By Natasha Lindstaedt
Donald Trump has become America’s first convicted felon president after a New York state court formally sentenced him on January 10 over 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal. However, this is no win for the rule of law. Trump’s constant attempts to delegitimise and pick apart the American justice system have worked.
As a convicted felon, Trump won’t be able to buy a gun in some states, travel to 38 countries including Canada and Japan without a waiver, or do jury duty. Yet Trump was sentenced only to an “unconditional discharge”, meaning he will face no further penalties. Nearly half of people convicted of the same crime in the state of New York would go to prison, and Trump could have faced a fine of up to US$170,000 (£140,000).
Even Trump’s former advisers, Paul Manafort and Steve Bannon, went to prison for the same hush money case that eventually led to the president-elect’s conviction, as did his former fixer Michael Cohen. But Trump’s relationship with the justice system is to use delay tactics such as appeals and public and private pressure campaigns to bend the rules.
In July, the US Supreme Court ruled that presidents have immunity for actions taken while in office. With that ruling, the judiciary effectively gave up its ability to check a sitting president, undercutting horizontal forms of accountability that are so critical to democracy. This has given Trump the green light to carry on with his assaults on the rule of law.
The only recent check on Trump’s power was the Supreme Court’s decision, passed by five votes to four, to allow the sentencing for the hush money trial to take place. This decision followed a call between Trump and Justice Sam Alito, in which Alito said the case was not discussed. In the world of authoritarian regimes, similar types of phone calls are known as telephone law, a legal framework where a leader habitually contacts judges to direct the outcome of critical cases.
When Trump is not trying to influence judges directly, he is denigrating those who do not comply with his agenda. With this latest case, Trump has shown no contrition and even showed contempt for Justice Juan Merchan, the judge who oversaw his trial. In a social media post on January 4, Trump claimed the charges against him were “made up” by Merchan, whom Trump referred to as “the most conflicted judge in New York state history”.
It is not just Merchan who has faced Trump’s wrath. Trump has in the past attacked US-born federal judge Gonzalo Curiel over the blocking of a border wall with Mexico, saying Curiel could not be impartial because he was “Mexican”. While this is not as bad as when former Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez sent a sitting judge to prison for ruling against his wishes, it is not yet clear where Trump’s new justice system will take the US.
Trump has certainly revolutionised the way we think about the US presidency. In 1972, burglars were arrested after breaking into the Democratic party’s national headquarters in Washington. Former US president Richard Nixon was subsequently accused of engaging in a cover-up in what became known as the Watergate scandal. By the autumn of 1974, 58% of Americans said that Nixon should be tried for criminal charges and 53% felt that he should not be pardoned if found guilty.
Trump has not faced the same level of backlash. According to a YouGov survey released on the day of his sentencing, 48% of Americans believed Trump had committed a crime in the hush money case. However, 28% did not. In addition, though 42% of Americans thought Trump is treated more leniently than other people, 30% think he is treated too harshly.
Tracking Trump’s trials
Trump faces a few other active cases, too. But these criminal cases have mostly faded away. Special Counsel Jack Smith had to give up the January 6 insurrection case (and recently resigned from the Justice Department) after Trump’s electoral victory. And over the summer, Judge Aileen Cannon, whose name is being cited for a potential role in the Trump administration, threw out the case against Trump over taking classified documents to his home in Florida.
Trump was also accused of conspiring with others to overturn the results of the 2020 US election in the state of Georgia. This appeared the most dangerous of the four criminal cases that Trump was facing as the crimes were more serious and he could not potentially pardon himself for state-level crimes.
But numerous delays, appeals and accusations of conflicts of interest caused the case to stall. District Attorney Fani Willis was moved off the case, and though she has appealed, this will take months to come to a resolution. She would probably have to wait until Trump is out of office for him to be tried, and it is not clear if there will still be an appetite for this.
Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, has also been convicted of 17 counts of tax fraud, among other crimes. A civil court found Trump guilty of business fraud in February 2024 and fined him a staggering US$350 million due to years of engaging in fraud. This has now swelled to more than US$500 million, but Trump has yet to pay anything.
And another civil court found him liable for sexual assault in May 2023, something he tried to appeal unsuccessfully. When ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos referred on air to the decision of this case as one of “rape” rather than “sexual abuse”, Trump sued and ABC was forced to cough up US$15 million, a scary omen of things to come for the free press.
