A shameful day in American history. A mock show trial. A kangaroo court. A total witch hunt. Worthy of a banana republic.
These were the reactions of senior elected Republicans, who once claimed the mantle of the party of law and order, to the news that Donald Trump had become the first former US president to be convicted of a crime.
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It quickly became clear that one of America’s two largest political parties was determined to undermine confidence in the American justice system with displays of anger and demands for revenge, creating an alternative view of the US in which Joe Biden is a clear and present danger for the US. democracy.
Experts warned that by sowing distrust in institutions and the rule of law, Trump, his supporters and his Republican allies were creating a political tinderbox ahead of November’s presidential election. In the coming months — especially with Trump being convicted in June — that sense of anxiety and fear of political unrest is likely to increase dramatically.
“We have entered new political and legal territory as a nation,” historian Tim Naftali wrote on the social media platform X. “Donald Trump will now force any Republican candidate to destroy our justice system. There will be a chorus of venom probably worse than what we heard before January 6. If he wins, he would have a more toxic mandate than in ’17.’
On Thursday, a jury in New York found Trump guilty of 34 crimes for falsifying company records. He will be sentenced on July 11, four days before the Republican national convention in Milwaukee.
While Democrats hailed the verdict as proof that America’s system of checks and balances remains robust and capable of holding political leaders accountable, the ex-president claimed the trial was “rigged” and a “disgrace,” adding added: “The real judgment is November 5 by the people.”
His campaign led to a flurry of fundraising appeals. One text message referred to him as a “political prisoner,” even though he does not yet know whether he will be sentenced to prison and most experts consider this highly unlikely. The campaign also began selling black “Make America Great Again” hats to reflect a “dark day in history.”
Trump campaign officials reported an immediate flood of contributions so intense that WinRed, a platform the campaign uses for fundraising, crashed.
Republicans rallied behind Trump both uniformly and viciously, attempting to portray the justice system as biased and broken. Mike Johnson, who as Speaker of the House of Representatives is the nation’s third-highest elected official, called the trial a “purely political exercise, not a legal one,” and accused Joe Biden’s administration of participating in “the arming of our legal system”.
Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina said: “Absolute injustice. This is eroding our justice system. Hear me clearly: you cannot silence the American people.” Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina suggested that Trump’s conviction set a dangerous precedent for prosecuting former presidents: “Two can play this game.” In addition to a fundraising link, Florida Senator Marco Rubio posted on X: “Don’t just get mad about this travesty, get revenge!”
The highly partisan response highlighted a very different America from the 1970s, when the Supreme Court ruled that President Richard Nixon must hand over tapes of Oval Office conversations that ultimately led to his resignation; Instead of complaining about a kangaroo court or trying to undermine the system, Nixon complied.
But in 2024, America is on a collision course between party politics and the rule of law. Analysts warned that Republican resistance could erode the social fabric in an already volatile election year.
Tara Setmayer, senior adviser to the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group, said: “That’s the bigger crime here in the long run. The Republican Party has now facilitated the continued assault on our democratic institutions.
It is the world that has been turned upside down and the Republican Party has been enabled to do so
Tara Setmayer
“The long-term consequences of the idea that our legal system or the rule of law is somehow corrupted because Donald Trump says so are immeasurable. We now see that even in a court of law where the evidence is clear, it is not good enough. The world has been turned upside down and the Republican Party has made this possible.”
Just as Trump has told his supporters, “I am your retribution,” his allies in the right-wing media, who for months have conditioned their audiences to distrust the court’s judgment, have used the language of revenge. Some argued that if Trump regains power, he should go after Democrats, prosecutors and journalists.
Setmayer added: “If you look at social media platforms and the right-wing ecosystem, the reaction to the verdict was one of hysteria and threats against anyone who supported the verdict, especially in the media. “Add them to the list. Buy weapons and ammunition. Get ready, prepare.”
“The language is mobilizing and violent and that is something we should all be concerned about. Many of us who have been paying attention have warned about this. This is part of Trumpism. The violence and retaliation are the point and he is laying the groundwork for his followers to rationalize a violent response.”
No presumptive party nominee has ever faced a felony conviction or the prospect of prison time, and Trump is expected to keep his legal troubles front and center in his campaign. He has long argued without evidence that the four charges against him were orchestrated by Biden in an effort to keep him out of the White House.
Over the next two months, Trump will hold his first debate with Biden, announce a running mate and formally accept his party’s nomination at the Republican national convention. On July 11, he could face penalties ranging from a fine or probation to up to four years in prison. Both he and his political allies appear confident to continue exploiting America’s political polarization and alternate realities.
After Republicans gained limited control of the House of Representatives last year, they created a panel, chaired by Trump loyalist Jim Jordan, to investigate “the weaponization of the federal government” and investigate what they say the politicization is by the Department of Justice and the FBI against conservatives. . Some have called for the ouster of Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Nicole Wallace, former communications chief to President George W. Bush, said on the MSNBC network: “I think it’s important that we don’t look away from what’s broken. And what’s broken is that one of the two sides doesn’t respect the rule of law, not because they don’t like what they saw, not because they saw something different in Judge Juan Merchan than we saw, but because they don’t. like the result. And that is a flashing red light for our country.”
Bill Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington, added in a telephone interview: “The process of delegitimizing our institutions is very advanced and there is no need to speculate at this point. All you have to do is look at the surveys on trust in institutions and almost everything is at an all-time low.
“Certainly, the judiciary is, for several reasons, no exception. As the judiciary has become involved in what many people see as partisan fighting, trust on both sides of the aisle has diminished. But the uniform Republican response to the outcome of this trial, which is likely to continue for many months, will have even more pernicious consequences.”
