In the build-up to Brett Kavanaugh's and Christine Blasey Ford's appearances before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, Donald Trump was showing unusual restraint. He never called her dumb, never belittled her account of sexual assault, and never did anything that wouldn't be considered baseline human for a normal and decent person. For him, that was a display of remarkable self-control.

All of that went out the window on Tuesday night, when Trump was at a rally in Mississippi trying to boost support for Congressional Republicans. As usual, Trump's speech rambled, but he took special care to bolster his second Supreme Court nominee, particularly by attacking Ford's memory and mocking her composed testimony before the Senate.

Trump's mockery of Ford seems to have played well to the crowd, but it's drawn heated condemnation pretty much everywhere else. Jeff Flake, who loves to make a show of sort of taking a stand, called it "kind of appalling." Susan Collins declared it "just plain wrong." Even Brian Kilmeade of Fox & Friends took a break from his usual ego-stroking to say the president "chose to blow it" after his previous restraint.

But the timing for Trump's decision to finally lash out at Ford is telling. It came just hours after a massive and exhaustively reported story from The New York Times that accuses Trump of years of tax avoidance and pinpoints the real source of the president's fortune: his father, real estate mogul Fred Trump.

Part of the whole mythology of Donald Trump is that he's a "self-made billionaire," an oxymoron at best, and he famously declared in a presidential debate that he only ever received a "very small" loan of $1 million from his father. Even if that number were accurate, it doesn't take into account the resources, connections, and experience his father's wealth and last name afforded him. But it turns out even that calculation wouldn't be the whole story: The Times found Trump's father loaned him closer to $60.7 million (over $140 million adjusted for inflation), and that doesn't come near to touching the massive transfer of wealth Trump and his siblings got from their parents.

In this context, it makes sense that Trump would be desperate for a distraction, and sinking as low as attacking Ford was an easy and effective way to redirect attention. Per the Times: