INEXPLICABLE: Trump’s own attorney fails to justify his abominable Truth Social posts

Once again, Donald Trump is in trouble and is lashing out verbally, and once again, his social media attacks have been followed by threats of physical violence. Even his attorney, Joe Tacopina, can’t quite bring himself to condone the rhetoric, although he still insists it’s not Trump’s fault.

Tacopina has been making the media rounds, sampling his client’s defenses for the news media before the day that he may actually need to offer a defense in a courtroom.

He may be beginning to learn, as so many attorneys have already, that the former president is even harder to defend morally than legally.

In fact, when asked about Trump’s social media posts — and the subsequent death threats (as well as a powdered substance) sent to District Attorney Alvin Bragg — Tacopina let slip that these posts are not exactly what he’d advise a client to do, and quickly tried to narrow the focus to a single (since-removed) post, for which he blamed an unspecified media team member.

Pressed about other posts, though, in which Trump called Bragg an animal and a “degenerate psychopath” and said he was “doing the work of…the devil,” the attorney was unable to offer any real defense.

Tacopina deflected, saying, “I’m not his social media consultant,” but also acknowledged that the posts are dehumanizing, and described them himself as “ill-advised.”

However, as he promoted his client’s claims of innocence for a TV audience, he insisted that he’s “not a PR person” and that it’s not his role to address Trump’s social media behavior.

“I’m not going to defend or condemn anything regarding social media. That’s not what I do. I don’t have anything to do — I’m not a Trump PR person,” Tacopina told NBC‘s Chuck Todd:

You’ll want to check out the clips at the bottom of this page to see Tacopina try to defend Trump’s false claim that he would be arrested this past Tuesday, as well as his string of attacks on D.A. Bragg.

However, Tacopina’s stated purpose for his appearance was to address the potential charges against Trump, and to that end, he claimed that payments made to silence Stormy Daniels were not for campaign purposes.

Unfortunately for Trump’s defense, there have already been admissions that keeping Daniels’ story out of the public eye was intended to protect the campaign — and not only by Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen.

The owner of the National Enquirer admitted in 2018, as reported by USA Today at the time, that he’d been involved in a catch-and-kill scheme to prevent her story from making it to print, too.

That’s aside from the fact that the charge — if there is one — could be not for campaign finance violations, but for falsifying a business record by mislabeling exactly what the payment covered.

In that case, it may not matter whether the cover-up was for campaign purposes, or, as Trump’s defense claims, keeping his family from being embarrassed.

As for the “ill-advised” social media attacks, Tacopina’s admission Sunday morning didn’t prevent Trump from leveling further attacks in the afternoon.

Trump just posted a link in which attorney and Trump-apologist Alan Dershowitz (who, along with Trump, has been caught up in allegations of sexual abuse connected to Jeffrey Epstein and his victims) suggests that the District Attorney should be disbarred for bringing the case.

With Chuck Todd on Meet the Press, Tacopina also argued that the former president didn’t make up his imaginary arrest date, he “just assumed,” which he seems to consider different in a way he doesn’t quite get around to explaining.

"I think he just assumed" — Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina on Meet the Press (!) tries to explain Trump's false claim about getting arrested last week pic.twitter.com/Ey31CXTQTC

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 26, 2023

Here’s the clip where even Tacopina recognizes that Trump’s social media behavior is “ill-advised.”

WATCH: Trump lawyer @JosephTacopina calls the former president's Truth Social posts attacking Manhattan DA Bragg "ill advised."

Tacopina: "He quickly took [it] down." @chucktodd: "You're only referring to the baseball bat. He didn't take down the other rhetoric." pic.twitter.com/N7RVjeZTRt

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) March 26, 2023

Tacopina may be trying his best to defend his client in the court of public opinion, but the only thing that really matters at this point is how he will defend Trump in the court of law.

Steph Bazzle covers politics and theocracy, always aiming for a world free from extremism and authoritarianism. Follow Steph on Twitter @imjustasteph.