In New York: Running as the aggrieved victim of a Democratic-run Deep State bent on keeping him and his supporters out of power is given new life by Donald Trump's indictment on charges related to the payments of hush money to a porn star.
Alvin Bragg, Manhattan District Attorney, gave Trump no reason to change his mind just as Republicans were beginning to believe that he would be vulnerable if he ran a campaign about all the people he believes are out to punish him.
A criminal charge or even a conviction does not legally prevent Trump from running for or holding office. If prosecutors are successful in proving a charge, Trump's political future is entirely in the hands of his adversaries.
The indictment allows Trump to fully unleash his unscripted, hours-long speeches about his previous two impeachments and the long series of "hoaxes" and "witch hunts" he claims Democrats created to prevent him from "saving America" for his White, working-class base, who believe an elite ruling class has ignored them. For Trump, the indictment is like capturing lightning in a bottle.
During his first 2024 campaign rally on March 25 in Waco, Texas, Trump said, "When they go after me, they’re going after you." In a speech about his problems, he said, "either the Deep State destroys America, or we destroy the Deep State." Because they are aware that we are the only ones who can stop them, our adversaries are desperate to stop us.
As he has continued to maintain the support of approximately a third of GOP voters, which is sufficient to win in a crowded field, that strategy has the potential to win him the Republican nomination in 2024.
"The political elites and powerbrokers have weaponized government to attempt to stop him," said Taylor Budowich, a representative for Trump's Super PAC, MAGA Inc.
The arraignment reveals exactly the amount Trump has overturned the GOP — and American legislative issues. Following the arrest of a former president and current party front-runner, signs point to a energized Republican base.
This was the party's best chance in the past seven years to defeat Trump after taking responsibility for the party's poor performance in the Republican midterm election. However, the scandalous case that was initially thought to have ended his 2016 presidential campaign is likely to boost his comeback effort in 2024.
It will undoubtedly turn away the crucial independent voters in the general election, particularly suburban women, who were dissatisfied with Trump's actions and will provide Democrats and President Joe Biden with a lifeline in 2024. The president and his party have been laser centered around attempting to lash the whole Conservative Faction to Best as its image.
Additionally, it prevents the party from fielding a younger, potentially stronger opponent for Biden, such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who recently attempted to subtly raise the alarm by adopting a more confrontational stance toward Trump.
The indictment comes on the same day that Trump's Super PAC spends nearly $1.3 million attacking DeSantis, whom Trump considers to be his strongest Republican primary challenger for 2024. DeSantis hasn't said anything about running for president, which is widely expected.
The governor wrote on Twitter on Thursday evening that "Florida will not assist in an extradition request" and that the indictment was a "weaponization of the legal system." The former president was not named in the statement.
Joe Tacopina, Trump's attorney, said that he expects Trump to be arraigned next week.
According to GOP strategist Katon Dawson, he recently inquired of a business executive and Trump supporter regarding his response in the event that Trump were charged with a felony. He said the leader answered, "I'll most likely need to send him more cash."
Dawson, a former South Carolina Republican Party chairman who is supporting Nikki Haley in her bid for the nomination, added, "It will make his base even more solid because it will show the message that Donald Trump has been giving them is true." It is fixed, connected, and crooked.
Members of Congress, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, were among the first Republicans to be influenced. Given that both his predecessor and the Justice Department decided not to pursue these charges, some of them rallied to his side at least to say that they were convinced that Bragg's prosecution was politically motivated.
At a conservative forum in North Charleston, South Carolina, on Saturday, US Senator Lindsey Graham stated that "the prosecutor in New York has done more to help Donald Trump get elected president than any single person in America today."
In addition, Trump could face criminal charges for distributing classified documents, starting the riot on January 6, and trying to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. In addition, New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit against him, claiming that he and three of his children fraudulently manipulated the value of his company's assets for years to deceive insurers and banks.
Yet, Trump has confronted two prosecutions as president, and outrages that would have cut down different government officials. He has so far survived everything, and despite his political decline, he is the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
A poll conducted by Monmouth on March 22 found that Trump had 41% support among Republicans in March, up from 33% in February, when the intensity of his complaints about the criminal prosecution increased. DeSantis, on the other hand, was 27% before announcing his candidacy.
According to Republican pollster Jim McLaughlin, who has conducted surveys for Trump, "It’s not going to convince anybody who already does not like President Trump, but I think there’s a pretty decent segment of voters in the middle who are like, ‘Enough’s enough, leave the guy alone.'" The majority of Republican primary voters, in my opinion, have no faith in any of this.
His rivals are treading carefully. Fearing that they might alienate Trump supporters and give the impression of favoring a Democrat prosecuting a former president, a number of people have spoken out against the Manhattan district attorney.
DeSantis, who is almost running against Trump, skillfully split the difference when he said that he didn't know how to pay porn stars hush money, which made reporters laugh, but that Bragg had gone too far.
That provoked a furious response from Trump and his allies, who characterized DeSantis as weak for not defending Trump against Democrats "weaponizing" the government to target political opponents, a theme that the indictment permits Trump to use in his campaign.
I don't believe that Donald Trump has any long-term plans for the country. Rick Tyler, a Republican strategist who worked on Texas Senator Ted Cruz's 2016 presidential campaign, stated, "He never has." He would absolutely have an excuse to play the victim as a result of it.