Trump responds as imagined
While we are reluctant to compare Donald Trump to the fictional characters of Shakespeare given the Bard’s skill, subtlety and wit, the ex-president’s rambling Tuesday night seethe-a-thon from the Donald J. Trump Grand Ballroom at Mar-a-Lago had all the elements of King Lear’s Act III rage on the hearth.
Whatever history was made in the New York arraignment of the ex-president on 34 felony charges stemming form a hush money scheme to cover up his alleged affair with a porn star prior to the 2016 presidential campaign, there was nothing original in Trump’s response. To describe it as over-the-top is wholly inadequate. It was a solid 11 on a 10 scale of crazy.
Trump didn’t just lash out at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, but at every prosecutor and investigator looking into his suspect behavior whether it involved Stormy Daniels or classified documents stashed at Mar-a-Lago or efforts to overturn the last election or the Trump Organization’s alleged misrepresentations about financial matters to lenders and insurers. And that’s not even considering his apocalyptic views of Joe Biden’s performance in the White House and Democrats generally.
Many of those assembled for the much-anticipated speech, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Michael “My Pillow Guy” Lindell, clearly loved it. So did his core supporters watching at home in prime time. But one has to wonder if staying on brand and tossing red meat to the Always-Trumpers actually served the defendant’s best interests, both as the accused but secondarily as a 2024 presidential candidate.
Lost in all the bluster and prevarication was a more thoughtful assessment that Bragg’s indictment was surely no slam-dunk. There is at its core an uncertain interpretation of criminal intent in how Trump attempted to suppress negative stories and whether misdemeanor violations of state business records requirements could be charged as felonies.
Did Bragg file these charges more for political effect than as an attempt to enforce the law? That’s the Trump claim, but to make it convincingly requires a deeper dive into the fact pool than the candidate is willing to make (or perhaps is even capable).
And that’s why Democrats should be delighted with last week’s turn of events. If there’s one thing Biden supporters must relish, it’s the growing probability that their candidate, for all his unpopularity, age and modest campaign skills, will face this zealot when he runs for re-election next year.
Oh, the Trump supporters will come out to the GOP primaries in force reducing the likelihood that a less hyperbolic candidate or even an upstart like Ron DeSantis will be the Republican nominee. But in November when their man needs the votes of Democrats, Never Trump Republicans and Independents?
Good luck. A CNN poll found that while a majority of Americans believe politics played a role in the indictment, most approve of the action anyway including a whopping 62 percent of Independents.
Thus, Bragg doesn’t have to win in the courtroom (an opportunity likely months away). The coup de grace is causing Trump to be Trump. It’s what lost him the presidency in 2020, and is likely destined to do the same in 2024.