Trump’s Indictment Is Yet Another Stress Test for America

By David Corn  April 1, 2023

Donald Trump at a college wrestling tournament in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on March 18, 2023. Sue Ogrocki/AP

I was working on a different story for this newsletter on Thursday evening when the news of Donald Trump’s indictment hit. So I put that piece to the side and jumped into this historic news cycle. Here’s the article I produced, which was previewed on the Mother Jones website yesterday.

Donald Trump has been a one-man stress test for the American political system. The framers did not envision such a dishonest, narcissistic scoundrel winning the highest office of the land. And the system of laws, rules, and norms that began with the Constitution and that has evolved in the past two centuries was not formulated to deal with a demagogue with a cultlike following who would baldly lie about anything and everything, who would aid and abet a foreign attack on the nation, who would flaunt numerous and brazen conflicts of interest, and who would try to blow up the nation’s constitutional order and incite violence to remain in power. But—so far—the nation appears to have survived the authoritarian threat Trump poses. Yet with his historic indictment in New York City on charges related to the $130,000 hush-money payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election to prevent her from airing the story of her alleged sexual romp with Trump, the failed casino owner who became president is once again about to stress-test the nation.

Never has the US judicial system contended with the criminal prosecution of a former president (who is also the leading GOP 2024 aspirant). That almost happened with Richard Nixon. But his handpicked successor, President Gerald Ford, granted the Watergate co-conspirator a pardon. Ford insisted that would allow the country to move on. But in retrospect, his pardon did the United States a disservice by not allowing the nation to establish a precedent for managing the sensitive matter of presidential criminality.

So after years of repeated brushes with the law and other sordid actions—from allegedly violating housing law to hobnobbing with mobsters to possibly committing perjury to mounting assorted tax dodges to obstructing justice to plotting multiple schemes for overturning an election—Trump is finally being prosecuted for a caper that involved paying off and silencing an adult film director and star. As did the January 6 insurrectionist riot, this will place tremendous pressure on American politics.

It took a nanosecond for Trump and his tribe to decry the indictment in apocalyptic terms, denouncing it as a political hit-job cooked up to deny him the presidency once more and exclaiming this was a declaration of war from the left. They went straight to Defcon-1. Trump led the way with a social media post that was both farcical and threatening. Noting that “Thugs and Radical Left Monsters” had just “indicated” him (yes, he misspelled “indicted), Trump called this an “ATTACK ON OUR COUNTRY THE LIKES OF WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN.” The United States, he huffed, “IS NOW A THIRD WORLD NATION, A NATION IN SERIOUS DECLINE.” Others chimed in. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), the QAnonish pal of white nationalists, issued a tweet that threatened retribution: “Our side chants ‘lock her up’ and their side is going to get a mug shot based on a witch hunt. It’s time to change that. Gloves are off.” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin repeated the right’s favorite talking point of the moment, claiming the indictment was the “weaponization” of the legal system. (They asserted this before anyone had seen the particulars of the indictment.)

Eric Trump exclaimed the indictment was “third world prosecutorial misconduct. It is the opportunistic targeting of a political opponent in a campaign year.” And Donald Trump Jr. went further: “This is like communist-level shit. This is stuff that would make Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot—would make them blush. It’s so flagrant. It’s so crazed.” Yes, he was comparing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to tyrants who each killed millions of people. Right-wing loudmouth Dan Bongino declared, “We’re in a police state.” Other Trumpists assailed the indictment as a sign the United States had become a “banana republic.”

Get a grip, fellas. Police states tend not to use grand juries. The autocrats in charge just arrest who they want to lock up. And in banana republics, there is no accountability when elites break the laws. In fact, as was widely noted on Indictment Day, many established democracies have investigated and/or prosecuted past or present leaders suspected of criminal activity. See Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu, France and Nicolas Sarkozy, Italy and Silvio Berlusconi. That has not turned those nations into police states or killing fields. But there is method to the Trumpian madness. With other and perhaps more serious indictments possibly ahead for Trump—he could be indicted for stealing classified and sensitive White House documents, for pressuring Georgia officials to change the 2020 vote tally, for plotting to overturn the 2020 election, and for inciting the January 6 raid on the Capitol—he and his henchmen have a strong interest in stirring up as much tumult and discord over Bragg’s case, in the hope this might dissuade other prosecutors from indicting Trump.

