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Tuesday
Former GOP consultant and now leading Never Trumper Rick Wilson famously coined the maxim “Everything Trump Touches Dies” (ETTD for short). As various of Trump’s former lawyers face disbarment for their work on his behalf, I’ve been thinking of a literary character whose glib tongue gets him hired by a powerful man, only to ultimately be brought low by the association: Gri’ma, a.k.a. the Wormtongue.
Some of the Wormtongues who have worked for Trump—and who are now being indicted along with him by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis—are Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, John Eastman, Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro, and Jeffrey Clark. Among their crimes are devising the fake electors scheme and pressuring Georgia officials to “find” more votes for Trump. For their efforts, they now face a fate similar to that suffered by Wormtongue after his boss Saruman is toppled.
Wormtongue is noteworthy for having poured poison into the ears of King Theoden and others in his court as he sought to replace truth with falsehood. In the end, he finds himself tied to his disgraced boss, wandering the landscape as a beggar while Saruman berates him:
‘Get up, you idiot!’ he shouted to the other beggar, who had sat down on the ground; and he struck him with his staff. ‘Turn about! If these fine folk are going our way, then we will take another. Get on, or I’ll give you no crust for your supper!’
The beggar turned and slouched past whimpering: ‘Poor old Grı´ma! Poor old Grı´ma! Always beaten and cursed. How I hate him! I wish I could leave him!’
‘Then leave him!’ said Gandalf.
But Wormtongue only shot a glance of his bleared eyes full of terror at Gandalf, and then shuffled quickly past behind Saruman. As the wretched pair passed by the company they came to the hobbits, and Saruman stopped and stared at them; but they looked at him with pity.
While Trump may not insult his lawyers in this fashion, he exhibits his own form of contempt by refusing to pay them. Word is that Giuliani is bankrupt and the others are looking for other sources to cover their legal expenses. As someone (I believe Never Trumper lawyer George Conway) once quipped, MAGA stands for “Make Attorneys Get Attorneys.”
The question is now whether Trump’s lawyers will rise up against him as Wormtongue does with Saruman. Jay Kuo, who authors the legal blog The Status Kuo, is predicting that they will:
These defendants may seek to tie Trump directly to the case in order to throw him under the bus before he can do it to them. For example, they could claim they provided Trump with an array of options, but he took it to the next level by choosing the most crimey path.
In the final episode involving Saruman and Wormtongue, the hobbits have just overthrown them in the battle to free the Shire and sent them packing once again. Saruman (a.k.a. Sharkey) reveals how Wormtongue, at his command, killed quisling hobbit chieftain Lotho Baggins and possibly ate him:
‘Worm killed your Chief, poor little fellow, your nice little Boss. Didn’t you, Worm? Stabbed him in his sleep, I believe. Buried him, I hope; though Worm has been very hungry lately. No, Worm is not really nice. You had better leave him to me.’
A look of wild hatred came into Wormtongue’s red eyes. ‘You told me to; you made me do it,’ he hissed.
Saruman laughed. ‘You do what Sharkey says, always, don’t you, Worm? Well, now he says: follow!’ He kicked Wormtongue in the face as he groveled, and turned and made off.
It is at this point that this follower has had enough:
But at that something snapped: suddenly Wormtongue rose up, drawing a hidden knife, and then with a snarl like a dog he sprang on Saruman’s back, jerked his head back, cut his throat, and with a yell ran off down the lane.
Will Trump’s coup co-conspirators ultimately cut Trump’s throat (metaphorically) to save themselves? Will their defense strategy consist of hissing out, “You told me to; you made me do it”? Stay tuned.