Except,it turned out,the crowd wasn’t celebrating the Trump verdict,and they weren’t in downtown Manhattan. The footage had been doctored to look like it was Manhattanites cheering Trump’s conviction. Actually,(as far as one could tell) it was a video of a bar in Bristol,England,celebrating the victory of the English soccer team over Wales at the 2016 European Championship.
People celebrate after former president Donald Trump was found guilty on all counts at Manhattan Criminal Court on Thursday.Getty Images
It was a tiny snippet of misinformation in the vast,roiling ocean of lies and “fake news” that has come to define the Trump era. It seemed apt for the moment. The trial and the resulting verdict have,like all things Trump,become a contest in which everyone picks a side and gloats over whatever victories it scores.
“New York hates you!” protestors heckled Trump in April when he entered the court for questioning. Chants of “lock him up!” rose from the park across the road from the court after the verdict was announced. It’s difficult to understand what they were celebrating. Trump’s business model is tribalism,and the guilty verdict will further entrench it.
It’s understandable why those horrified by Trump would feel satisfaction at his being held accountable through the judicial system. It is a dent in his apparent invincibility,a disruption of his seemingly constant ability to repel consequences. But faith in liberal institutions in the United States is becoming a quaintly outdated position to hold. The rule of law,in this case,is unlikely to act as a check on Trump’s power.
That doesn’t mean it’s not necessary to uphold the rule of law;it simply shows that democratic and law-based conventions are only as strong as the people respecting them.
Trump divides his world into winners and losers. If he ever finds himself in the unfortunate category of loser,as he has in this case,he plays the victim card. Immediately after the verdict,he declared that “this was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who is corrupt”.
It probably doesn’t matter. Trump’s loss at this trial may help catapult him to an election win. “The real verdict is going to be November 5 by the people,” he said afterwards. And he was right.
Media coverage of the trial has helped Trump maintain a months-long hold on the public attention that he wouldn’t have enjoyed without it. It has massively boosted donations to his presidential campaign and has galvanised his base. As soon as the verdict came down,Trump’s campaign headquarters sent out a fundraising email claiming he was a “political prisoner”. The guilty verdict was not a controversy to manage. It was an opportunity to exploit.
Most importantly,the trial has provided Trump with a pulpit from which to preach his chief gospel:he is a victim,and a sacrificial one at that – he is standing up to the system on behalf of the millions of Americans who have been failed by it. “Never forget our enemies want to take away my freedom because I will never let them take awayyour freedom,” he told supporters at a National Rifle Association rally in May.
The fact nobody can predict what the guilty verdict will mean for the upcoming November presidential election is further proof of how much Trump has crazified American politics. Previously,it would have been unthinkable to have a convicted felon running for the presidency,not to mention one who is facing trial on three other matters (attempting to unlawfully change the outcome of the 2020 election,criminally mishandling classified documents,and the small matter of fomenting an uprising on the Capitol in January 2021).
But it doesn’t matter to his supporters,and it certainly doesn’t matter to the toadying Republicans who kiss Trump’s ring in the knowledge that their party is now fully owned by the MAGA mob. Their venality in supporting Trump cannot be overstated.
During the trial,senior members of the Republican Party turned up to the court in Trump “costume” – wearing navy blue suits,white shirts and red ties. They were protesting,on behalf of Trump,against the court process. Their number included members of Congress and senators who have pledged to uphold American law.
“What’s going on in that courtroom is a threat to American democracy,” said Ohio Senator J.D. Vance.
“Straight out of a Kafka novel,” agreed the erstwhile presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy,whose familiarity with Kafka’s fiction I seriously doubt.
The hysteria of the language is not accidental. Tribes are most easily mobilised when facing danger,and as following the verdict,“Trump deploys a blood-and-soil rhetoric in which his supporters and the existing order are under dire threat”.
The irony is that the United States does,of course,face a dire threat – Trump himself. Friday’s verdict showed he is not above the law,but it also showed how much he lives beyond it.
Any Democrat who celebrates the guilty decision as a victory is only playing into Trump’s hands. As long as his dramas are central to the campaign,his opponents are accepting his terms and playing his game. Drama,conflict and controversy are Trump’s oxygen,and all he has to do is breathe it in.
Jacqueline Maley is a senior writer and regular columnist.