In the aftermath of the indictment, Democrats, liberals, independents, and others who believe in the rule of law are in an asymmetrical battle with the Trump right. Trump and his minions will hurl heated rhetoric and inflame the conflict. Trump has always welcomed chaos, believing he can harness it for his advantage. Before the indictment, he stated his arrest could prompt violence—coming close to encouraging January 6-like action. He assailed Bragg, a Black man, as an “animal,” and, employing an antisemitic trope, he depicted Bragg as the puppet of Jewish billionaire George Soros (a line of attack loudly echoed by Trump’s defenders). Consequently, it falls to non-Trump America to counsel calm and respect for the rule of law and to remind all that anyone accused, even Trump, is due the presumption of innocence.

That may not be easy in the face of the Trumpian onslaught. Trump’s lackeys are committed to weaponizing this indictment to provoke more tribalism and spark a cataclysmic political clash. They are calling for total political warfare. Trump Jr. proclaimed, “The fascist left won't stop with Trump. They're power-hungry & will do anything to crush their political opponents.” And following the typical demagogue’s playbook, Trump and his defenders seek to rile up the right-wing base by casting this indictment as a direct attack on Trump’s supporters. One pro-Trump conservative website put it this way: “Trump has been indicted and YOU’RE next.”

To make this point, Junior posted this old tweet from Trump:

Trumpworld wants to flip the switch. The issue, for its denizens, is not whether he was a sleazebag who cheated with Stormy Daniels and then tried to shut her up with a cash payment and falsified records to cover up his misconduct. Rather, they want to use this indictment to gin up fear and paranoia they can exploit for political gain and, perhaps, for personal profit. (Within hours of the indictment, Trump, Kevin McCarthy, and a variety of GOP and conservative outfits sent out fundraising emails denouncing Bragg and the radical left. ) Trump and his forces will now engage in an all-out blitz against the legal system and do all they can to intensify political polarization and division within a polarized and divided nation. He wants the system to pay a price for daring to hold him accountable. This furor will shape the 2024 election and the ongoing political fights on Capitol Hill and across the election. The indictment of Donald Trump marks the start of what will be an ugly and dangerous chapter in the ongoing case of Trump vs. America.

Got anything to say about this item—or anything else? Email me at ourland@motherjones.com.

Dumbass Comment of the Week

Every time there is another horrific mass shooting, the enablers of gun violence fire off a volley of stupid remarks. But before we get to comments sparked by the massacre at a Christian school in Nashville, there were a few other contenders from this week. The judges, though, are not considering the many statements that came after Donald Trump was indicted; several of those are covered above.

Prior to the indictment, the judges did take note of a remark from Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the Trump fanboy who conspired with Donald Trump to try to overturn the 2020 election. He thought he had a clever zinger with a tweet declaring, “Democrats are relying on Michael Cohen, a convicted liar, and the Mueller probe to build their case against President Trump. Desperate.”

In this case, Cohen, the onetime lawyer and fixer for Trump, will be a key witness for the prosecution. That’s because Cohen, according to federal prosecutors, paid off Daniels a week before the 2016 election at the direction of Trump. But, as I recently noted, there are plenty of other witnesses in the case who can testify about Trump’s alleged involvement in this scheme. And remember this: Cohen pleaded guilty to a charge of lying to Congress for prevaricating to protect Trump. Jordan and other Trump lieutenants will continue assailing Cohen, but keep in mind that prosecutors win cases all the time with witnesses who have criminal records.

When DCotW judges feel lazy, they look at the most recent Trump rally. Last weekend, Trump held an election shindig in Waco, Texas, a holy place for anti-government activists who remember the violent clash there in 1993 between David Koresh’s Branch Davidian cult and federal agents that left 82 Branch Davidians (including 28 children) and four feds dead. (Koresh had allegedly abused and raped children who lived on the compound.) There was much discussion of Trump’s selection of Waco. Was it a wink-wink to far-right extremists or merely a logistically convenient site? But there was nothing ambiguous about the first speaker of the day: gun-nut Ted Nugent. He opened the festivities with this lovely sentiment: “The whole world sucks, and America's catching up."

Nugent has long been a purveyor of violent rhetoric. During the 2008 campaign, he held up two machine guns at a concert and told then-candidate Barack Obama to “suck on my machine gun.” He added this remark about Hillary Clinton: “Hillary, you might want to ride one of these into the sunset, you worthless bitch.” Such sentiments did not lead to his excommunication from conservative and Republican circles. In 2012, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney accepted his endorsement. And a decade later, Trump is partnering up with Nugent. As for Nugent’s particular comment about the United States sucking, we can ask: Why do Trumpers hate America? You know what they used to say about Americans who didn't love America?