Trump will now forever have a stain on his record as the only US president who broke the law (Nixon resigned before any criminal charges were filed). For many Americans, though, it doesn’t seem to really matter.
Natasha Lindstaedt is Professor in the Department of Government at the University of Essex.
Tj says
I am totally disgusted by your leftist article. Trump didn’t waltz into office unannounced. He was voted in by an overwhelming majority of Republicans and prior Democrats. I know now not to believe anything you print as beneficial. Your biased, segregated journalism is no better than the Enquirer.
Pierre Tristam says
Not that it has anything to do with the article, but the alleged president was voted in by a plurality, not a majority, of Americans, and “overwhelming” is not a word that can factually attach to one of the slimmest winning margins in the history of presidential elections. No matter: facts stopped mattering a long time ago. The commenter appears not to have read the article, making the author’s point in the last paragraph: “Trump will now forever have a stain on his record as the only US president who broke the law (Nixon resigned before any criminal charges were filed). For many Americans, though, it doesn’t seem to really matter.“
Is it Monday Yet? says
“Nearly half of people convicted of the same crime in the state of New York would go to prison.”
Yet Nobody in the state of New York making a benign accounting error where nobody was hurt would be charged with a felony.
Only Trump.
Liticia James, Alvin Bragg, Fanny Willis Jack Smith? Failures.
Ive never wished Monday would get here sooner than this Saturday morning.
We finally get our Country back from woke progressive liberals.
Joseph Barand says
And you probably identify yourself as a Christian, God forgive you for being so stupid and such a hypocrite. You remind me of Trump himself, suffering from an IQ below freezing.
Judith G. Michaud says
Monday, have you read any of Project 2025? I doubt you have! Your either very rich or very blinded by the conman! We are on the road to an oligarchy, fascist government so send a comment a year from now when we are in a war over Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal! There is nothing in the Felon’s agenda for us little guys so enjoy your bliss while it lasts!
Land of no turn signals says says
And Hunter????
Pogo says
@A total jerk trumphole
…compares actual journalism to “…the Enquirer.” High-strung, and dropped on its head too often, may seem like an excuse for forgetting that duh Enquirer was published by trump’s pecker — if you’re as credulous as the typical trumphole. The rest of us will just have to carry on in the real world.
As stated
https://www.google.com/search?q=pecker+catch+kill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-wNhlHJPng
“Not to know what has been transacted in former times is to be always a child. If no use is made of the labors of past ages, the world must remain always in the infancy of knowledge.”
~ Cicero (106-43 BC), Roman politician
Tony Mack says
Trump will wear this conviction as a “Badge of Honor” while he continues to vilify and demonize Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi and all Democrats. Trump’s supporters will continue to believe he was persecuted by an out of control DOJ and they will believe it. Trump and his co-conspirators will weaponize the Department of Justice, the FBI and the IRS to seek his “Retribution”, he so proudly proclaimed and the Republicans in the Congress and the media also will follow along.
The shot callers at the Heritage Foundation will force Trump into calling off the 2026 elections.
Now that they control all three branches of the Federal Government, they will not risk losing any of their power by holding another free and fair election. Can’t happen here, people say? Think Germany in the Thirties. Think 90 million Germans followed their leader right off the cliffs of humanity and decency.
End of story…end of democracy!
Laurel says
The rich get rich and the poor get children.
Meanwhile, the middle class gets screwed and pays for all.
stan beamish says
This is delusional bureaucratic thinking. The people who voted for Trump realized the REAL risk to our democracy. Please explain how Kamala got in without a primary. Thank God the destruction of our country has finally ended and normalcy shall rein again. Get off your high liberal-progressive horse !
Atwp says
He will be the leader of this country soon. We shall see what he and his party do for blind voters. I would like for him to ruin and run the country backwards. Those people who voted for him will suffer for their decision to vote for him. Those that didn’t vote for him will hurt too. Time will tell. Will he get through the inauguration?
Ummm... Judy? says
Donald Trump has stated numerous times he is not affiliated with the Heritage foundation and never read project 25. I do not know how many times liberals need to be told and or reminded of this?
