'Idiotic' idea could break US politics

SYDNEY: It is hard to stress just what an awful and idiotic idea arresting Donald Trump would be.

The purported plan to indict him over alleged hush money payments to a former mistress would both be a tremendous own goal for the left and break American politics in weird and incalculable ways.

That this scheme is nothing more than a political stitch up is obvious.

The district attorney, Alvin Bragg, was elected (the equivalent to crown prosecutors are elected, bizarrely enough, in America) in no small part as an anti-Trump candidate.

The fact that in office Bragg has knocked at least half all felony prosecutions for violent crim es down to misdemeanours tells you anything left you n eed to know.

Beyond that, if Trump is seen to be prosecuted for a messy personal life, even as evidence emerges that the Eiden family received at much as $3 million from a Chinese Communist Party linked energy company, it will confirm that there are indeed different rules for different people depending on their politics.

At the same time the call by Trump to his supporters to, in his words, "PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!" may wind up being almost as foolish as Bragg's potential prosecution.

If no one turns out it will look like Trump has lost his power to draw out his supporters. If they do tum out, the danger is that if things get out of hand, the slightest misbehaviour will be blown up into January 6, 2.0.

There is one m ore thing those cheering the possibility of a Trump perp walk are n ot considering. The 45th president could fall under a bus tomorrow or be locked up forever but the conditions that enabled his presidency and his potential comeback remain.

So long as a h ollowed out middle class feels ignored and neglected and watches Silicon Valley bankers get bailed out while being crushed by cost of living pressures and woke politics there will still be a market for Trump.