Trump Using Weaponized Conspiracy Theory to Attack Joe Scarborough

President Wants to Silence, Make Example of MSNBC Host

Mika Brzezinski and former Rep. Joe Scarborough (R-Fla.) hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” (U.S. Department of Agriculture)

There’s a section in “The Choice 2016,” the two-hour PBS documentary about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, that encapsulates his nature. When Trump was building the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, Marvin Roffman, a securities analyst, pointed out that he was overleveraged and the venture would fail.

Trump responded with an angry letter to Roffman’s company, Janney Montgomery Scott, demanding they fire him. The company folded to Trump and fired the analyst. But Roffman had the last laugh, Trump’s venture eventually collapsed because it was drowning in debt. After he was blackballed in his industry, Roffman later successfully sued his former employer and Trump, according to a 2016 Politico article.

That episode is typical of Trump, it features his trademark behavior, mendacity, bullying, vindictiveness and an inability to tolerate criticism. And this behavior is found in his recent public battle with MSNBC host Joe Scarborough.