Yes, it is unprecedented to have a former US President sitting at his own criminal trial. More concerning is the fact these are 34 out of 125 criminal charges.
Trump is a President like no other
Trump is pretty unique – I’ll give him that distinction, but it is not meant to be a compliment. Like or dislike Trump is not the issue, this is not even about his [what many would characterize as crass] personality. It is about a pattern of misconduct that is well-documented and extremely concerning.
Trump is right now sitting in court just shy of starting jury deliberations. The potential of a guilty veridic is very palpable, even though one of the potential outcomes will be a hung trial. But then again, we won’t know the verdict for a few days. The fate of Trump lies on the historical outcome these jurors will reach.
It is worth mentioning that Trump did violate the gag order more than 10 times, an order which was imposed to prevent Trump from attacking the jury, the witnesses, and the judge involved in this case. Trump mischaracterized the gag order outside the courtroom and has used his acolytes to continue those attacks – very publicly – against the jury, witnesses, and judge. More insidious, some of those proxy attacks were carried out by elected leaders right in front of the courthouse.
There is a likelihood that those gag order violations will be tagged along with the other 34 criminal charges on the falsification of business records in connection with campaign finance misuse, and the short and cringeworthy sex encounter he had with porn star Stormy Daniels, while his third wife Melania was at home with their newborn son Barron.
That scandal alone should be enough for ANY other presidential candidate to leave into the shadows. Not Trump, he manipulated the truth and double down on different circles with different narratives – each part of his base will receive a different part of the message. Which simply put works like this:
1. If you’re a MAGA follower of modest or low income. Ironically, you’re a cash cow and the muscle behind the narrative. Your role is to attend rallies, buy tons of merch, purchase his many trinkets, bibles, NFTs, or whatever it is that he keeps selling – and parrot all the talking points being issued to you. These will often be in slogan form and easy to remember – but won’t hold to a deep level of scrutiny. And of course, that means that you’re to become contentious and fight on his defense on any platform where Trump is being challenged. Just don’t show up at Mar-a-Lago for dinner, no way in hell can you afford the membership price – nor do they want you anywhere near there.
2. If you’re a MAGA follower of high income. You’re on a different tier, because you’ll still be a cash cow of sorts – but you’re buying placement and access. Any millionaire knows that if they spend money on something, even if it is a campaign contribution, there is an expected return on investment. It is not like people would just throw thousands or even millions of dollars and set them ablaze unless there is something to get for that sum. And no, it is not just “patriotism” – or is it? Hence, a lot of people advocate for taking money out of politics. Think about it for a second.
Who benefits if Trump is able to get away with the crimes he has been accused of? Think about this for a while. By the way, there is plenty of evidence for each of the 125 total charges spanning all five criminal cases, and it is worth noting that many of these charges have been proven by proxy. How? Because a lot of his acolytes have already been found guilty of similar charges that are linked to Trump. A lot of these crimes were committed in the open.
AUTHORITARIANISM & PROPAGANDA The Puppet Master Tools
Available worldwide on eBook and Paperback worldwide
Trump propping adversarial narratives
Whether if Trump is intentionally supporting adversarial regimes goals is up to the courts of law to determine. But the fact is that he and his acolytes repeat verbatim these adversarial regimes talking points, and surprise-surprise, a lot of his so called “policies” align with the same adversarial regimes interests and goals. That is also unprecedented for ANY US President!
I’ve been writing for a long time about this growing concern, and even started a series called "Today in America" on January 6, 2021. To this day, there are people who call the day of the insurrection a “guided tour” – or blame it to anybody else other than the thousands of Trump supporters who stormed the capitol that day. By the way, we caused for the first time in our lifetimes not having a peaceful transfer of power in America. Trump was not even present during Biden’s inauguration. That was also a first.
During the Trump presidency, NATO was disparaged, instead and for some reason he cozied up to authoritarian regimes who have openly stated they would nuke the USA. Trump still defends and cozies up authoritarian regimes around the world, as well as their propaganda talking points.
This is extremely concerning, not because of the obvious descent into a potential authoritarian dystopia – but because Trump wouldn’t be even in charge of said dystopia. A person with Trump’s rap sheet, and sheer amount of sticky baggage is likely also involved directly or by proxy with other problematic entities. Those entities would be controlling the USA because they likely have leverage on Trump.
Consider this just for a moment. How many people in Trump’s orbit have been accused of crimes, or have ended up in prison? Also, what was Trump’s support to his loyal followers the very second that they were inconvenient? Spoiler alert, he disavowed the J6 when it was convenient for his rhetoric, and now he calls them “J6 hostages.” He praised his “loyal” people when they were kissing his butt, and then turned against them if they ever dared say something about him. Want examples?
Mitch McConnel, Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo, Michael Cohen, Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, Nikky Haley, and I can go on… but I hope this gives you a starting point… look it up yourself. Trump is never shy about attacking people or saying whatever he wants to spew – loudly. He spews his attacks through twitter (X) storms, on his declining social media, on TV, his rallies, or whatever other platform he can get. Except for one – a witness stand. When it comes to testifying, he always pleaded the fifth. Surprise! Even though, Trump himself had choice words for anybody who had pleaded the fifth before.
Yet the twice impeached former President decided NOT to talk during his impeachment proceedings, he is not talking during the criminal charges in NYC, and he will likely chicken out also on the other federal criminal proceedings that account for that remainder 90+ charges. And we should ask ourselves… when is this pattern of misconduct only a “witch hunt” – and when is it just Trump finally getting what he deserves?
A tell-tale sign that the walls are closing in for Trump, and another unprecedented event is that his wife Melania – former First Lady, has showed a total of ZERO times to support her husband on this criminal trial. Not even showed up for a few minutes – she has been selling merchandise online though. What does that tell you about how lovable this man truly is? Today finally some of his adult children showed up to the courthouse – but they were largely absent the last several weeks.
Trump is facing a growing number of ex-MAGA and ex-Utra-MAGA folks. Why? Well, each person is unique, but the common denominator is that they seem to be feeling just like his wife Melania… in the sense they simply don’t see a justifiable enough reason to be by his side during the most important legal case in his life thus far. Let that sink in for a second – his own wife, who is supposed to know him better than anybody, is not supporting him – why should you?
Sure, it is unprecedented for a former US President to be so close to be sentenced to prison. But it is also unprecedented for ANY former president getting away with as much as Trump has gotten away for so long. The problem is that it has been so normalized, and there were so many scandals that it would take us days just to enumerate them. Justice through courts is slow – and it has been taking this long to finally get to hold him accountable.
The GOP had choices through the primary – yet they nominated Trump, knowing that he has 90+ criminal federal charges, plus the many civil, plus this 34-count criminal case in NY. That was a bad gamble for the GOP, because even if he gets charged with ONE crime from the 125 criminal counts, he can still be incarcerated. That GOP shortsightedness and destruction of their own party is also unprecedented. HLC