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Donald Trump, guilty verdict
By Nidz Godino
“When you’re a star, they let you do it…you can do anything,” former United States President Donald Trump once boasted
Dictum he has lived by for decades finally came crashing down when New York jury told him no.
One of the world’s most powerful and consequential men was finally tripped up by porn star, convicted for lying about hush money he paid her to keep quiet about what she says was an uninspiring tryst.
Love him or loathe him, there is one thing most Americans agree on in two-and-a-half centuries since their republic was founded, there has never been president quite like Trump.
Verdict adds new, unprecedented chapter to his story, making him country’s first former president to ever be convicted of crime. This November he could become first felon-president in US history.
Quite how much difference latest scandal makes to his fans is anyone’s guess.
New York prosecution is only one of four criminal cases against presumptive Republican Party nominee.
And he has trashed them all as political persecution, driven at behest of what he claims is corrupt White House led by President Joseph Biden.
Impervious to shame or even embarrassment, Trump has turned each tangle with the law into badge of honor: proof, he says, of his conspiracy theory deep state is out to get him and so-called “forgotten men and women” of working-class America.
To Trump’s millions of backers, 77-year-old is man who broke the mold with his shock 2016 White House win against Democratic heavyweight Hillary Clinton.
To much of the country, though, he just broke America.
Republican’s first term began in 2017 with dark inaugural address evoking “American carnage.”
It ended in mayhem when he refused to accept his defeat by Biden, then goaded supporters into storming Congress on January 6, 2021.
In office, Trump upended every tradition, ranging from trivial what got planted in the Rose Garden to the fundamental relations with NATO.
Journalists became “enemy of the people.” Intelligence services and FBI were demonized. Opponents in Congress were variously branded “crazy” and treasonous.
On the world stage, it was the same story. Trump turned US alliances into transactions.
Friendly partners like South Korea and Germany were accused of trying to “rip us off.”
By contrast, Trump repeatedly declared respect for the likes of Russian President Vladimir Putin or North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, about whom he said “we fell in love.”
Throughout, his wrecking ball political presence increasingly dominated Republican Party.
When Democrats launched two impeachment proceedings, Republicans backed him to the hilt to win acquittal.
And as ex-president, his sway is undiminished.
Never mind that voters punished Trump-backed candidates in 2022 midterms, and have repeatedly rejected efforts by conservatives to cut back on long-cherished liberties like right to abortion.
Party remained in thrall, as witnessed by acolytes trooping to dingy Manhattan court house over the last few weeks to prove their loyalty.
Before he rode down golden escalator of Trump Tower to announce his 2016 White House bid, Trump was popular figure whom few took seriously.
He was famous mostly for the ruthless character he played on reality TV show “The Apprentice,” as well as for developing luxury buildings and golf resorts, and for his wife Melania, former fashion model.
But academics have noted parallels between his evolution as politician and those of autocrats in countries where democratic institutions exist only as facades, allowing populist showmen to take power.
In office, he relished daily controversy, joking wink, wink about changing US Constitution to stay in power indefinitely. “It drives them crazy,” he said.
Despite sounds and fury of four years of tweeting, he got some things done Republicans boast economy was better back then, and he at least started border wall he had pledged to build.
But as 2021’s Covid tragedy spiraled, Trump looked inept, and Biden’s old-school ways and calming centrist message propelled him to comfortable majority.
It was then, as defeat became clear, that Trump yet again did unthinkable by refusing to concede, ultimately unleashing mob on US Capitol who threatened to hang his former vice president, Mike Pence.
ISKUP! 