As the prosecutors and courts muddle on with the Trump cases, I have been reflecting further about the most curious case of the secret documents Trump removed from the White House, stored in various insecure locations at Mar-a-Lago, lied about, refused to return, and, to this day, claims that he has an absolute right to have and to do with what he pleases, including, as he has already done, sharing them with persons not cleared to see them.

My main question is: why? Why would Trump set himself up for charges of violating national security in this way? Why, when the demand for return was made, did he not simply return the documents and claim it was all a big misunderstanding? Indeed, Why didn’t the Trump family rush to persuade him to return the documents? How about all the sycophantic spineless Republicans in Congress? Why didn’t they go to him and try to persuade him to return the documents?

I recognize the obvious: once Trump wants something to be true, he declares it’s true and that, for him, is the end of it. And the truth is that belief is a choice. No one inherently believes the Earth is an orb. They are taught in school that it is so and, in good schools, given the evidence from which its “orbness” has been deduced. The relatively small number of dunderheads who claim the Earth is flat have chosen not to believe the evidence.

Trump always chooses to “believe” that which benefits him. Thus, while president, he repeatedly said: “Article II allows me to do anything I want,” https://tinyurl.com/28ysddrt, all the while claiming he doesn’t talk about it while he’s talking about it. I can say with certainty that no attorney with credible understanding of the Constitution would accept that claim, but Trump chooses what he chooses.

Moreover, everything with Trump is transactional. I understand that he is stubborn and doesn’t like to be told what to do. One theory is that he kept the documents just to show that no one, not even the top law enforcement echelons of the U.S. government, can tell him what to do. Maybe, but that explanation seems thin when the criminal charges of the gravest nature are considered. Trump is not much of a gambler, and he would have to have a gambler’s mentality to persist with the document fight in the face of the felony charges brought against him.

While he likes to portray himself as a brilliant businessman, he bankrupted most of the businesses he has been involved in, including, remarkably, casinos. Starting with the millions he had at his disposal, as gifts from his father, almost anyone could’ve made a fortune in real estate in places. like New York City. Still, Trump sees everything in terms of personal benefit to him.

Those characteristics of his personality and behavior, perpetuated over his entire life cycle, thus lead to my speculation about why Trump stole the documents and refused to return them even to the point of being criminally charged. He planned to sell them to foreign governments that would be very interested in seeing top secret U.S. government intelligence reports and would likely pay top dollar for them. If Trump were, by some miracle, to escape a finding of guilt in the documents case, and regain possession of the documents, you can expect Trump to monetize the documents very quickly. It’s what he does.