Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Trump 1, Republicans 0

Trump 1, Republicans 0

Former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives for his arraignment at Manhattan Criminal Court on April 04, 2023 in New York City.

Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Goldstone’s latest book is “Not White Enough: The Long, Shameful Road to Japanese American Internment.” Learn more at www.lawrencegoldstone.com.

If there really is no such thing as bad publicity, Donald Trump has had an excellent couple of weeks. Once dismissed by a growing number of Republicans as a candidate whose time had passed, who would be easily bested by a Trump-without-baggage like Ron DeSantis, the real Trump has been thrust back into the center ring by New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who Trump, totally in character, accused of being a racist.


The charges grow out of Trump’s alleged payment to two women to cover up adulterous affairs that, if made public, would have harmed his bid for office. While there has been a paucity of Republicans who have claimed that Trump is innocent, there is no shortage of accusations from the right that this entire action is politically motivated. (They must have had to put their denunciations of Hunter Biden aside to do so.)

Many Democrats as well have questioned Bragg’s strategy, wondering why, with far more serious charges pending in Georgia and with the Justice Department, Bragg did not simply wait until one of those was brought before seeking his indictment.

But Bragg had to go first, precisely because this was the most obscure of all the charges likely to be leveled against the former president. If he had waited, it would be akin to having the opening band at a rock concert play after the star attraction.

Some have argued that Bragg has contorted the statutes to bring felony charges against Trump when others who had committed the same crime would have been charged only with misdemeanors. Perhaps this is true, but as other white-collar criminals as well as some Mafia dons have learned, the authorities tend to be more aggressive with defendants seen as flouting the law, making it clear both in word and deed that they see the rules as applying only to lesser beings than themselves. It would be difficult to find a more apt example than Donald Trump.

In addition, although many skeptics have taken Bragg to task for shoehorning Trump’s behavior into an uncertain case, Bragg’s hand has been strengthened by an accused who cannot keep his mouth shut and likely sends his lawyers off nightly to swig Maalox.

And so, Republicans are not wrong when they focus on the political aspects of the New York case rather than the legal ones. For their party, Trump’s Bragg-induced elevation is a potential nightmare regardless of the outcome of the trial. Not only does it resurrect Trump as the undisputed favorite for the nomination; it makes certain that Trump realizes that he absolutely, positively must win. Being the Republican nominee—or even better a Republican president—is the only way he can effectively ward off the volleys of indictments likely coming his way, a process made easier now that Alvin Bragg has broken the ice.

Trump’s desperation will manifest itself in a number of ways. First and most obvious is that he will even more ferociously attack his rivals for the nomination, with no tactic too low or no comment too despicable. He will similarly go after Democrats, of course, but that will be for the same audience—Trump does not figure to get many crossover votes. In his immediate crosshairs will be DeSantis, who has already demonstrated a stunning lack of understanding that running a national campaign is not the same as pandering to his Florida choir.

Other declared and potential candidates will come in for similar treatment as soon as they are perceived as credible threats. Thus, Republicans who intended to run as reasonable, policy-oriented conservatives, capable of attracting disaffected Democrats—Glenn Youngkin and Chris Sununu, for example—will be forced to fight in the gutter or, like Jeb Bush, be dismissed as weak. Former associates such as Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo will be castigated as ingrates and traitors.

None of this will help Republicans regain the White House in 2024. While he may be again the darling of the Republican right, polls have shown that Trump is the least likely in his party to win in 2024. Needless to say, anyone who harbors a scintilla of hope that he will step aside for the good of his party, or even endorse anyone who beats him for the nomination, can put in his or her application now for a scholarship to Trump University.

But the impact of Trump’s coming kamikaze strategy goes even further. In order to make certain that everyone knows he is back on top, in addition to his own campaign, he will energetically promote his choices for key congressional races. If he succeeds in gaining nominations for a new round of Herschel Walkers and Dr. Ozes, he may also succeed in allowing Democrats to maintain control of the Senate, which under normal circumstances, they were extremely unlikely to do.