Pierre Tristam says
Perhaps liberals aren’t inclined too much to believe the man who lies at the speed of sound. Non-liberals would’ve been wise to be as cautious.
Laurel says
Really Judy? Trump has spoken to the Heritage Foundation, and has nominated some of Project 2025 authors to his upcoming cabinet:
“In recent days, Trump has tapped nearly a half-dozen Project 2025 authors and contributors, including Brendan Carr, who Trump picked this week to lead the FCC; former Rep. Pete Hoekstra, who got the nod for ambassador to Canada; and John Ratcliffe, who was tapped for director of the CIA. One of Trump’s first selections — Tom Homan as “border czar” — was also a Project 2025 contributor.” – Politico.com
How many times to you Trumplicans need to be told and reminded of this?”
Dennis C Rathsam says
Cant wait for MAGA MONDAY!!!! Can’t come fast enough! Either you folks are ignorant,or just plain dumb. Carter died a happy man, knowing he wasnt the biggest fool to be ellected president! Had the Biden folly, worked….Kamala would be president tomorrow! But Biden failes miserably, at home & abroad! Biden was so affraid of TRUMP, he weaponized as many fools he could find to take TRUMP down. Every case againt TRUMP lead back to Biden whitehouse! The American people are not fools, they all saw that Biden tryed to do, DEI, WOKE, bullshit! TRUMP won every single swing state, the greatest political come back in history!You see Americans remember, being able to buy a house when TRUMP was president, they saw thier take home pay go up thanks to TRUMPS tax cuts. Prosperity was the name of the game, everyone was doing well! China was on the balls of thier ass, so was Iran….China couldnt compete, so out came the China Flu. It destroyed many many countries. we barely servived even though TRUMP handed Biden the vaccine & the ventalators with instructions, that Biden never followed. { thats why more people died under Biden}! All you sore losers out there are worried about TRUMP retaliating to Bidens croneys…. TRUMP didnt go after Hillary did he? Sorry guys, TRUMPS got his hands full, cleaning up after the mess called the Biden whitehouse. How many more Americans would have died if TRUMP didnt stop the fights to the USA from China?????? You know it would serve all you democrats if KA$H PATEL & PAM BONDI discovered the truths about the democrat lies & cover ups on Jan 6! All the Russian colloosion evidence Adam Schiff said he had….To this day he has produced nothing!!!! NOTHING!!!!! TRUMPs got many jobs to do.The USA is a shaddow of its once glory, but nor for long! In fact, I predict TRUMPs 4 years will turn America aroung, make us safe, make us rich!Then after he turns the reins over to VANCE, democrates wont hold the whitehouse for 12 years!
Laurel says
Meahwhile, Vance can vacation in “Haitia.” Yeah, we’re all looking *forward.*
Tony Mack says
The Intelligencer Updated Nov. 29, 2024
All of the Trump Cabinet Picks That Have Ties to Project 2025
By Chas Danner and Nia Prater
During his 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump and aides repeatedly dismissed the idea of any association between them and Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation effort to draft a transition plan and detailed policy blueprint for Trump to use should he win the election. At least 140 members of the first Trump administration helped with the plan, and multiple former Trump Cabinet members wrote much of Project 2025’s 922-page Mandate for Leadership manifesto — including top Trump adviser Russell Vought — but the whole thing became an election-year liability when Democrats began associating the Trump campaign with the extreme policies Project 2025 proposed. Now that Trump and Team MAGA are headed back to the White House, they clearly aren’t keeping their distance anymore. Trump has named several Project 2025 authors and contributors to his White House Cabinet, and despite the fact that Trump transition co-chair Howard Lutnick vowed in September that “I won’t take a list from them,” transition officials are reportedly consulting Project 2025’s personnel database in search of staff to hire.
Below is an updating list of everyone with ties to Project 2025 who is currently set to serve in the second Trump administration.
Brendan Carr, FCC chair
Pete Hoekstra, U.S. ambassador to Canada
Tom Homan, White House “border czar”
Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary
Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff for policy
John Ratcliffe, CIA director
J.D. Vance, vice-president
Russell Vought, Office of Management and Budget director
Anybody who actually believes that Trump knew nothing about Project 2025 or the Heritage Foundation’s involvement with the 20204 election is particularly naïve.
