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That a former president is facing federal charges would be a big deal unto itself. It has never happened in this country before.
But add to that, charges dropping while said former president is running – and leading — in the primary to get his old job back, and you have something truly unusual and extraordinary.
Only in Donald Trump’s America.
How this ends is anyone’s guess, but here are four things to think about to help try and make sense of it all:1. Not much has affected Trump’s trajectory to this point. It’s hard to see why this time would be any different — at least in the short term.
We can’t know for certain how these charges will affect Trump’s chances at the GOP nomination.
What we can point to though is what’s happened already. Amazingly, remember, this isn’t Trump’s first indictment.
After the one in New York in March, stemming from those hush-money payments to women he’d allegedly had affairs with, and the FBI search of his Florida home in this very documents case, his hand only got stronger for the nomination.
And, even after Trump was found liable for battery and defamation in a civil lawsuit brought by the writer E. Jean Carroll, who was awarded millions, it still didn’t change anything. In fact, Trump was greeted with rowdy applause when he mocked Carroll during a town hall on CNN the very next day.2. Trump has spent years, almost a decade now undermining the Justice Department and the FBI, and that’s help insulate him with his base
Witch hunts. Deep State. Politically motivated investigations. We’ve all heard the talking points. Most of it is bunk, but it has stuck with Republicans. Because it’s stuck, it’s insulated Trump to an extent.
That’s partially why so many Republican elected officials felt comfortable coming out following the indictment and lashing out at the Justice Department and even falsely alleging that President Biden had something to do with this.
