Trump finds another "deranged" judge

Over the years Donad Trump has come up with a few choice and favoured words and phrases and repeats them over and over again. Among his most repeated ones are "witch hunt", "fake news" and "deranged". Anyone who doesn't agree with what he says or does is deranged in his view. The latest one to receive this epithet is Justice Arthur Engoron, a New York judge, who has ruled that the former president inflated the value of all of his properties by £2.2 billion in order to raise loans for his business empire. In other words, the judge was accusing Trump of fraud. Trump dismissed the accusation and said the judge was deranged. He has used this adjective before, many times. Any lawyer or judge or political opponent who has spoken out against him has been accused of being deranged. Jack Smith, the special counsel, has more than once been described as deranged. It's an effective word because what it is basically saying is that Trump believes anyone who finds fault with him has to be mad. Even in America, I doubt many people would get away with calling a judge deranged. In the UK, they would be summoned and charged with contempt of court. But Trump's language is now so much part of the political landscape that it seems he can get away with insulting whom he likes. If the judge has a sense of humour he will no doubt see it as a badge of honour that the former president thinks he is doolally. Whatever Trump thinks, however, the fact is a judge has looked at the books and has ruled that the would-be 47th president is guilty of fraud, or put it another way, guilty of lying and cheating. What a lovely prospect for the nation as the 2024 presidential election gets closer.