The next Trump Administration will be controlled by the Heritage Foundation, the Federalists Society and the billionaires who are the shot callers behind this election.
As an additional benefit, these billionaires stand to make a great deal of money from their implementation of 2025 and they get to sit back and watch the Democrats and the media tear themselves apart trying to place blame on the ticket’s overwhelming loss. They have it all now, folks — The House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, the lower courts, the judicial system, immunity, a DOJ policy that says a sitting President can’t be prosecuted — Trump could commit murder on live television — probably FOX — and not one single thing could be done to hold him accountable.
All thanks to the Heritage Foundation, the Federalist Society, billionaires, and a media that rolled over and walked Trump right back into the White House.
They conspired to keep Trump out of jail and out of the judicial system and in return, Trump will implement Project 2025 as their puppet and destroy the Republic. They couldn’t do it by force on January 6th, so they did it in the deep, dark back rooms where bloodless coups are hatched.
Next on their agenda — cancellation of the 2026 elections. Now that they have all the power of the Federal Government and many state legislatures, they are not going to willingly risk losing it all with free and fair elections, once again.
Welcome to Germany in the Thirties…end of story…end of democracy.
Sherry says
@land, tj, is it monday, and all other maga cult members, not to confuse anyone with actual FACTS not found on Fox of course:
* Accidental accounting error, huh? Did trump accidentally have accounting errors where he was found guilty of “Fraud” (AKA criminal lying). . . AP News Trump civil fraud trial: Here’s what’s in the $355 million verdict
Feb 17, 2024 — “The frauds found here leap off the page and shock the conscience,” Judge Arthur Engoron wrote in a 92-page decision that spares Trump’s company.
* Did trump “accidentally” Sexually Assault and Defame E. Jean Carroll, for which he was found “Guilty” in two different trails. Yes, he just lost that appeal: The Guardian 12/30/2024
A federal appeals court has upheld the $5m verdict against Donald Trump for sexually abusing and defaming the magazine writer E Jean Carroll, dealing a legal setback to the president-elect.
The three-judge panel at the second US circuit court of appeals in Manhattan rejected Trump’s arguments for a new trial, ruling that evidence including testimony from other accusers – as well as the infamous Access Hollywood tape that captured him boasting about how it was normal for him to “grab [women] by the pussy” – was properly admitted.
The May 2023 verdict found Trump liable for sexually assaulting Carroll in a New York department store dressing room in about 1996, 20 years before winning his first presidency, though the jury stopped short of calling the case a rape. The verdict included $2.02m for sexual assault and $2.98m for defaming Carroll in an October 2022 social media post where he called her allegations a “hoax”.
The appeals court said testimony from two other women who accused Trump of sexual misconduct – the businesswoman Jessica Leeds as well as the former People magazine writer Natasha Stoynoff – helped establish “a repeated, idiosyncratic pattern of conduct” that aligned with Carroll’s allegations.
To the maga tribe that lives in some kind of “Alternate Fox Reality”. . . please STOP trying to peddle Fox BS propaganda to those of us who still live in “Fact Based Reality”. All you end up doing is making yourselves look like complete “Fools”.
Laurel says
“Accidental accounting” like accidentally bringing 40+ boxes of top secret government information, and storing them in his club bathroom. Good thing he had his appointed, green lapdog to clean up his mess.
Now he has a kennel of lapdogs, all panting for their share of biscuits.
216 says
EJ Caroll when pinned down on cross examination Cannot even remember when this fictitious assault occurred. She did state that she was wearing a designer outfit at the time that did not exist (per the designer ) for years after. Total looney bin looking for a pay day and liberal New Yorkers under a DA hand picked by George Soros, newly accoladed by Biden through his son Alex Soros (Remember that name!) convicted him of this accusation, with ZERO. collaborating evidence. Honestly? I believe it only because obviously Trump can do much better but That’s what a sexist would say.
NONE of this matters. It is our turn now, take a back seat and whine elsewhere. The business of the Country is about to unfold, behold its Glory, Just watch what’s about to happen… glued to our seats. You’ll never see nothing like this again.
Ed P says
Mark Twain,(Samuel Clemens) was considered wise, witty, and a great thinker.
Did you know he is quoted, “ It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled”. He is also credited for saying “ never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.”
Wise words indeed.
Laurel says
On this, Ed P, I agree with you wholeheartedly!
