I remember the sense of relief that I experienced after the 2020 election was over: I won’t have to think about Trump anymore, worry about what he might do or say. Days go by, maybe weeks, when I don’t think about Biden. That’s called normal life.

But he’s back, demanding to fill up our heads with ME, ME, ME. Last week, a jury decided that Trump must pay E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million for defaming her. Throughout the trial, he defamed her in front of the jury, assailed the judge, the prosecutors, the Carroll lawyers. He acted like the petulant child that he is, and the only question for the jury was: how much of a fine will it take to make him shut up? So far it’s working; he hasn’t defamed her since the verdict. She is prepared to sue him again if he resumes his attacks on her.

Sometime this week, the judge in another New York trial will decide how much Trump should pay the state for engaging in fraudulent business practices. The state has asked for a penalty of $370 million, along with barring the Trump Organization from doing business in New York. Trump’s lawyers chose not to have a jury trial. The decision is in the hands of the judge. What does Trump do? He berated the judge again and again, as well as the state’s attorney general, the judge’s staff, and the judicial system. In what world is it smart to insult the man who will make the decision?

Last night, PBS ran a two-and-a-half hour special called Democracy on Trial about Trump and the Insurrection. it’s worth watching. What comes through clearly is that his White House Counsel and everyone else in his circle of advisors told him he lost the election. Rudy Guiliani told him to keep fighting, as did conspiracy theorists Sidney Powell and Mike Flynn. The most fascinating piece of information in the documentary to me is that he complained that “The Apprentice” didn’t win an Emmy because the decision was rigged; he predicted before the 2016 election that the election was rigged. He never loses because the race is always rigged.

His vanity knows no bounds.

Charles Koch is keeping Nikki Haley’s campaign alive, but Republicans in South Carolina are hurrying to get aboard the Trump steamroller.

This is not normal. I remember the respectable and upright Republican Party of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Mitt Romney was the last gasp of that party. Where are they now? Will the Republican Party go the way of the Know-Nothings?

Robert Hubbell writes today:

Remember that time—during Trump’s presidency—when every proposed action by the US government was evaluated by a single criterion: Does the action advance Trump’s personal interests? Although Trump is not president, House Republicans are giving us a reminder of what it was like when Trump was president. The text of the proposed immigration bill has yet to be released, but House Speaker Mike Johnson reportedly told his GOP colleagues on Tuesday that the bill is “dead on arrival” in the House. Why? Because Trump told him so—in order to advance Trump’s election prospects.

The situation is even more maddening than it appears at first blush. The House will likely vote on vague impeachment articles against Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas. One of the grounds for impeachment is that Mayorkas has lost “operational control of the border”—a fact that is unassailably true because Texas is blocking federal access to portions of the border!

There are other stories that deserve attention, but immigration is the lead issue. We should know by Friday if Trump will kill an immigration compromise that has been months in the making and whether the House will impeach a Cabinet secretary for the first time in 150 years.