© AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura/TASS
On April 4, former US President Donald Trump appeared at the New York Supreme Court to face 34 charges and leave home. He was in custody for about two hours before the formal arrest was lifted. The ex-president has pleaded not guilty to all the felony criminal charges of falsifying business records, CNN reports, adding that the next hearing has been scheduled for December 4.
Let’s note right away that a serious struggle has unfolded in the United States after the New York prosecutor's office put forward a whole bunch of accusations against Trump, with both lawyers and politicians engaged. It is all about the Republican frontrunner’s ability to run for president in 2024. The beginning of the trial itself may bring Trump’s public support either up or down, but a lost lawsuit will bury his presidential ambitions and generate a brand-new political environment in America.
The situation on the eve of Trump's trial was utterly tense. In New York alone, all the 36,000 police officers were instructed to be ready for instant action, regardless of whether it was their shift or not. The streets of Manhattan adjacent to the Supreme Court were blocked off, and the building itself was fenced with metal barriers. The authorities have apparently drawn lessons from the revolt of January 6, 2021, when Donald Trump’s supporters burst into the Congress building. Even media representatives were not allowed into the session hall until the hearings ended.
Interestingly, the "Trump case" has literally split America into two camps. Ahead of the trial, CNN released a public opinion poll showing that 52% of respondents deem it as politically charged. According to the ABC News/Ipsos poll, 45% endorse accusations against the ex-president, 32% think the opposite, and the remaining 23% are fence-sitters. Another split is along party lines, with 88% of Democrats backing the charges and 62% of Republicans not doing so. Notably, Trump enjoys support of his key Republican rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who called the prosecution ambiguous and rebuked New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg for bias. Moreover, DeSantis assured that his state will not help extradite Trump if asked to do so.
Election campaigns do not usually start that early in the United States — it is still a year and seven months left. But Donald Trump’s appearance at the Manhattan court has got the presidential race started to only end on November 5, 2024. This time, it’s going to be a dirty pool, since the last taboo vanished on March 30, when a panel of 23 jurors voted to bring charges against the country's ex-president. Thus, a political Rubicon was crossed in America, because not a single incumbent or former president of the United States has been criminally charged ever. The message is crystal clear: Trump must be either prevented from being nominated or at least hampered to win.
The charges primarily concern financial record forgery by the Trump Organization owned by him. As it turned out, the 2016 election campaign saw compensations to porn actress Stormy Daniels for not disclosing her alleged relationship with Trump back in 2006. Before the election, his lawyer Michael Cohen allegedly paid Daniels $130 thousand in hush-money via a bogus company, the US media claim. This amount was later compensated to him by the Trump Organization, while allegedly forging business papers. In itself, this is not a criminal offense, but the party of charge wants to make things look like it was for the sake of concealing another crime – campaign finance violation, which is already a federal crime able to make the ex-president face up to four years in prison. By the way, Daniels herself told Britain’s The Times that she supports accusations against Trump and is ready to testify.
All this judicial fuss over Trump was initiated by the Democrats with a single purpose of keeping him out of the picture, as he is an obvious frontrunner against the same Joe Biden. As of today, Trump's popularity has been up to 56.2% after plans of his prosecution leaked to the public, a Trafalgar Group survey shows. At the same time, the latest Associated Press/NORC poll reveals that a mere 38% approve of the incumbent president's performance. The numbers tell the stories best, as we know.
The irony of it is that Trump’s defeat in primaries is not going to be key to the Democratic victory: most experts believe Biden will surely lose to Ron DeSantis, the only Republican candidate capable of outdoing Donald Trump. So, the ruling party is doomed to leave the White House after the 2024 election whatever the case.
Incredible as it may seem, the victory of even more conservative DeSantis is not equally nightmarish to the bipartisan (more precisely, post-partisan) American establishment as compared to Donald Trump’s new term. The "deep state" is sure to "strike the right note" with the current Florida governor, who, despite his strident rhetoric, is not even close to Trump’s experience or combativity. That is, he is ready to be a system player, which is well enough for the establishment.
The thing is that Donald Trump is not only talking about the need to "drain the Washington swamp" – he is really determined to do this again. What is different about it is that all his presidential attempts to turn the tide in US politics were efficiently impeded by the same establishment and the "deep state". For this reason, the American elite is clearly not willing to venture another four-year struggle with President Trump.