Ray W, says
Hello Ed P.
As I recall, before you adopted the Ed P. moniker, it took a lot of effort to persuade you that you had been fooled by a fake news internet meme about the quantity of U.S. crude oil reserves. The fake news you parroted to FlaglerLive readers was that the U.S. had sufficient crude oil reserves to service all of the world’s oil needs for 300 years.
When I pointed out that the EIA listed known U.S. oil reserves as sufficient to provide for U.S. needs for 50 years, you vigorously denied the claim. It took quite a while to get you to actually look up the figure. You then acknowledged that the true figure was enough crude oil for 50 years of U.S. consumption, or 10 years of worldwide consumption, not 300 years of worldwide consumption, i.e., you admitted that you had been duped.
But first you resorted to denial, then indignation, then name calling, and several other non-effective approaches. The use of intellectual rigor was your last resort, but it worked. You took the time to actually look it up.
I accept the new Ed P. over the old one any day. I still disagree with you on a number of issues, but that is not the point. The point is to use of the three types of reason as they were taught to our founding fathers, based on the exercise of intellectual rigor.
In this article, the issue is cast as a sentencing one. Was the rule of law lost because Trump was adjudicated guilty as a felon but not sentenced as one should be sentenced? Maybe. Maybe not.
Every resolution of a criminal conviction involves both a judgment phase and a sentencing phase.
In the New York falsification of business records (fraud) case, the judgment phase followed standard practice. New York does not recognize the possibility of a judge withholding adjudication of guilt, so our president had to be legally designated a convicted felon. During the sentencing phase, depending on statutory language, trial judges often have great latitude. In this instance, the trial judge elected no further punishment.
I have seen many oddities in my years of courtroom advocacy.
There is an old and somewhat short line of USSC cases that hold that an adjudication of guilt is punishment in its own right, i.e., being branded a felon in one’s community at the time of the issuance of those cases was considered a significant punishment, in and of itself. In that setting, is it inappropriate for a judge to consider the adjudication of felonious guilt as sufficient punishment on its own?
When I was a prosecutor, the office charging manual made available to all prosecutors a number of options by which a case could be closed without further prosecution. One of them, either G-6 or G-8, (I don’t recall exactly), allowed a prosecutor to close a case because “the arrest constituted sufficient punishment for the crime.”
Can it be argued that punishment can take many different forms?
A number of other commenters on this thread take the position that the falsification of business records (fraud) found by the jury was somehow not prosecutable. There exists an argument that 60 years ago, fraud of the type alleged in the New York Indictment was perhaps not prosecutable, but I am unaware of any effort by Trump’s lawyers to argue that point. But the law changed over the last 60 years.
Shortly after WWII, a line of criminal law cases further developed a common law idea that differentiated between fraud in the inducement and fraud in the performance.
A 1948 Florida Supreme Court case held that a roofer who accepted money under a contract to repair a roof could not be criminally convicted under the facts because the contract to repair the roof required that the homeowner provide a portion of the contracted money up-front, prior to commencement of any work on the roof. Once handed over by the homeowner pursuant to the contract, the money no longer belonged to the homeowner, it belonged to the roofer to use as he pleased. When the roofer showed up the next day with a helper and a bucket of tar, but no shingles or nails, the homeowner grilled him; he admitted to spending some of the up-front money on food for his family. He said that he would come back another day with the rest of the materials to complete the work.
The Court reversed the ensuing conviction, finding that no evidence existed to establish fraud in the inducement and that fraud in the performance of a contract could not be criminal, as the money had changed hands pursuant to a mutually agreed contract. The issue for the court was the man’s intent at the time of the contract, not his intent at the time of the work, and the State failed to provide evidence of intent to commit fraud at the time of the making of the contract, i.e., evidence of fraud in the inducement.
Within a few years, the USSC weighed in on a similar issue. A Michigan farmer, hunting near his farm, stumbled upon a scattered pile of abandoned practice range artillery shell casings. He returned with a trailer and loaded up the casings and took them to a local scrapyard. Charged with stealing the casings, at trial the judge denied the defense attorney’s request for a special jury instruction asking that the jury be ordered to find the specific intent to steal the casings before convicting. The trial judge denied the motion, stating that knowing the abandoned casings were not his was enough to convict. The USSC reversed the conviction, stating that the concept of specific intent required that the State prove that the farmer intended to steal; simply collecting discarded casings showed evidence of intent to possess, but not intent to steal. In those times, prosecutors carried a much heavier burden of proof. This short era arguably was the high point in American jurisprudence of the concept of specific intent.
