Last week, former President Donald Trump was indicted on 37 federal criminal counts, which may have inadvertently helped his chances of securing the 2024 GOP nomination. The Department of Justice’s focus on Trump’s accusers rather than on him is further evidence of what some are calling “Trump’s First Law”: for every criminal charge, there is an equal and opposite surge among Republicans.
Even if all legal action against Trump during and after his presidency was a “hoax,” he would still be the least fit person to hold the presidency in any of our lifetimes. Trump’s unfitness has nothing to do with investigations or criminal charges, but everything to do with the lies and misinformation that continue to come out of his mouth.
With legal proceedings now underway, Trump’s defenders are arguing legal technicalities and prosecutorial motivations. For most Republicans, defending Trump is like speeding – if everyone is doing it, no one will get caught. This is why some of Trump’s most ardent supporters wasted no time rushing to his defense after the indictments became public.
The common thread among Trump’s defenders is that none are willing to actually discuss what he is being accused of – taking boxes stuffed with classified documents, then lying and scheming to keep them even after being served a subpoena. The evidence is damning, which is why his supporters lean heavily on whataboutism, exhuming the corpse of the Hillary Clinton private-server fiasco seven years ago.
Trump’s candidacy is now being used as a shield against the legal actions taken against him. He can claim electoral victimhood and raise millions of dollars for his legal defense. This is another first in American politics: a man running for president because he is in legal trouble, not in spite of it.
Trump’s defenders routinely condemn the DOJ’s indictment as “unprecedented,” but it is only unprecedented because we have never had a president so wholly lawless that the DOJ would consider such a thing. The good news for Trump’s presidential rivals is that backing him now will save them from having to write a concession speech after Super Tuesday.