On to the tragic Nashville shooting. Even though the wife of Gov. Bill Lee (R-Tenn.) was a close friend of one of the adults slain at the school, Lee quickly offered the right-wing bromide that the aftermath of a shooting is no time to discuss gun policy. “This is not a time for hate or rage," he added. "That will not resolve or heal.” With mass shootings happening so frequently, it seems there’s never an opportunity to discuss gun safety initiatives.

When Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) was asked about the possible need for an assault weapons ban following the shooting—two of the shooter’s guns were assault-type weapons—he said, “If you’re going to talk about the AR-15, you’re talking politics now. Let’s not get into politics. Let’s not get into emotion because emotion feels good, but emotion doesn’t solve problems.”

This comment was more now’s-not-the-time BS, with the extra insult of branding a policy proposal that once worked (before the GOP got rid of it) as nothing but “politics” and an emotional response.

In a way, it was refreshing to hear Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) talk about the shooting. He expressed the stance that many Republicans hold but don’t dare to voice: We have no desire or intention to do anything about gun violence. Talking to a reporter at the US Capitol, Burchett remarked:

It’s a horrible, horrible situation. We’re not gonna fix it. Criminals are going to be criminals. And my daddy fought in the Second World War, fought in the Pacific, fought the Japanese, and he told me, “Buddy…if somebody wants to take you out and doesn’t mind losing their life, there’s not a whole heckuva lot you can do about it.

He also said, “If you think Washington is going to fix this problem, you’re wrong. They’re not going to fix this problem. They are the problem.” Dumb...but clarifying. Republicans are willing to live with these mass shootings to keep the gun fetishists and gun industry of America satisfied. They just rarely spell it out as clearly as Burchett did.

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the House majority leader and a victim of gun violence, joined in with the too-soon crowd. Asked about Congress possibly taking action on gun safety, he said, “There are some people, unfortunately, that want to try to exploit a tragedy for their own political gain. That’s not something that people should be first thinking about when you have a tragedy.” Well, why not? Shouldn’t an initial reaction be how could this have been prevented—as well as how can future tragedies be prevented—especially when it happens so damn often?

Yet the winner this week is House Speaker Kevin McCarthy for what he didn’t say. The day after the shooting, while McCarthy was walking in the Capitol, a reporter asked, “What congressional action should Congress take after the shooting in Nashville yesterday? Should Congress take any action on gun laws?” McCarthy said nothing. He just kept on walking. (You can watch it here.) As they say, actions speak louder than words—especially when there are no words.

The Mailbag

It’s never too late to learn the truth about an American president. That was the sentiment of several readers who wrote in regarding the recent issue about the new evidence that Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign might have encouraged the Tehran regime to hold on to the American hostages in Iran. The cynical and mendacious goal was to prevent President Jimmy Carter from getting a political bounce. My big point was that if this story is true, it would mean that most GOP presidents who won the White House did so with some degree of underhanded deceit.

But Joyce Hodges said this was not new to her:

New, my foot! Funny how all these Republican dirty tricks were common knowledge to anyone keeping close watch on the campaigns. The “tricks” have been happening ever since I have been watching politics as a Ralph Yarborough supporter back in the 50s. I even wrote a letter to JFK asking him not to come to Texas because of the hatred that was drummed up against him by the Republicans. I will be 90 this year and I have witnessed all of GOP lies and devious behavior over the last 70 years. Good grief! How long is it going to take for people to wake up???

With folks fixated on a possible indictment of Donald Trump, there were many emails about the Our Land edition that explained how the Justice Department and then–Attorney General Bill Barr pressured the federal prosecutors who convicted Michael Cohen in the Stormy Daniels case to keep Trump clear of the prosecution.

Joanne Oleksiak emailed:

The details about Trump and this case are too ugly to stomach, so, thank you for digging into this for us! The man needs be indicted along with his co-conspirators! 

Thanks, Joanne. Covering conspiracies to silence adult film stars and Playboy models is a tough, dirty job. But that’s political journalism in the age of Trump, and someone has to do it.

