Donald Trump has never been more desperately in need of money than he is right this second today — the day it is reported that this guy, for all his baggage, for all his ex-con sparkle, this guy is coming back, the guy who specializes in extracting money from Kremlin-aligned interests to serve Vladimir Putin's long-term goals."
However, Waldman notes, "The lack of ethical standards is not the only reason Manafort might find a home yet again in Trump’s inner circle. The Boundary Issues podcast host emphasizes, "Hiring Manafort is a kind of troll aimed at liberals and the news media."
With that, Waldman adds, the former president's "shamelessness may repel millions of Americans and flummox the media, who don’t know quite how to describe it. But his followers know exactly what it means."
The White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy author writes:
When Trump brings a man like that back to occupy a prominent position in his campaign, he sends several messages. The first is that there is no depth of corruption that Trump will not approve of. We knew this already, to be sure, but over the last few years, the whole Republican Party has come to a new understanding of this issue. Its foundation is that there is no objective standard of self-dealing or exploitation of public resources for private gain; any depth of corruption will be defended, so long as it’s committed by a Republican.
READ MORE: Here are all the Trump associates who have been sentenced to prison so farWaldman suggests its the "corruption" that "was always part of Trump’s appeal: He is a man unconstrained by ordinary rules and norms, and for people who chafe at the limitations the world puts on them, nothing could be more appealing. He cheats on his taxes, because 'that makes me smart.' He goes into court and demands immunity for crimes past and future, and even if he doesn’t get it, the sheer gall of him expecting it only adds to his allure.
Waldman's full op-ed can be read here.