HOW MIAMI ROLLS WITH TRUMP LOYALTY
He’s had trouble finding a first-class attorney to represent him at his Miami arraignment. His White House associates are now witnesses. His vice president is running against him.
But Miami, oh Miami is staging a love fest for America’s caudillo in his darkest hour.
The special counsel bringing Donald Trump to justice said the ex-president “put our country at risk.”
But that Trump has been indicted on 37 felony counts of documented treasonous behavior is only fuel to show him more adoration.
“We love you!” a woman in an unmistakably rhythmic Miami accen shrieked as Trump entered his hotel in Doral Monday for an overnight stay before his arraignment at the downtown Miami federal courthouse, where Florida groupies camped out — including Blacks for Trump.
Didn’t dawn on the throngs of devotees — affirming their faith in Trump as if an arraignment were a Catholic confirmation — that to get a grand jury in Miami to indict this president, the abundance of evidence had to be overwhelming.
But, why would people know better when Miami’s Republican leaders are playing golf with Trump and displaying all sorts of deplorable behavior in support of an accused criminal?
The local politicians know that Trump is accused of breaking presidential-records laws. They know they’re being hypocrites defending the twice-impeached, twice-indicted expresident when they’ve told voters they stand for “law and order.”
But from their posts in Washington, D.C., and Miami City Hall, instead of blaming the only culprit — Trump — they march to the tune of “Hail to the celebrity president.”
As Trump was being indicted, U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez giddily played golf with the former president at his National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
“Tee Time With Trump!” Gimenez tweeted, shamelessly.
He was telling Miamians and the country: nothing to see here.
Not to be outdone, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, under FBI investigation himself for alleged shady City Hall dealings, confessed to Fox News a suddenly-developed enamoramiento with Trump.
He didn’t vote for him in 2016 or 2020, but he’s now all in for Trump and was seen entering the federal courthouse Tuesday after making his way through the crowd.
Why the drastic change now? “The problem here is a fear of Joe Biden’s America,” Suarez said. “We’ve gotten a taste of what a dysfunctional government can do.”
Funny thing is, the “dysfunctional government” is a more apt description for his mayoral tenure than Biden’s presidency.
Trump is the man polls say GOP voters want in the White House — and that makes grown politicos behave like betrayed lovers who just can’t let go of a bad choice.
They understand the gravity of this historic moment of disgrace for the nation, but they’re going to milk Trump for all he’s worth to the Republican Party.
In ethics-challenged, corrupt and pliable Miami, supporting Trump translates to political capital.
It’s an unspoken rule of the culture and political history: Public service doesn’t include independentthinking, gutsy leadership. Elections are decided on crafty pandering to the wounds of exiles.
Fanatical caudillismo, a lesson never learned, comes with the demand for one-party loyalty, just like in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, no matter what.
The 49-page indictment detailing how Trump tried to lie his way through an FBI investigation and a grand jury probe doesn’t matter. Nor being found liable for sexually abusing a young writer at a New York store.
Even a crude attempt to steal an election. Even an attack on the Capitol.
Trump, a chronic liar, called the exhaustive investigation and resulting criminal indictment against him “a hoax” on Truth Social — and those were all the marching orders his perennial bootlickers needed.