For the first time in American political history, the ballots intended to choose the next president of the United States will in all likelihood include a candidate found guilty in a criminal trial. Worse: against and against all usual logic, it is a safe bet that the conviction of Donald Trump rendered Thursday by 12 jurors in New York only contributes to solidifying his achievements, confirming once again a certain political reversal of the natural order of things, where lies, crime and villainy only fortify one’s immunity rather than arouse opprobrium.
Guilty. On the 34 counts of accounting falsification he faced, Donald Trump was found guilty by the jury after two days of deliberations. The unrepentant Trump has had his fair share of court appearances in recent times, and it’s for having falsified accounting documents in order to hide the fact that he had paid a $130,000 bribe to former porn actress Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels, that the jury found her guilty.
The affair is extraordinary. Never has a former American president, who, moreover, wishes to occupy the Oval Office again next November, been found guilty of a crime. In a sense, this conviction confirms that when faced with justice, all Americans are equal: even a billionaire who led the country can undergo a legal process and be found guilty. But by angrily rejecting the verdict as soon as it was pronounced, Trump once again confirms that he has erected his own framework for himself and his followers, where conventional structures have no use.
At the end of this trial where we saw him sleepy, indifferent, vociferous in the face of the efforts of M’s lawyersme Clifford, Donald Trump obviously cried “rigged trial” – a real “disgrace”, according to the ex-reality TV star playing in real life the main role of a play in bad taste. In a lengthy monologue delivered Friday morning in response to the ruling, he continued his attacks on Judge Juan Merchan, saying that “he looks like an angel, but in reality he is the devil.” A “corrupt” judge, justice without morality, an organized trial: as soon as the spotlight falls on the former American president, he sets out to destroy those who try to impose on him the rules of processes proven for ages, notably by the Republican machine. Nothing works. For this dismal character without faith or law, norms, principles and conventions are all opportunities for misappropriation of meaning.
His sentence should be known on July 11, four days before the start of the Republican National Convention in Wisconsin, where the Republican presidential candidate will be officially inducted. Experts agree that the likelihood of him staying in prison is slim, but even from a cell, he could campaign and lead the country if he is elected on November 5. Constitutional rules do not prohibit the marriage of the presidency to the prison. On the scene of the absurd, anything goes. Trump’s lawyers have unsurprisingly indicated that they will appeal the verdict.
In the world of normality, such a legal setback would serve to destroy a candidacy. For Donald Trump, this verdict will be nothing more than fuel to spread on his campaign: in addition to the millions that he will magically collect, this court decision could help to gain him additional followers. Like him, they will see in this verdict pronounced by 12 American citizens a confirmation of the dissolution of political and judicial powers. After seeing him maneuver, create a parallel political reality, succeed in turning truths into lies and setbacks into victories, the “political prisoner” Trump, as he describes himself, could solidify his base.
After his defeat in 2020 at the hands of Democrat Joe Biden, defeated candidate Donald Trump worked to demonize the electoral process, making it a corrupt machine. Now his next target will be the judicial system, which he will work to discredit. “If they can do this to me, they can do it to anyone,” he said Friday.
No one can predict the repercussions that this verdict and this unworthy reaction of the condemned will have on the moderate fringe of American voters that Trump is trying to seduce; for these, will it be the straw that breaks the camel’s back? In which case Democratic candidate Joe Biden, who will repeat that his opponent is a convicted criminal without falling into untruth, could rally the outraged.
Electing a criminal at the head of the world’s greatest power, and a notorious detractor of the American electoral and judicial systems, could only lead to one form of government: chaos.