EDITORIAL: The guilty verdict handed out to Donald Trump by a New York jury on 34 counts of falsifying business records in a criminal hush-money scheme to influence the outcome of the 2016 US presidential election can be considered a historic outcome as he is the first president in American history, current or former, as well as the first presumptive presidential nominee of a major party to have been convicted of a crime for which he will be sentenced on July 11.
Prosecutors had alleged that in the run-up to the 2016 elections, Trump had falsely recorded the reimbursements he had made to his lawyer – who had paid an adult film star $130,000 for her silence about her affair with the former president – as “legal expenses”.
These falsifications, it was asserted, were made to conceal Trump’s violation of New York state election law, which makes it a crime to promote the election of any person to office through unlawful means, and as was alleged, the $130,000 payment was in effect an illegal campaign contribution as it was done to benefit his 2016 campaign.
This latest turn that Trump’s story has taken marks yet another extraordinary moment for the real estate magnate and former television personality-turned political demagogue. His elevation to the presidency, his time in office, as well as his continued refusal to accept defeat in the 2020 presidential elections – in the aftermath of which he had little compunction about launching an attempted coup – have all repeatedly demonstrated the entirely unprecedented nature of his political journey, which has been marked by bigotry, often racist rhetoric, unconventional tactics and blowing up of established norms, and not in a good way.
One mind-boggling aspect here is that as a convicted criminal, Trump isn’t barred from running for the presidency and could potentially still win the November elections as his conviction makes little difference to his loyal voter base, which is either convinced that he is being politically victimised or even if persuaded of his guilt, just simply does not care that their favoured candidate may be a law-breaker.
Trump’s continued relevance in US politics and the undying support he still commands from a certain section of the population despite the numerous criminal and civil cases he is battling, signify the profound and enduring discord within the American electorate.
The hypocrisy and the anomalies of the American justice system have also become a little too apparent here. There are US states where convicted felons cannot even vote in elections let alone stand for them, with African Americans often at the receiving end of such laws. And here we have a situation where a convicted criminal, who thrives on disseminating white supremacist rhetoric, could actually be sitting in the Oval office in a few months’ time.
Even so, the Democrats will be buoyed by this decision as it could have a seminal impact on the outcome of the presidential election in their favour. Numerous polls have shown Trump to be the marginal favourite over the incumbent, Joe Biden, and this conviction could just about persuade undecided and independent voters, not willing to elevate a convicted criminal to the presidency, to opt for the incumbent.
It is an indicator of the weak leadership provided by President Biden and his unpopular stances on various issues, not least the war in Gaza, that the Democrats have to rely on the conviction of the opposing candidate to be more optimistic about their chances, and even then Trump’s defeat cannot be considered a foregone conclusion. One cannot help but conclude that if even this decision isn’t enough to propel President Biden to victory, nothing else will.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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