Donald Trump has become the first US president to be impeached. Even that does not prevent Trump’s political career from continuing, writes ‘s U.S. correspondent Iida Tikka.
WASHINGTON. But what happens next?
When the news Donald Trump of the charges brought against them rushed from New York to US newsrooms, the question hovered in the center of the panel discussions.
Trump became the first former president to face criminal charges. The situation is made even more politically explosive by the fact that Trump is running for president again in the 2024 elections.
Trump is being indicted in a case where Trump is accused of paying a porn star by Stormy Daniels kept quiet about the alleged sexual relationship on the eve of the 2016 presidential election. The exact charge was not yet known on Thursday evening.
The accusation will hardly be the last that Trump will have to answer. The former president is under multiple investigations related to the 2021 coup attempt, election meddling in Georgia, and top-secret government documents found at Mar-a-Lago.
The New York court case is the most trivial and possibly the most controversial of the charges, but it is significant. It’s a test ball for what happens when they try to bring Trump to justice.
The main concern now is related to thatwill Trump succeed in rousing his supporters, and will the American justice system withstand the pressure.
Trump will likely have to go himself to the New York courthouse, where his fingerprints and arrest photos will be entered into the court’s information system.
For Trump, the situation offers an opportunity to cause chaos. The former president appeared to be testing his appeal last week when he called on his supporters to mobilize on the expected day of the impeachment, Tuesday.
The crowd then remained small, which was probably influenced by the short reaction time of Trump’s call and the uncertainty of the event itself. The situation is different when Trump can build a proper show around his courthouse visit if he so wishes.
Not to mention what Trump’s return to the center of the news stream divides the country.
On the conservative television channel Fox, the charges against Trump have been systematically presented as a political chase. Liberal channels emphasize that no one is above the law.
America is extremely polarized whether Trump is in the headlines or not. It can be seen, among other things, in the raging battles of school boards around the country, in opposing attitudes towards guns, and in how the states are increasingly divided between those who teach the history of racial oppression and those who don’t.
But Trump is the one who infuriates and moves people on both sides, unlike the Florida governor Ron DeSantisfrom which conservative channels have teased Trump’s more salon-worthy successor.
However the New York court case ends, Trump can use it to his advantage during his presidential campaign. Either he can paint the verdict as a political chase, or he can incense the whole charge as proof of his innocence.
Trump’s popularity among Republican voters has already started a new rise in opinion polls.
At the end of his presidency, Trump tested the durability of the foundations of American democracy when he challenged the outcome of the election and the transition of power. Next, we will test whether the US legal system can withstand Trump.