Trump’s fraud indictment

Since the Civil War in the 1860s, American democracy has never seen a crisis the likes of which then-US president Donald Trump triggered with his incessant bare-faced lies after losing the 2020 election. While Trump is already the first former president to ever face criminal charges, his third indictment is perhaps the most significant — fraud against the United States. Trump’s legal defence is now a novel twist on free speech absolutism — he can’t be prosecuted for anything he says or does.

However, even if this were the case, US free speech laws do not protect anyone accused of coercion or ordering others to commit crimes, which is what this case — and another one alleging election tampering that will reportedly be filed in Georgia soon — centres on. But given the slow wheels of justice and Trump’s growing taste for his own shoes, we believe he will continue putting his foot in his mouth and repeating the election lies to mobilise the Republican base which, polls show, is still supporting him.

Of course, it doesn’t help that right-wing media continues to paint false narratives or misreport events to paint Trump as a victim, rather than a man that confesses to several crimes on an almost daily basis. At the same time, Trump’s allies and advisers openly speak of plans to consolidate more power with the president, effectively making Trump into an elected dictator who can hire and fire bureaucrats on a whim, indefinitely hold funding that has congressional approval, directly control the Justice Department, and essentially make one of his biggest lies — that the president can do whatever he wants without fear of consequences — into a statement of fact.

Though Trump’s cult of personality, dictatorial tendencies, violent fan following and a long list of alleged crimes — 78 criminal charges so far — have not been enough to derail his presidential ambitions, most experts still believe US democracy is strong enough to self-correct once Trump faces justice. But what would be the outcome if a similar leader popped up in a more fragile democracy