There are really a lot of legal experts who truly believe that Donald Trump is going to be convicted and, presumably, that this will make him ineligible to run for the White House in 2024.
Hopefully, they are right. But the political trend in the United States ever since Watergate in the United States has been to allow politicians to get away with more and more and more. And the lesson that they inevitably learn is to push the envelope more and more over time. And nobody has learned the lesson of how to get away with criminal conduct, and to manipulate people into believing his astonishing and vast array of self-serving lies, like Trump has. They called Reagan the "Teflon President," and then they claimed later that it was actually Clinton who was the "real Teflon President." I heard the same thing about George W. Bush. But to me, it seems clear that Trump really too that phrase to new heights. Here's a guy who got away with crass behavior in the party that supposedly prides itself as "Christian" and championing "family values," and the worse Trump gets, the more they love him. He said and did things that seemed blatantly racist and xenophobic, and this also seemed to strengthen him politically, if anything, which was exactly the opposite of what most people would have assumed before the whole Trump thing. This man tried to grab more and more power, regardless of the legal obstacles and his own oath, where he swore to uphold the Constitution, and yet his party and the tens of millions of loyal supporters who never question one single thing that this guy says or does, feel that he is the ultimate hero. He lies before the entire world and gets exposed repeatedly, yet never shows any degree of shame, and again, his supporters love it. They can't get enough of it. Then he loses his bid for re-election, and spreads all sorts of massive lies claiming that he has tons of proof, then his legal team refuses to show any of this alleged proof when they have their chance in 62 court cases, many of whom were presided over by judges appointed by Trump himself. Yet again, his supporters and his party - which really has become the Donald Trump party - believe his every word, at least outwardly (I suspect that many of them actually know that the truth is different than what he says it is, and what they want to believe it is). Then, when it has become clear that he has lost the election and is set to be replaced, he attempts an actual coup, and then predictably, acts like the victim afterwards. Once again, his party shows nothing but unquestioned support.
Throughout all of this, he only gains strength. They argue with a straight face that he is the "greatest president in American history." He seems set to become the GOP presidential nominee for a third straight time, which I do not believe has ever happened before. Obviously, gone are the days when Trump was regarded as not politically viable.
Yet with all that he has gotten away with, he sure seems actively destructive to democracy. He has not hidden his desire to seek revenge for another term in office, should he get it. And remember that this guy admitted that he would be a dictator on day one, and while he claims that is the only time that he would be a dictator, most everybody with any ounce of objectivity and sensibility, having watched him over the years, knows that he will never willingly give up power so easily.
Now, I would love to believe this. Indeed, many of these legal experts know this subject far better than I do. But I have had a sick feeling for a long time - most of my life dating back to my childhood, to tell the truth - that somebody who was really bad news was going to take over in this country. I never would have guessed that it would be Donald Trump, because I had expected that most people understood that he was a city slicker, a billionaire who actively hurts people in order to enrich himself. Yet once again, this not only did not disqualify him in many people's eyes, but elevated him to the status of "genius" in their eyes. It is exactly the opposite of how it should be.
So while I would love for Christie to be right about this, my gut feeling tells me that he is wrong. That Trump does appear to have the flair for getting away with all of his ridiculous behavior. And that he will be the next president, and the first de facto American dictator. Again, I sure hope that I'm wrong. Just the feeling that I get.
Chris Christie: Trump will be convicted this spring
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