Former President Donald Trump is a convicted felon now post-Manhattan hush money trial. The verdict was already baked into the cake when the voir dire phase began, capping off a disastrous jury selection. After closing arguments, Judge Juan Merchan tilted the scales even further, where a mere four jurors could clinch a guilty verdict. Trump will be sentenced on July 11 over a charge that’s criminal classification is no worse than shoplifting a Snapple at CVS. However, it’s in keeping with one of the most entertaining narratives about Trump.
Trump was convicted, and his support increased. The liberal media thought “Trump the Felon” could be a damaging narrative, but it only earned him a single-day fundraising haul of more than $50 million. Despite what’s on paper, Trump is still Teflon Don. Whatever you think is bad news for Trump is never the case. The verdict has energized the GOP base. Joe Biden is still facing uphill climbs to re-unite the Democratic Party base, which remains divided and whiny over the president’s Israel policy, his lack of left-wing bonafides, or his overall lack of charisma.
Young voters are fleeing the Democrats due to a poor economy and Biden’s support for Israel. Yes, arms shipments have been cut off, but deep down, these people know they’ll eventually make their way to Israeli forces. Biden and his team are trying to pull off a con badly: spit in the face of Israel and cut off new shipments of arms, hoping the far-left would see this as Joe being tough on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Undermining allies is never a good strategy, especially if it’s meant to win one state—Michigan—whose independent voter bloc is the one to worry about, not the Muslim community irate over Gaza. Meanwhile, collective GOP anger is what’s uniting the base around Trump.
Nikki Haley, Trump’s annoying “rival” in the GOP primary, announced she’s voting for Trump. There simply isn’t an issue with the Republican Party on Trump. Roughly 10 percent of self-identified GOPers vote for Democrats in the general. Any debate about this is moot because if there were some minor issues, they all got swept away with the verdict from this sham trial. Most Americans felt Trump couldn’t get a fair trial and that the charges were bogus. CNN’s Elie Honig added much weight to the latter. He wrote a damning piece in New York Magazine about how the case against Trump is unprecedented, but not in a good way regarding honoring due process. While he never says this directly, the entire essay is quite the treatise on how the Democrats twisted the law and its definitions to the point of irrelevancy to ensnare Trump on a shoddy campaign finance charge—hush money payments are not illegal. Honig tried toeing the line of arguing that the jury did its job—how could they if the books are cooked—and arguing that the case brought against Trump by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg was an unmitigated disaster. In this beautiful legal disaster, the former president’s legal team will stand on firm grounds for appeal.
It's all part of the ongoing narrative around Trump: whatever the old political rules are do not apply to him. It’s a phenomenon that can be entertaining and disturbing. Politicians are told not to wear hats—Trump does and beat Hillary Clinton. He’s a convicted felon, and his support and unity among Republicans only increased. It’s no longer about damaging Trump, so he’ll be nominated, making him easier to beat. That game plan died long ago since there was no real primary challenge. Biden’s America has become a disaster zone, and polling reflects that. This trial and verdict were done to neutralize Biden’s political rival, and it failed. The three other trials are also in limbo. The January 6 and classified document trials helmed by Special Counsel Jack Smith are delayed. Georgia is deciding whether its prosecuting attorney, Fulton County DA Fani Willis, can continue despite glaring ethical issues.
Whatever the rules are, do not apply. You know this, but the guilty verdict is a new front and proved ineffective. No one cares. Trump is a felon, so what? Tens of millions more and I will vote for the man because the aura of legitimacy with any of these legal actions died eons ago. What people see is the Democrats weaponizing the legal system to go after a political opponent who wears an awesome MAGA hat.
When Trump is against the wall, he’ll find a way to clinch a win, even if it means taking some damage, at least on paper. Democrats must cheat or imbrue long-standing American institutions with bias and personal animus to get their result, the latter of which can result in long-lasting effects on the health of the United States.
Revival or political persecution for holding the wrong values and opinions are on the ballot this year. Trump embodies normalcy and economic stability—his campaign should hammer that home post-verdict.