Back in 2016, Donald Trump said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and his supporters would still support him. In 2022, it still holds.
According to the search warrant of Mar-a-Lago, the ex-president violated the law on the protection of sensitive information (Espionage Act).
This potential crime adds to a long list, which ranges from tax evasion and sexual assault to attempts to bribe election officials and incitement to violent insurrection against the Capitol.
It is also a new level in the descent into the abyss of the Republican Party.
crimes without punishment
What was the reaction of supporters of the “party of law and order” to the latest accusations which add to the heavy legal record of Donald Trump?
According to the polls, Republican support for Trump has climbed about ten percentage points. One by one, the Republicans critical of Trump are defeated in the primaries, those who peddle his lies are elected and the others are silent, terrified.
Lynn Cheney, a far-right ideologue and once a rising star in the party who dared to expose the leader’s lies and misdeeds, was crushed in the Wyoming primaries.
However, the faults alleged against Trump are serious and the evidence overwhelming.
Why this impunity?
One can imagine that if Donald Trump were caught in the act of shooting down a fellow on Fifth Avenue, his supporters would invent a thousand pretexts to exonerate Trump and claim the skin of the poor fellow if he came out alive.
All his life, Donald Trump has escaped the consequences of his countless misconducts. This impunity is linked in part to the privileges of the white rich and famous, but the explanation for its political invulnerability is more sinister.
Like all authoritarian populist leaders, Donald Trump knows how to manipulate the feelings of alienation of his partisan base, who have come to believe that any accusation or criticism of the self-proclaimed representative of the “real” people is an attack on all who identify with him.
Armed with the unwavering hold he exercises over these tens of millions of faithful – including a few million armed to the teeth, many of whom are ready to pull the trigger –
Trump can threaten to unleash them on anyone who dares challenge his authority…and it works.
An authoritarian cult
Reacting to Cheney’s discomfiture, the ex-Republicans of the Lincoln Project concluded on Tuesday: “Tonight marks the end of the Republican Party. What remains bears the name and hallmarks of the mainstream GOP, but in effect has become a nationalist and authoritarian cult devoted entirely to Donald Trump. »
It was already apparent, it is now unavoidable. Regardless of the legal tribulations of the ex-president, all the political action of the Republicans between now and November 2024 will contribute to consolidating the unhealthy hold he exerts on his party, which has become the instrument of his authoritarian narcissism.
This vision is fortunately in the minority in the United States, but it could nevertheless prevail if the right-wing electorate persists in perceiving all its opponents as dangerous extremists, if the media persists in treating the Republican Party as a “normal” party, if the Democrats fail to manage their divisions and if the Trumpists’ assault on electoral institutions succeeds.