Good morning. It's Sunday, July 2nd. I'm Michael Steele, in for my good friend, Ali Velshi.

It's the summer of grievance for Donald Trump. He's already been indicted twice this year.

And the former president is still facing the possibility of being indicted with even more

criminal charges in multiple ongoing investigations over the coming months. But rather than focus

his efforts on his legal defense and actually finding lawyers willing to represent him, he's chosen

to litigate his case on the campaign trail instead.

And as we've witnessed in recent months, Trump's third presidential bid, well, it's unlike anything we've seen before in American politics.

This Independence Day weekend, Trump took over Pickin, South Carolina, a small, sleepy

town near Blue Ridge Mountains, that is a population of about 3,000 people.

He was supposedly there to campaign, but mostly he was there to complain.

For most of his speech, that is what he did.

He complained about his legal situation and vowed to protect his supporters from the imaginary

threats of the deep state.

Our enemies want to stop me because I am the only one who can stop them.

If these corrupt persecutions of our people succeed, they will complete the takeover of this

country.

This country will be taken over by these lunatics and destroy your way of life forever. They want to take away my freedom because I will never let them take away your freedom.

I will never let it happen.

They want to silence me because I will never let them

silence you. And in the end, they're not after me. They're after you. And I just happen to be

standing in their way. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. This has become the central reason of Donald Trump's third presidential bid.

The defenses he has trotted out to try to excuse his criminal indictments have been falling

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