In 1965, the Model Penal Code was released. In it was a recommendation that state legislatures modify their specific intent statutes pertaining to property crimes. All over the country, state legislatures began modifying their statutes.
In 1977, Florida’s legislature, based on the Model Penal Code recommendation, passed the Anti-Theft Act. The long existing
codified common law individual specific intent crimes were all swept up into an all-encompassing anti-theft statute.
Prior to 1977, Florida recognized 11 individual codified specific intent crimes, each with its own unique specific intent: stealing, larceny, purloining, abstracting, embezzlement, misapplication, misappropriation, conversion, obtaining by false pretenses, obtaining by fraud, and obtaining by deception. The specific intent to convert differed from the specific intent of embezzle. The specific intent to abstract differed from the specific intent to misappropriate.
Prior to the Anti-Theft Act, if a prosecutor alleged embezzlement and proved conversion, the probata differed from the allegata, and the defendant had to be acquitted.
Under the new Anti-Theft Act language, proof of any one of the 11 different possible intents was enough. Appellate courts of the day began describing the language of the new legislation as “easing the path of prosecution.”
For nearly 200 years, prosecutors had carried a heavier burden of proof. No longer. I have seen a judge dismiss charges at the close of the state’s case because the evidence differed from the allegation set forth in an indictment, but that was 40 years ago. I heard him say that the probata differed from the allegata.
From my earliest days of prosecution, if I charged a grand theft auto, I worded the specifics of the charges as a theft of a 1984 Ford Mustang bearing a license tag of #ABC-1234 and a VIN of #ABCDEF-123456789 belonging to Jane Doe, or a Ford Mustang, or a Ford automobile, or a motor vehicle, or personal property. I went from the specific to the general, just to minimize the possibility of a claim that the allegata did not match the probata.
Today’s judges seem completely oblivious to this argument. Today’s judges don’t see 11 different specific intent crimes, they see only a theft statute that can be accomplished 11 different ways, and the State need only provide proof of any one of the 11 different possibilities, and it becomes close enough to convict.
In essence, today’s property crimes are no longer specific intent crimes in the common law definition of specific intent, they have become general intent crimes. We still call them specific intent crimes, but they aren’t. Today’s Anti-Theft Act statute is so broadly worded that any vague intent will do.
This was Trump’s dilemma. It has become so easy for a prosecutor to prove fraud these days that proof of the act alone can be enough. Specific intent can be inferred from a wide variety of possible intents. The path of prosecution has long been eased. Fraud statutes no longer distinguish between fraud in the inducement and fraud in the performance. Simple fraud in any of its many forms is now enough to convict.
The gullible among us think that prosecutors are at fault for Trump’s convictions. They aren’t. They are only doing what the legislature told them they could do. The legislatures, all of them all around the country, did this decades ago. They eased the path of prosecution by making all forms of fraud criminal, where at one time the codified common law did not.
Ed P says
Ray W,
Welcome back sir! I have wondered on multiple occasions where you went, hoping your hiatus was not health related.
I look forward to more disceptatio causae.
Pierre Tristam says
So had I. I sent him an email recently but did not hear back. I was about to file a show-cause action in Stacia Warren’s courtroom.
Jake from state farm says
Tomorrow is the day. It all ends…. Have all you liberals locked your doors and become doomsday peppers? Got all your shots and boosters? Nazi’s will be goose stepping down the avenue tomorrow. Internment camps opening. End of times. You guys said it was going to happen so it better as I know liberals don;t lie. Keep yourselves safe. Stay indoors.
Sherry says
As the Maga cult members continue with their extreme exaggerations of internment camps and other BS. . . consider the possibility that if trump’s goons do not rise to that level of insanity, the Maga cult members will crow that nothing “so bad” happened. Do not fall for such manipulative tricks, straight from the trump handbook.
