By all appearances, the Republican Party will stick with Donald Trump after his conviction Thursday on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a New York City courthouse. The former president will be sentenced on July 11, four days before the party’s convention. Conceivably, the Republican presidential candidate in 2024 will be nominated from Rikers Island. It’s nothing to celebrate.
Trump pronounced himself, as you knew he would, “a very innocent man.” He may indeed have room to appeal these charges, which weren’t entirely straightforward. And one might hope that Trump, always sui generis, is in no sense a precedent.
Realistically, though, there’s no going back. Republicans are already decrying the “sham trial,” dubbing Trump a “political prisoner,” vowing vengeance on their enemies. (And fundraising, naturally, on all of the above.) Democrats are gleefully celebrating the conviction of their political opponent, who happens to be the frontrunner in the next presidential election. Whatever one’s view of this verdict, these are incredibly grim signs for American politics.
Republicans may have a point that there were some unnervingly partisan elements to Trump’s prosecution. But come on: They knew exactly who they were nominating. Quite apart from all the crimes, the appalling sleaze rehashed in this trial alone should’ve been cause for Trump’s disqualification — and these are far from the last (or even the most serious) charges that the former president faces. Whatever the outcome of his endless legal entanglements, Trump remains completely unfit for office.
Democrats, for their part, should try to temper their jubilation. No one should be above the law, and Trump makes the least sympathetic antagonist imaginable. But for most of its history, the U.S. has largely been spared the plague of partisan prosecutions. In an electorate already seething with paranoia and anger — and with half the country increasingly unable to tolerate the other half — no one knows what ugly passions will be unleashed by this decision.
Ultimately, Donald Trump is to blame for Donald Trump’s conduct. The judge will decide whether he belongs behind bars. But how Americans respond to this mortifying moment in their political history will be immensely consequential. One hopes, as an altogether nobler president once put it, that they’ll remember the better angels of their nature.