CNN
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Donald Trump went from the floor to the campaign trail in the blink of an eye on Tuesday, underscoring how the 2024 election, which should address the most pressing issues of the American people, has become a mere tool of his criminal defense strategy.
After sitting in armless silence as he became the first former president to be charged with crimes by the federal government, Trump quickly moved on to a Cuban cafe in Miami where he was adulated by supporters chanting “Happy Birthday “.
Later, at his New Jersey golf club, the twice-impeached former president and front-runner for the 2024 GOP nomination falsely portrayed himself as a blameless victim of a tyrannical government, ignoring the 37 federal charges against him related to with the alleged mismanagement of classified documents.
“Today we witnessed the most evil and heinous abuse of power in the history of our country. A very sad thing to see, a corrupt sitting president had his main political opponent arrested on false and trumped-up charges of which he and many other presidents would be guilty, right in the middle of a presidential election in which he is losing badly.” Trump said, once again ignoring the facts.
The former president, who tried to steal the 2020 election, accused President Joe Biden and a band of misfits and Marxists of election interference and mounting a political persecution typical of a fascist or communist nation. He also falsely insisted that he had the right to keep secret documents that were the property of the US government.
His statements were among the most chilling and demagogic ever uttered by a major figure in modern American history. And on a dark day in the nation’s history, they told all about the former president and the divisive spectacle that awaits as he runs for the White House in the shadow of two criminal charges he has pleaded guilty to innocent, with more chances to come.
Trump’s defiance reinforced the impression that he views the law with disdain. Ignoring the gravity of a situation he created, he again put immediate personal and political needs ahead of the national interest, a tendency reflected in his casual storage of classified documents in a bathroom, a ballroom and a shower. The material included secrets about the US nuclear program and key military plans and, according to the indictment, allegedly obstructed government efforts to secure them.
Trump’s display reinforced a strategy to put his legal troubles at the center of a campaign already rooted in claims that he is the blameless victim of a politicized justice system.
“Some birthday, we have a government that’s out of control,” Trump was heard saying at the Cuban restaurant hours before his 77th birthday. This is the kind of victimization theme that has long been at the heart of Trump’s grievance-based populist appeal. He’s once again trying to delegitimize the institutions that hold him to account, looking to light a fire under GOP voters and even empanel an eventual grand jury in Florida.
But Tuesday’s political choreography showed that this approach is more than a political strategy. It revealed a deeper and emerging reality about the 2024 campaign. Trump’s legal defense strategy is now fully fused with his electoral one. His bid to regain the White House is no longer a mere political campaign, but has now become a matter of self-preservation. As his legal battles continue, his main goal appears to be regaining the presidential authority that could give him the power to waive his potential criminal liability, and even the threat of prison, if he is convicted.
“He’s not running to save America, he’s running to save himself, and if that means taking down the judicial system and a special counsel, he’s going to do it,” CNN political commentator Van Jones said on “The Lead” Tuesday .
This unprecedented dominance of a US presidential election by a major candidate’s personal legal predicament will have major implications for Trump and his opponents.
— It means the third consecutive U.S. presidential election will be tainted by investigations or allegations of criminal wrongdoing involving major candidates, following Hillary Clinton’s email tampering in 2016 and Trump’s false claims about voter fraud in 2020 .If Trump becomes the 2024 GOP nominee, the crime cloud could linger through the election until November of next year. That means the democratic process is likely to absorb more hits to his credibility, at least in the eyes of millions of Trump supporters who buy his propaganda.
— Trump’s decision to make the entire Republican primary about his legal problems is a conundrum for Republican rivals who have largely been unable to find a way to define themselves against the former president without alienating many of his supporters. The alleged crimes outlined in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment are so serious that they require those riding the wagons around Trump to ignore the potentially enormous threats to national security posed by his lax storage of secret documents The focus on Trump also makes it very difficult for other candidates to shift campaign arguments to other issues Republican voters want to address, including immigration and “wokeness” policies they believe are eroding traditional northern culture – American
— Trump is also putting some key party leaders in a bind as they rush to his defense. Some, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, condemned the indictment as an example of political persecution before even seeing the charges. This is not surprising. After all, dozens of House Republicans voted not to certify Biden’s election victory in January 2021, hours after Trump incited a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol as he tried to stay in power after a few elections he lost.
But concern is growing quickly among some GOP figures about the scale of the alleged crimes. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley moved cautiously into that political territory when she said this week that if the allegation against Trump is true, it had been “incredibly reckless.” Mirroring the face of Trump’s enemies, she went on Tuesday to say she would be inclined to pardon him if he won the White House. Former Vice President Mike Pence, who is also in the running, told the Wall Street Journal: “I can’t stand for what’s being said.” The willingness of Republican primary candidates to criticize Trump not only reflects the seriousness of the charges; it may also suggest that his rivals feel that Trump is increasingly vulnerable politically because of the case.
Some other members of the GOP are making similar points. Republican Rep. Ken Buck, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told CNN’s Dana Bash that “there were national security implications for having documents in an unsecured area.” The Colorado lawmaker added: “I think the prosecutor really went into a lot of detail to explain to the American public why it was necessary to indict a former president.” Another Republican, Arkansas Rep. Steve Womack, pointed to Trump’s “reckless disregard” for classified information. “How you handle our nation’s secrets is of paramount importance,” he told CNN’s Manu Raju. For now, these are minority positions voiced by conservative House Republicans, but they show growing questions about Trump’s suitability to serve as commander in chief going forward.
— Trump’s decision to merge his criminal defense with his presidential campaign also raises big questions about his own prospects. Criminal defendants find their schedule and schedule increasingly at the whim of the courts, as they must appear at multiple hearings even before a trial. This could wreak havoc on Trump’s political calendar. He is already awaiting trial next March, in the middle of primary season, after pleading not guilty to falsifying business records in a Manhattan case involving a hush money payment to a former adult film star . Trump is also likely to find out by the end of the summer whether he will be charged in an investigation by Fani Willis, a Georgia district attorney, over his attempts to steal Biden’s 2020 election victory in the swing state .
Apart from the logistical complications, Trump’s strategy – and his rhetoric on Tuesday evening – also raises another question. Do Republican voters want to fully commit to a campaign focused almost exclusively on their personal grievances and legal fate? Aside from warning that he is taking heat from the Justice Department to protect his supporters, Trump has not offered much of a campaign message to GOP voters on the economy, health care, national security, education and other key issues. His fighter mentality and rule-breaking are central to his appeal, but his cult of personality has tended to drown out the party’s ideological priorities in recent years. One of his main GOP rivals, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has tried to reach this point by arguing that he could be much more effective in implementing the policy priorities of “Making America Great Again” like to president
The importance of Trump’s grievance campaign could become even more relevant in a general election. The former president already had a tough job appealing to the suburban swing voters he alienated in 2020. A campaign that looks like a personal crusade to stay out of jail could further complicate the task of regaining -the bear.
