Frequently in the heat of a passionate disagreement it’s hard to see the silver lining in what actually happened. Yes, legal scholars and pundits are fuming that Donald Trump got special dispensation from the court Monday morning, once again. And that is infuriating. But a couple of very good things happened and both were a win for The People and not for Trump. First of all, the fact that Trump’s $454M bond was reduced to $175M derailed MAGA fundraising efforts. And a great many people in Trump world are dismayed to put it mildly.
That was blow one. The PACs were all set up, as you heard with “Trump Tower Seized” hysteria. Now they can’t say that. Team Trump’s faux outrage, their righteous indignation has been nipped in the bud because the Mango Messiah only has to come up with a fraction of the money he was actually assessed, less than half. It’s a bit difficult to prove persecution when you’ve been dealt with so leniently. The $175M bond is a sweetheart deal anyway that you cut it.
And then there’s the other good thing that happened today, which is the scheduling of the hush money Stormy Daniels trial for April 15. Trump immediately announced that, “We’re going to appeal this.” No, he’s not. He can’t. You can’t appeal a court date.
And don’t think that doesn’t piss Trump off royally. Why? Because that means that one of his four criminal trials will actually come to pass before the election. Granted, it is the least of the trials, with the classified documents, January 6, and Georgia election racketeering trials being far more compelling and pretty much in that order of importance, going from least to most damaging.
Delay has been the tactic of the day and Trump can’t do it anymore in Manhattan. That door slammed shut on him this morning.
As Elie Honig just said, this is a turning point. People who might possibly have voted for Trump will start to think differently once he’s a convicted criminal. That will put an entirely different spin on the election. It’s one thing to be indicted, it’s something else altogether to be convicted. The indictment might have helped him with fundraising but it also chased away some serious Republicans who voted the party line but now were hesitant to do so.
But there are growing signs that being indicted for endangering America’s national security is damaging Trump politically, even if it isn’t harming his chances of securing the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. An ABC News/Ipsos poll released earlier this week found that 61 percent of voters believed the indictment was “serious,” as opposed to just 28 percent who viewed it as “not serious.” The number of voters who believed that he should be charged was somewhat lower: Just 48 percent, compared to 35 percent who believe the Department of Justice should have refrained from charging the former president. […]
As David Leonhardt writes for The New York Times, Trump’s numbers among Republicans and Independents are trending in the wrong direction. “The number of Republicans bothered by his legal problems seems to be growing,” Leonhardt writes. “So is the number among independents. More voters are bothered by the case against him — on charges of taking classified material and trying to conceal that he did — than by the earlier New York State charges related to hush money for a sexual encounter.”
These are both very bad signs for Donald Trump, even if the indictment has only made him stronger in the Republican primary. To win a general election against Joe Biden, Trump will need to consolidate support among both skeptical Republicans and Independents, even if Biden remains stubbornly unpopular. The indictment, moreover, may get worse for him, not better.
Democrats have largely stayed silent about it and have not aggressively pressed the case that Trump wantonly and recklessly endangered America’s national security but that may be changing—a growing number of advisers and aides are frustrated by Biden’s kid gloves approach to the indictment and it’s likely that the party will take a more aggressive tack in the coming days and weeks. And the indictment isn’t going anywhere: The case against Trump will proceed slowly over months and may stretch well into the 2024 election. Trump’s problems are only going to get worse, in other words.
This article is several months old and we saw during the primaries how a good solid percentage of voters, 19%, 24%, amazing numbers of Republicans were voting for other candidates, even if they had formally dropped out of the race. So the indictment has hurt and a conviction will absolutely hurt.
And as to sentencing? Well, let’s not run and get ahead of ourselves here, but if you had, let’s say a sentencing ahead of the GOP convention in the summer, that is going to be a game changer. There simply is no way that it won’t be.
And how will it change the game? Who knows? Because like everything Trumpian, it is unprecedented, it is a case of first impression. It’s all terra incognita. But I cannot think that it will be good. And Trump doesn’t think that it will be good or he wouldn’t have been so hellbent on “appealing” the trial date.
Trump will be something in trial. We saw that during the Trump Organization fraud trial and here’s a glimpse of when he was in his Trump football trial.
From a juror in the 1986 trial where Trump wrecked the USFL by persuading the other owners to compete against the NFL then cash out with a frivolous anti-trust lawsuit. https://t.co/T5m4TadvRF pic.twitter.com/A9XnZnNeen
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) March 25, 2024
And all that has happened in the ensuing decades is that he’s gotten more arrogant and unlikeable still. Plus, now he’s broke, under indictment in three other jurisdictions, has two appeals going in two civil trials, and he’s filed a frivolous lawsuit against ABC News. Trump world is an open air insane asylum, no two ways about it. He can distract himself with golf tournaments and live in a bubble where people all stand and cheer when he enters a room, but in a larger world, Trump is in trouble, bigly, and he knows it.
Mango man is an utter moron. It oozes from his pores like so much sewage.
There are enough magats to get trump the ‘pube nomination. There are NOT enough to put him in the w.h. unless significant numbers of dems and/or indies stay home. I would say “surely they know better than to do that” but at this point in our nation’s history, I do not know if the majority of voters can tie their own shoes. Depending upon people who watch reality shows and asininity like that is not a good strategy.
Lo and behold! There’s one judge not willing to dance to trump’s evil tune. Miracles never cease.
Once a jury convicts all gloves are off & he will be known as Felon Trump. Odds are that will make a big difference & if not then I’m a lost American!