Trump’s conviction

Donald Trump has become the first-ever former US president to be convicted on criminal charges, adding another feather to his crown of ignominy as the only former president to stand trial, let alone conviction. Trump’s previous convictions were in civil cases relating to financial fraud by him and his company, and a case alleging rape and defamation of the victim. Notably, although a rape charge could not be pursued in a criminal court due to the statute of limitations, a federal judge later confirmed that the jury verdict means that, in the eyes of the law, Trump is a rapist.

Trump’s criminal conviction is on election-meddling charges, specifically tampering with business records in 2016 to conceal potentially damaging information from the electorate. The information in question was that he cheated on his wife, who had just given birth, with an adult film actress. While Trump denies the affair ever happened, although the incident itself was not a crime, and related court cases have validated that it did. It is somewhat ironic that Trump allegedly tried to cover up the affair because he feared losing the support of socially conservative voters, specifically evangelical Christians. Instead, so many evangelicals actively embrace the affair as proof that Trump is a sinner-turned-saint that he would probably have been better off just admitting to it on day one.

The latest conviction is unlikely to phase Trump’s base ahead of the election. However, recent reports suggested that about one-fifth of respondents in five different major polls said they would not vote for Trump if he were convicted in a criminal case. That means Trump, who held slim leads in all the polls despite already being a convicted rapist, fraudster and slanderer, would drop well behind Biden thanks to the latest conviction.

The worrying thing, however, is that 80% of Republicans would still support him despite his manifest unfitness. The Republican Party, which calls itself the party of family values, law and order and personal responsibility, is also steadfastly standing by the philandering convict, claiming he is a ‘victim of the system’, and also making excuses for Trump in his more serious federal election tampering and Espionage Act cases. That anyone could still vote for someone who is the antithesis of everything he claims to stand for is shocking for many people, but history has shown that bigotry, religion and populism, mixed with a misinformed public, are a potent formula.

Whether or not Trump believes his own unhinged rants is not the problem. Hypocrisy and politics are two sides of the same coin. The problem is that his supporters are all-in on his conspiracy theories, and as long as Trump and his ideology have a megaphone, American democracy will continue to suffer.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 1^st, 2024.

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