Because of an impending indictment, Donald Trump is lashing out wildly. His calculation could work, because the ex-president gets prominent support.
Donald Trump’s closest circle of advisers still seems to be convinced that if the ex-president is really indicted, it will even help him to bind his loyal supporters even more closely to him. Undeterred, his team announces that Trump will begin his first official campaign event next weekend in Texas.
Trump is expected to be charged in New York next Tuesday. A court in New York is dealing with hush money payments to the porn actress Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. She was supposed to keep a former affair with Trump secret so as not to jeopardize his first presidential candidacy in 2016 and received $130,000 for it, arranged by Trump’s then lawyer Michael Cohen. Trump once denied knowing about the payment.
While his team is now driving Trump’s third campaign, the ex-president seems to be going into panic mode. “The widely-leading Republican nominee and former President of the United States will be arrested next Tuesday,” Trump wrote on his own Truth Social.
In his post on the site, he urged his supporters: “Go protest, take back our nation!” America is now a “Third World Country” and “dying” in the process. American patriots would be arrested and “held captive like animals”. A few hours later he raged again: “We can’t let this go on. They are killing our nation and we are holding back and watching. We have to save America! Protest! Protest! Protest!”
The impending indictment in New York and his reactions to it throw Trump’s campaign into chaos before it even begins. In view of the numerous other cases against him, Trump’s tactics now seem to consist of a mixture of helplessness and calculation. However, the ex-president has influential supporters in the Republican party for his re-election. Even if convicted, Trump could still become president.
Call for rebellion against the establishment
In view of Trump’s call for protests on January 6, 2021, his renewed call for anti-government demonstrations has a clear aftertaste: At that time, his appeal was followed by a storming of the Capitol in Washington, in which several people died and numerous people were injured.
There is a danger that Trump’s supporters – once again incited by him – could resort to violence again. This is probably one of the reasons why a spokesman for the former US President reassured Trump that Trump had not written his appeal with knowledge of a specific risk of arrest. Rather, it is a general warning: “President Trump rightly emphasizes his innocence and the political instrumentalization of our injustice system.”
Trump’s tactic is once again a ride on the razor blade. Ironically, he is receiving support from the currently most politically powerful Republican, the new Speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy. “Once again – an outrageous abuse of power by a radical prosecutor who is letting violent criminals free while pursuing political revenge on President Trump,” McCarthy wrote on Twitter, attacking New York City Attorney Alwin Bragg, who is investigating the hush money case .
“I direct the appropriate committees to investigate immediately whether federal funds are being used to undermine our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated law enforcement,” McCarthy wrote.
