Trump Threatens to Sue Bannon in Fight to Crown Washington’s Alpha Chimp

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Now this is a classic Trumpian feces-flinging brawl. He’s bringing the famous Trump nondisclosure agreement into his battle with ex-friend Steve Bannon:

Late Wednesday, lawyers for Trump sent a cease-and-desist letter to Bannon, arguing he violated the employment agreement he signed with the Trump Organization in numerous ways and also likely defamed the president. They ordered that he stop communicating either confidential and or disparaging information, and preserve all records in preparation for “imminent” legal action.

“You have breached the Agreement by, among other things, communicating with author Michael Wolff about Mr. Trump, his family members, and the Company, disclosing Confidential Information to Mr. Wolff, and making disparaging statements and in some cases outright defamatory statements to Mr. Wolff about Mr. Trump, his family members, and the Company,” read the letter from lawyer Charles Harder.

I really hope Trump goes through with this. Presidents routinely get upset about leaks and tell-all books, and often do ill-advised things to try stop it. But this! This would be the stupidest thing ever. And it would include discovery! And depositions under oath! And two titanic assholes vying for the title of who’s the bigger asshole.

That’s all too good to be true, so it probably won’t happen. But wouldn’t it be great if it did?

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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