Aleithia Artemis asked, “What do you make of Merrick Garland?” As I’ve noted in the past, I’m reserving judgement on President Biden’s attorney general. He has handed the two federal investigations of Trump (for stealing White House documents and for trying to overturn the 2020 election) to special counsel Jack Smith. It certainly is tough to bring a case against a former president and current presidential candidate. Yes, the Justice Department is supposed to treat all citizens equally. But that’s not the reality, and it is appropriate for the department to be mindful of the explosive politics of a particular prosecution. So I don’t find it odd or worrying that these investigations are taking a lot of time. If the feds are going to pursue a political leader, they ought to have an airtight case. Consequently, I believe in waiting to see where these investigations lead before rendering a verdict on Garland and Smith.

Aleithia adds:

You make the case well that Trump weaponized the DOJ. But news outlets don't seem to care about his hypocrisy. I get annoyed that the news media covers what he claims, at all, by this point in time. 

There’s a fine balance that needs to be struck between covering Trump’s disinformation, lies, and inciteful rhetoric and not elevating all of this. That challenge is now enhanced due to his indictment. Not only is he an ex-president; he is the GOP frontrunner. When he calls for terminating provisions of the Constitution or makes a statement that encourages violence, it’s important for people to know that. Yet news coverage can amplify dangerous statements. The best I can suggest is that the media provide plenty of context when it reports Trump’s inflammatory remarks. 

Mary Bristow shared this observation:

One theory I've seen passed around is that Michael Cohen, on his own initiative, to protect Trump, came up with the funds to buy her silence without bringing Trump into the picture, and got reimbursed later. He might have been infatuated enough with Trump to participate in felonies for him but I don't think he was stupid enough, even in his still infatuated phase, to mortgage his home to the tune of $130,000 in the expectation that Trump would later reimburse him. Because nobody who has paid the least amount of attention to Trump and his behavior his entire adult life would believe that.

Cohen has testified in federal court and has said in his book that he arranged to pay Daniels $130,000 out of his own pocket at the instruction and direction of Trump. Trump, he notes, had to okay the payment and amount. As noted above, Trump’s loyalists are claiming that Cohen cannot be considered a credible witness. Yet according to Cohen’s accounts, there are several people in Trump’s inner circle—including campaign aides Hope Hicks and Kellyanne Conway, Trump Organization ex-CFO Allen Weisselberg, and David Pecker (then the publisher of the National Enquirer)—who knew of the payoff scheme and Trump’s involvement in it. If there is a trial, we will see what they have to say.

Marlo Broadrick emailed, “I really like getting Our Land and will gladly pay 5 bucks a month for it.” But, she adds, she recently had a credit card hacked and suspects this was related to a payment for a magazine subscription. She asks, “May I mail you a $5 bill in a greeting card (hides it better) to pay my fee? I’m cybersecurity weary.” I wish it were possible. But I don’t think the workers in the Our Land mailroom would know what to do with the cash. It’s a cashless environment. I’m not sure they would even recognize it as legal tender. Marlo, I hope you can try us with a credit card. I will tell the folks in charge to be extra careful with your payment.

MoxieCam™

“Why are you holding a suitcase?”

“I have to go on a little trip.”

“Again? Every time you go away, you take a piece of me with you.”

“But, Moxie, that’s a good thing. That means you’re always with me.”

“You forget: Dogs don’t do abstractions.”

Read Recent Issues of Our Land

March 28, 2023: A Reagan bombshell reminds us of the GOP’s reliance on dirty tricks; elite bonding; Shrinking respects and breaks the sitcom formula; and more.

March 25, 2023: The real perversion in Trump’s porn-star-hush-money caper; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Possible Trump Indictment Edition); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

March 21, 2023: The Iraq War: a personal remembrance of dissent; Los Angeles Times columnist Jean Guerrero’s stunning investigative memoir; and more

March 18, 2023: Is anti-wokeness all the GOP has?; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Mike Pence); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

March 15, 2023: A debate (of sorts) over the Columbia Journalism Review’s huge Trump-Russia fail; Iris DeMent sings out about our current troubles; and more.

March 7, 2023: I visit paradise (the Tucson Festival of Books); do we need the blood and guts of All Quiet on the Western Front?; and more.

March 4, 2023: The (very selective) Covid wars; the never-ending story of George Santos; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Bezalel Smotrich); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

February 28, 2023: Ron DeSantis’ war on freedom; Racist of the Week update; Your Honor’s double jeopardy; Richard Thompson keeps getting better; and more.

Got suggestions, comments, complaints, tips related to any of the above, or anything else? Email me at ourland@motherjones.com.