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DOUGLAS MURRAY
Anti-Trump media in US want to make sure he is thrown in jail – but many Americans view case rather differently
Donal Trump used the spotlight to tell American voters that they were losing their country
“GUILTY on all counts”. That was the verdict of a New York jury this week in Donald Trump’s “hush-money” trial.
The charges against him were not that he had slept with the porn star Stormy Daniels.
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Nor that ahead of the 2016 election he had paid her not to talk about their alleged liaison.
The charges were that he had paid for this from campaign funds. And so broke the law.
The US media has followed every detail of this case. Most of them are anti-Trump and want to make sure he is convicted and goes to jail.
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Whether it is election denial or hush-money, for them it doesn’t matter — so long as the courts get him somehow.
It has long been the dream of Trump’s opponents that he ends up behind bars. By any means. However fair or foul.
Unfortunately for them, other members of the American public seem to view things rather differently.
Voters are mad
Trump’s support base has remained loyal whatever justice (or injustice) throws at him.
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They don’t care to know the details and they don’t care what case is on trial.
They believe that the whole thing is a crock. And they believe that their candidate is the subject of a political witch-hunt.
Donald Trump Jr blasts dad's guilty verdict & says it's Dems attempt to 'turn America into a third-world country'
They have plenty of evidence behind them. The trial that finished in New York this week was dodgy for a lot of reasons.
It was related to a historic payment. It involved a detail of campaign finance which, frankly, many candidates could be accused of in some way (not that the details would be as juicy).
And it was brought by a left-wing Democrat District Attorney.
Worse, it was brought in the city of New York, which may have been Trump’s home for many years but whose voters do not have any great love for the former president.
As such it was always likely that a New York jury would find against him.
Then there was the humiliation of the exercise.
He is still due back in court in July to face sentencing. And here America truly heads into the realms of the unknown
Douglas Murray
Stormy Daniels took the stand, totally unnecessarily.
And her latest story of her triste with Trump was strikingly different from her earlier retellings.
She also added flavour of a kind that was designed to humiliate him.
Yet Trump has remained defiant. The New York trial judge put a wild number of gagging orders on the former US leader during the trial.
But after being found guilty on all 34 counts, he was relieved of these restrictions.
On the courthouse steps, Trump blasted the court.
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Ever media-savvy, he used the opportunity to make a campaign speech of sorts. Of course he repeated his claim that the judge in the case was corrupt and that the trial was a “fix”.
But he also used the chance to tell American voters that they were losing their country.
Among other things, he referred to the recent influx of millions of illegal migrants at the southern border.
So what does this mean for Trump and for America?
Well, of course, his opponents are crowing.
In recent weeks Trump has been leading the polls against his Democrat rival, the current president Joe Biden.
Now Biden, Trump and the whole country are back on the Trump roller-coaster.
He is due to appeal the court’s verdict. But he is still due back in court in July to face sentencing. And here America truly heads into the realms of the unknown.
No former president, let alone the front-runner in a presidential race, has ever been in this position.
If Trump is sentenced to even one day in prison it could go either of two ways.
On the one hand it could be a last straw for some in his party and certainly for some swing voters.
But Trump has his party tied up.
There is no obvious candidate to replace him before the Republican convention confirms him in July.
Perhaps some of his rivals will try a move against him. But it would almost certainly fail.
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‘Deep state’
Whatever you think of Trump, the American voters factored in his downsides long ago.
They may think he’s the son of a bitch, but he is their son of a bitch.
In recent years the US public have lost trust in almost everything — including the legal system.
From the Supreme Court down, American justice is political in a way most British voters could not believe.
Trump’s conviction in New York will only spur those people who say the whole thing is corrupt and that the “deep state” is out to get him.
And here is the real unknown.
Democrats and other opponents of Trump have always hoped there would be a trial which could finally take him out.
But to date every attempt to destroy Trump has only made him stronger.
Perhaps some swing voters will be turned off. But it is a tight call.
A large number of US voters are mad as hell at the state of their country.
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So is Trump. Even more so after this trial.
Now the question is not just whether he can return to the White House, but what revenge he will exact if he gets there.