So it finally happened. An indictment has been filed against Trump.* It will probably not satisfy the Democrats and opponents of Trump from the right, nor will it cause the expected jubilation of that part of the public. Maybe we're in for an anti-climax.
And indeed, Trump has not been charged for his political transgressions, although some other investigations could still catch up with him. The fact that this case is not turned into political theater shows us the modus operandi of democracy. Things unfold chaotically, fragmentarily, but with the basic satisfaction of justice.
Trump sycophants like Elise Stefanik and Andy Biggs complain that America is becoming authoritarian and "Third World." Apart from the racism of such statements - the absence of spectacle proves that they are wrong, as well as the fact that countries that stand better on the list of global democracy do not hesitate to judge their failed leaders.
Former German President Christian Wolff was accused of corruption and acquitted. Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was accused of bribing a judge and violating rules on campaign financing. He was sentenced to prison (appeal proceedings are ongoing). Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a kind of Trump before Trump, was sentenced to 4 years in prison. In France, it was unthinkable that the president, who according to the original royalist conception of the Fifth Republic is the embodiment of the country as a whole, should be treated as an ordinary criminal. But that's the point: the law allows no exceptions. Democracy and the rule of law provide that we are all equal.
However, it seems that justice is not equal for all. Berlusconi never ended up in prison. Due to his advanced age, his sentence was changed to 4 hours of work per week with dementia patients. If his appeal is not accepted, Sarkozy will end up under house arrest with a leg brace. Berlusconi renewed his political career and settled comfortably in the Italian senate. But that is also typical of democracy: there are no spectacular trials or catharsis, but, unlike the countries that congresswoman Stefanik would classify as "third world", there is no complete impunity either.
Prosecutor's offices in democratically governed countries send us a signal from time to time that entering politics does not mean the abolition of every crime. Berlusconi apparently hoped that parliamentary immunity would protect him from the consequences of a series of scandals. But being popular is not the same as being innocent. Any truly democratic system discourages the escape of those responsible into politics. It seems that Trump also thought that running for the 2024 elections would provide him with protection from accusations. It is crucial for our societies that such assumptions are proven wrong.
Trump has been an acute danger for the American republic for years. Two moments were missed when he could be removed from politics once and for all. In both cases of possible impeachment, which would permanently prevent him from holding public office, this was prevented by his loyal Republicans. Some of them must be secretly relieved now that the US judiciary is doing their job. But the balance of power remains the same: Democrats hope that Trump's chances as a presidential candidate have now collapsed and that the cult of his personality has been destroyed in the Republican Party, while Republicans proclaim their loyalty to Trump and accuse Democrats of abusing power and institutions.
No matter what the Democrats say or what the Democratic district attorney does the Republican response will be loud and full of venom. Trump is the so-called placed revenge at the very center of his agenda. Presenting democratic processes as a mechanism of revenge against political opponents is extremely dangerous and the democrats have no real answer to that.
Trump is already monetizing the indictment against himself in the same way he profited from his lies about the results of the last election. Authoritarian populist leaders around the world have found that the shared experience of injustice and creating a sense of victimhood in the community fosters solidarity with the leader. This would happen even if the indictment against Trump was impeccably drawn up, and the behavior of the Democrats was flawless.
The irony is that the only thing that can undermine this political-financial business model of martyrdom is the sheer distaste of this kind of buying silence. Trump apparently no longer believed his own judgment that his voters would support him even if he killed someone on Fifth Avenue. And indeed, it's hard to believe that after the public heard the notorious behind-the-scenes footage of Access Hollywood, people would swallow another such case. On the other hand, his followers, especially evangelicals, have so far not been too disturbed by his private life.
Still, there would be some poetic justice in the fact that a man with ambitions to be the ultimate convention-breaking outsider gets what's coming his way thanks to a very old-fashioned scandal.
(The Guardian; Peščanik.net; translation: M. Jovanović)
* The indictment is sealed and the details are not known, but it is known that it is about payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about her relationship with Trump. The payments were made on the eve of the 2016 elections and were allegedly concealed by falsifying business books; prim.trans.
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