A trial in a friendly town in a conquered state under the supervision of a judge he appointed himself.
At first glance, it looks like the United States Department of Justice has done former President Donald Trump a favor by deciding to hold his trial in Miami, Florida, rather than Washington DC, in connection with his handling of state secrets. Or rather its non-management.
Miami, for Donald Trump, is home. There is a hotel and golf club, the Trump National Doral, where he took refuge on Tuesday before pleading not guilty to 37 counts in federal court in the Florida city. He is notably accused of having illegally amassed top-secret government documents, of having exhibited them to whom better and of having put a spoke in the wheels of the investigators who were trying to recover them.
PHOTO RICARDO ARDUENGO, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Many people demonstrated in Miami on Tuesday, both supporters and detractors of Donald Trump. In the photo, a man is holding a sign that reads “Lock him up.”
Near Miami, there is also the private Mar-a-Lago club, which the businessman has owned since 1985. When he was president, it was there that he took refuge from the political climate which was hostile to him in the American capital. It was called the White House Annex. Since he is no longer at the Oval Office, this is where he has established his main residence. It is also where he is accused of having stored the boxes of documents which are now at the heart of his legal problems.
Miami is also one of his favorite political laboratories. The city and surrounding area have long been a Democratic stronghold amid a state that leaned towards the Republican Party, but since 2016 Donald Trump has steadily won new followers there. In the 2020 presidential campaign, he comfortably won Florida thanks to overwhelming support from Latino voters in South Florida, Miami and surrounding areas.
In particular, he succeeded in convincing many of them, from Cuba, Venezuela or even Colombia and Nicaragua, that Joe Biden is the equivalent of the authoritarian left-wing leaders they fled to rebuild their lives in the States. -United.
“He also presented his foreign policy in a way they liked. Trump has promised to invade Venezuela. He has also radicalized his position with regard to Cuba. And he was lucky. The human rights situation has deteriorated in Nicaragua and a leftist president has been elected in Colombia. It benefited him, ”explains Eduardo Gamarra, professor of political science and international relations at Florida International University.
The researcher was also interested in disinformation campaigns that targeted Latino communities through Spanish-speaking radio stations. Conspiratorial nebula QAnon’s surreal rhetoric, which casts Donald Trump as the savior of a country controlled by satanic pedophile Democrats, has found a receptive audience among Latinos in Florida. “If we listened to certain Spanish-speaking radio stations just before Trump appeared, we heard that his indictment is a lie, that it was the Biden administration that piloted all of this,” adds the expert.
Support for the Republican politician, who dreams of returning to the White House in 2024, jumped in the face on Tuesday afternoon. The former president had left Federal Court less than an hour before when he showed up at a restaurant in Little Havana to greet members of Miami’s Cuban community. Far from heckling him, the crowd decided to sing “Happy Birthday” in honor of the former president whose birthday it is on June 14.
PHOTO ALEX BRANDON, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Donald Trump surrounded by supporters at a Cuban restaurant in Miami on Tuesday
Nor should the far-right support he enjoys in this metropolitan area of 6 million be underestimated. Enrique Tarrio, former leader of the Proud Boys, a neo-fascist group that played a central role in the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, lived there for several years before being sentenced in May for seditious conspiracy. Ditto for many members of this organization who dreamed of overturning the election of Joe Biden to put Donald Trump back in power.
In such a context, why the hell did American Justice do Donald Trump a favor by choosing Miami to indict him rather than the country’s capital? Because the wrapped gift looks like a Trojan horse.
The charges against Donald Trump are serious, unprecedented and deserve a clean trial. However, we should not forget that for nearly half of the country, it is not the former president who is in the dock, but Justice itself.
The Republican politician has continued to attack the judicial process and its craftsmen since he has been the subject of repeated legal proceedings. Just as he has been attacking the electoral system since his defeat in 2020. The whole thing is shaking the confidence of part of the public in these essential institutions.
However, if Donald Trump has a trial in a place that is sympathetic to him, under the watchful eye of Judge Aileen Cannon, whom he appointed and who has already ruled in his favor in a recent case, it becomes a lot more difficult to cry witch hunts and political persecution if convicted.
It’s quite a bet, but if, in the end, this strategic decision makes it possible to protect a pillar of American democracy while proving that no one is above the law, it will have been worth it.