Meanwhile — in Trump World, it’s all falling apart.
Despite a virtually unified Republican front howling that all of the indictments are political hit jobs, the percentage of Americans who believe Trump and team committed real crimes keeps increasing. That number only goes up from here. At this point I have little doubt that Trump will stand trial well before the election, almost certainly in Washington, possibly in Georgia, and definitely in NY (unless that trial is pushed back to make room for others) . Coverage of actual trials will overpower the screams of partisan political spin doctors. Millions of Americans may be immune to actual facts, but millions more are not. It will only get worse for Trump.as more evidence emerges.
The Georgia indictments have pierced a false sense of invulnerability that once surrounded Trump. There were two main factors that previously had propped that up.
- One was fear of widespread civic unrest ensuing if the legal system made any serious moves toward jailing Trump. That dam has broken. That bluff has been called, and even if there actually was any substance to those fears which have not as yet materialized, the question is moot. The Rubicon has been crossed, there is no turning back, Trump is now being prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
- It matters that Trump is facing RICO indictments in Georgia. It frames him as the boss of a criminal enterprise, which is exactly what he is. That framing will permeate all of Trump’s legal travails from here on out, because it resonates as fundamentally true. For a one time President who wanted to fill his cabinet with players who looked like they chosen by central casting, he has become the one obviously drawn from that pool. And everything he does and says now reinforces his crime boss stereotyping. He can’t help himself, Trump was born to play that role.
Georgia matters for another reason, one that many have commented on before. Trump faces State , not federal , charges in Georgia, and so do all of his conspirators. There are many, and over a dozen of them have already been named and indicted with him. That aura of invulnerability that Trump once had was largely built on the power he held to pardon accomplices who remained loyal to him. Even out of office Trump vowed to regain that office and with it that power. His grip on the GOP base was so strong that most Republicans who sought the presidency for themselves instead still pledged to pardon Trump and associates once in office.
None of that matters in Georgia, and everyone knows it. Even the Republican Party in Georgia is not reliably under Trump’s thumb. It will not change the laws in order to save him. That means that the pressure is on full force for Trump’s associates to flip on him, and to do so soon. The minimum charge for a RICO conviction in Georgia is a 5 year prison sentence, to be served in a State, not a Federal, prison. No pardons are even possible under Georgia State law, before a convict serves his or her time. Once the flipping begins Trump’s entire conspiracy will be exposed to the bare bones with irrefutable hard evidence. Lots of former Trump loyalists have all of the receipts. Any week now it becomes every “man” for “himself”