Laurel says
Wild, crazy stories, and tons of distractions. Meanwhile, what’s Jared and Invonka been doing with $2,000,000,000 (that’s two billion for those not paying attention) of Saudi money down Miami way? What about President Trump, who doesn’t take a paycheck for *charity* reasons, coming out with his own bitcoin? Maybe a little bit of slight of hand? Free all those insurrectionist “hostages!” Who cares if they attacked Capital Police, and death occurred?
Oh, there will be many, many more outrageous distractions. Enjoy your entertainment, but at what cost?
Tj says
Mr. Tristam, you don’t consider R 312, D 226 an overwhelming margin?
Pierre Tristam says
FDR in ’36, Nixon in ’72, Reagan in ’84: these are overwhelming margins. Trump’s is “overwhelming” only to the extent that the word, like so much language that crosses the barrier of his teeth, has overwhelmingly been cheapened and rendered meaningless.
Al says
Anyone that felt the trial was fair should not complain when they are confronted with a corrupt judge and prosecutor. Even third world dictators covered their eyes in disgust of the corruption on the part of the state.
Laurel says
Poor Trump, the most victimized human on the planet, in the universe, since the beginning of time! So innocent, so loving, so caring, the world has treated him so cruelly! It’s sad.
Inauguration day. I think I’ll find a good movie.
Sherry says
To the person now using the handle @Sherry. . . as you likely know, I am a person who still lives in “fact based reality”. I have supported Flaglerlive and have been commenting on this site as “Sherry” for over 10 years. I would greatly appreciate it if you would please change your handle to something that does not almost exactly resemble mine. Thanks so much for your kind cooperation!
FlaglerLive says
We will keep an eye on it and ensure there’s no attempt to use your handle.
Joe D says
To “Monday yet”:
“Benign accounting errors?”
Clearly you listened to the MAGA media hype, and didn’t read (as I did) the TRANSCRIPTS of the trial, the documents submitted with fraudulent “inflated value” numbers. People who did the accounting records for Trump, who testified that after submitting the initial true financial reports to Trump and his advisers, then were given back the reports to “fix them”…meaning to inflate the property and investment numbers to allow TRUMP to qualify for higher loans than the true values would have supported ( that means FRAUD people). Like you or I stating our homes were worth $575,000 , when they were only worth $400,000…to get a $125,000 or more equity loan on the “reported value.”
Rather than being “persecuted”…time and time again TRUMP was given “preferential treatment” and benefit of the doubt judgements that NO ONE ELSE would have gotten away with it! And there were so MANY of these incidents, that the legal system just couldn’t continue to “LOOK the OTHER WAY,” anymore.
And yes, Trump won..49.9% to Harris’ 48.3%….1.6%….HARDLY an “OVERWHELMING” majority MAGA promoters spout about!
Joe D says
To Jake from State Farm:
Maybe no goose stepping Nazis and internment camps on day one, but (as I have commented dozens of times I. This blog)…I give it 18 months for the American MAGA voters to realize what Chaos and disruption they have unleashed on American Democracy, and our everyday lives.
I certainly ( for the sake of the county) hope I’m wrong, but leopards don’t change their spots, and Trump 2.0 feels even more ENTITLED to do whatever he wants with the Whitehouse, the House of Representatives and the Senate pretty much under Republican (and his) control ….so no excuses, and blaming the Democratic “deep state,” when the country starts crashing down… but TRUMP 2.0 will TRY…and his MAGA cult mates will believe him blindly!
Laurel says
Joe D: Well, here’s the thing I believe now: There are millions of Americans who know one or more people, who will be hurt by Trump’s policies. The Police are now outraged by Trump’s pardoning of criminals, who attacked the Capital Police. Pain, wounds, lies, betrayal and death occurred.
There are people who know immigrants who will be hurt. There are people who know dark skinned people who will be hurt. There are people who know LGBTQ people who will be hurt. There are religious people who know religious people who will be hurt. We all know women who will be hurt. We all know middle class people who will be financially hurt. We know the poor will be hurt. We know the climate will be hurt.
We know the ultra rich will benefit.
This country is not completely made up of rich, white, Christian, straight males. Our bubbles are not that small. Even though I kept wondering just how much the middle class, and poor class, would take this nonsense, they continued to do so. But now, these hurts will start coming closer and closer to home. They will become evident. The pain will spread like tree roots.
I’m just not certain if we all will see it in time.