If Republican leaders needed any reinforcement of that notion, they need look no further than Wisconsin, where Daniel Kelly, a Trump acolyte, was demolished in his race for state supreme court. Kelly was dismissed as a “weak candidate,” as indeed he was, but that is the Republicans’ problem in tight races in the age of Trump. They are all weak candidates because strong candidates cannot get nominated.

It seems unlikely that the savvier leaders of the party are unaware of this potential doomsday scenario. The question is, what can they do about it? Attacking Trump head on is out of the question. Even if they succeeded in denying him the nomination and even defeating his chosen congressional candidates in the primaries, Trump, for whom loyalty is a foreign phrase, will likely instruct his followers to stay home in the general election, thus allowing him to say, “They should have listened to me.”

But nor can they simply allow him to waltz into the nomination, dragging a bunch election-denying conspiracy theorists along with him.

In the end, Alvin Bragg’s motives are unimportant. He has, at least for the foreseeable future, succeeded in pulling off a difficult political carom, bouncing his shot off Trump to potentially sink the Republican Party in the side pocket.

Read More

A Witch Hunt Won’t Feed America
red meat in white plastic bag

A Witch Hunt Won’t Feed America

Missouri’s food economy runs on undocumented labor. Turning a blind eye won’t work anymore.

In meatpacking plants across Missouri, hundreds of workers clock in before dawn, keeping one of the state’s most essential industries up and running. Many of them are Latino immigrants, some undocumented, who have become the invisible backbone of Missouri’s $93.7 billion agriculture economy. They’re the ones who process the pork and clean the poultry that end up on our dinner tables.

Keep ReadingShow less
Two speech bubbles overlapping.

Recent data shows that Americans view members of the opposing political party overly negatively, leading people to avoid political discourse with those who hold different views.

Getty Images, Richard Drury

How To Motivate Americans’ Conversations Across Politics

Introduction

A large body of research shows that Americans hold overly negative distortions of those across the political spectrum. These misperceptions—often referred to as "Perception Gaps"—make civil discourse harder, since few Americans are eager to engage with people they believe are ideologically extreme, interpersonally hostile, or even threatening or inferior. When potential disagreement feels deeply uncomfortable or dangerous, conversations are unlikely to begin.

Correcting these distortions can help reduce barriers to productive dialogue, making Americans more open to political conversations.

Keep ReadingShow less
A medical professional wearing gloves, putting a band-aid on a patient's shoulder.

RFK Jr. has publicly challenged the safety of vaccines, although the evidence he cites is widely disputed by mainstream scientists, medical institutions, and public health experts.

Getty Images, Jackyenjoyphotography

Just the Facts: Vaccine Safety, RFK Jr.’s Claims, and Florida’s Mandate Rollback

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is currently the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services and is responsible for shaping national health policy, managing public health programs, and guiding medical research and regulatory frameworks.

He has publicly challenged the safety of vaccines, including required childhood immunizations and COVID-19 vaccines. However, the evidence he cites is widely disputed by mainstream scientists, medical institutions, and public health experts.

Keep ReadingShow less
League of Women Voters of Arkansas President Bonnie Miller on a hike, standing in front of a landscape view.

Katie Fahey speaks with League of Women Voters of Arkansas President Bonnie Miller on democracy reform across the state and her work in civically educating and engaging residents.

The Fahey Q&A With Bonnie Miller of the League of Women Voters, Arkansas

Since organizing the Voters Not Politicians 2018 ballot initiative that put citizens in charge of drawing Michigan's legislative maps, Fahey has been the founding executive director of The People, which is forming statewide networks to promote government accountability. She regularly interviews colleagues in the world of democracy reform for our Opinion section.

Bonnie Miller is known for her activism in democracy reform in Arkansas and is the current president of the League of Women Voters of Arkansas and chair of Save AR Democracy, a campaign to protect ballot initiatives in Arkansas. In 2020, Miller led the Arkansas Voters First campaign, which garnered significant support but was eventually struck down by the Arkansas Supreme Court. She continues to lead the fight for a better democracy in her state while also working in higher education at the University of Arkansas School of Law.

Keep ReadingShow less