Trump Urges Seething Streets
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Terry H. Schwadron
March 19, 2023
It’s difficult to pick out the most irresponsible part of Donald Trump’s own, premature announcement of his likely arrest next week on New York charges related to payments to entertainer Stormy Daniels and any fraud in accounting for them.
In place of humility, there was the usual partisan and self-centered Trump braggadocio in his poorly stated and misspelled Trump Social posting. There was his own announcement of an arrest on Tuesday on an indictment that has not yet been voted by the grand jury hearing his case, and, inevitably, there was the call to followers to “protest.” We’ve seen protests he has called before, along with public anger and violence — which may yet come to fruition as more criminal indictments from the feds over Jan. 6.
Then there was the unannounced part — an immediate appeal by his organized political action committees to use the event to underscore Trump as victim and to appeal for money.
This could well be a moment for shame, not ego, even in denial of pending criminal charges. We are talking about a former president being arrested, fingerprinted, and maybe taken into custody in handcuffs — presumably under the watchful eyes of Secret Service protectors.
As we all understand, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg still must present his case to the grand jury, deciding on exact charges to bring, and the jurors must decide whether they have seen evidence to support a probable cause. Then Bragg must win at trial, because nothing is guaranteed in a jury trial — and if the target is Trump, Bragg cannot afford to miss.
However much people have anticipated a criminal charge — any of the many possible criminal charges — the very idea that law enforcement forces at every level needs to rally in anticipation of public violent reaction should tell us everything about a more appropriate level of response by the guy in the limelight.
And there are a bunch more charges possible in New York and Georgia, where they cannot be commuted by a president, and in Washington, where a special prosecutor is homing in on at least two major sets of criminal activity.
If anyone wants to believe that Trump cares about Americans in whose name he seeks the White House again, the belligerent, selfish tone blasting all who challenge him and effectively inciting a response that likely will be violent should be a reminder of who this man is.
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