We’ve all heard the the old, and very true, adage that criminals accuse others of their own crimes. People call this mechanism various things like “projection” or “misdirection.” Not inaccurate. But there’s more to this.

When people commit harmful acts against others, they experience the need to have a reason or justification for those acts. If Johnny hits Joey, Johnny knows its bad but decides that Joey deserved it in some way. The act may have had nothing to do with Joey, but Johnny convinces himself that it was Joey’s fault and thus convinces himself that he’s the actual victim.

Sound nuts, right? Well if you observe closely the conflicts we see around us, you see that this is pretty much on the mark. Ever have your car get hit in a parking lot or on a street and have the other driver immediately blame you, even though you weren’t moving? Exactly.

What about a guy who has now been charged with 88 felonies and is on trial for 34 of them right now? Trump’s defense team just closed out their closing arguments by saying that Trump was the victim.

The litany of crimes Trump has been charged with is massive. In spite of all claims by Trump and his various surrogates, these cases could not have been brought in the first place without clearing a lot of hurdles. The most important of those being evidence.

But Trump claims that the evidence of his various criminal conspiracies has been generated by a criminal conspiracy against him. Thus he’s the victim. Of course he’s about as convincing in this claim as Beetlejuice is at playing the good guy.

But the real danger here is that he somehow slips through the system and escapes justice. Then we’re really in trouble—and he’s already been trumpeting (couldn’t resist) his intentions. Criminals who become successful at playing the victim will use that experience to commit all manner of new crimes. And, the people who acted against him will, in his mind, deserve whatever he decides to do to them.

With Trump’s warnings about being a dictator on “day one,” taking over the DOJ to “go after” the Bidens and others who have crossed him, the victim’s justification for revenge and retribution comes into full play.

Stacked on top of this is the specter of Project 2025 which is poised to destroy the very fabric of our country in support of Trump should he regain access to the White House.

Trump has already floated the idea of doing away with our Constitution. That this completely violates his former oath of office and the the oaths of those who support him is obvious, but since he plans on destroying the Constitution anyway, why would he care.

This “victim” presents an existential danger to our country, our freedoms and way of life like no other we have seen before. And perhaps the most important people countering this threat are the twelve jurors and six alternates at his current trial in New York. This week is going to be a nail-biter for Trump, but even more so for the rest of us.