The Trump Indictment & The Status Quo – Top 3 Takeaways – March 31st, 2023
- Status Quo. On the one hand, having the unprecedented news of a former President of the United States, and current presidential candidate indicted, is most certainly anything but status quo. In reality however, as Donald Trump laid out, upon the news that the empaneled grand jury in Manhattan had pressed forward with an indictment, what’s happened here is the status quo. The left has always been out to “get Trump”. From the grandest conspiracy in the history of the United States, the conjuring and planting of the Steel Dosier and subsequent Russian collusion hoax, to yes, now seven-year-old hush money payments to Stormy Daniels – what's happened here is the status quo on the left. In fact, the only surprising news in the indictment is that it didn’t happen sooner. As Sol Wachtler once said... A grand jury would ‘indict a ham sandwich, if that’s what you wanted’. So yes, Manhattan’s DA has effectively indicted a ham sandwich. He’s instantly a superstar to the left, which is what he’s wanted. He’ll get a Trump mug shot, which is what he wanted. But what he doesn’t have and may never have, is a conviction. Convicting ham sandwiches isn’t as easy. Nothing has changed here. Last Friday my top takeaway was this... Another day with no indictment for the Manhattan DA. The hottest news story of the week began before the week itself when former President Donald Trump “Truthed” from Mar-a-Lago last Saturday that he was to be arrested on Tuesday. The cause...seven-year-old hush money payments to Stormy Daniels. A name, like Michael Avanati, you’d likely thought you were free from ever having to hear about again. Anyway, the hush money case previously proved so thin that federal prosecutors, who’ve clearly been no friend of Trump’s over the years, rejected pursuing it upon review last year because they found no crime had been committed. Details, right? But enter a Soros backed Manhattan DA, presiding over a city riddled in crime in part due to his desire to lesson criminal charges for serial offenders – or to never bring them at all, who instead has been bent on being the one who finally “gets Trump”. Trump didn’t just suggest he’d be indicted on Tuesday because he was bored. Bragg hadn’t contacted law enforcement agencies, including the Secret Service, about a potential arrest because he didn’t think one was coming. But what Bragg did appear to do, was to overestimate that the empaneled grand jury was as bent on ignoring the rule of law in order to “get Trump” as he was. Where does this go from here? Hard to know. But here’s what I’d be most concerned with this weekend. What’s Bragg, a politically ambitious prosecutor who already has pursued a case the feds said didn’t exist capable of behind the scenes? Why is he suddenly interested in buying more time before the jury decides whether to indict? How would that change the facts of a matter that’s over seven years old? Color me suspicious. Bragg had invested too much of himself into the ‘get Trump’ movement not to have indicted a ham sandwich. But what I would be curious to know is why a week ago Bragg couldn’t manage it but yesterday he was. As I said then, color me suspicious. I’d trust Bragg behind the scenes as far as I could throw him. He’s one who appears to have usually consumed all of the ham sandwiches previously.
- DeSantis is posturing. As I also covered last week... DeSantis can’t stop Trump’s extradition. If this indictment really goes down today or any other day. One of two things would happen. Trump would voluntarily show up to be booked in Manhattan, where he’d quickly be released after a mug shot, or he’d resist and would be extradited. Now if it’s the extradition route, DeSantis does come into play as New York’s Governor Kathy Hochul would send the request to Governor DeSantis. However, under law all he has the right to do is investigate the authenticity of the arrest warrant – for the purpose of extradition. Now he does have up to 60 days to do that, so he could lawfully slow walk extradition if it came to it, but he couldn’t prevent it. Here’s what we know. DeSantis isn’t down with Soros DAs, porn star payments or specifically saying anything about Donald Trump. But yes, Trump is a Floridian and it’s worth remembering that DeSantis has voted for Trump and Trump has voted for DeSantis...and that all of this appears likely to get uglier from here. So yes, DeSantis tweeted out that: Florida will not assist in an extradition request given the questionable circumstances at issue with this Soros-backed Manhattan prosecutor and his political agenda. But no, that’s of no consequence. DeSantis likely knew Trump would voluntarily turn himself in, as he appears ready to do, making his stance a moot point. But even if Trump were to decide to reside at Mar-a-Lago awaiting extradition, there’s nothing DeSantis would be able to do to stop it. I’m sure his sentiment regarding the absurdity of the indictment is real. The stance is posturing.
- Nothing’s changed. My top takeaway was status quo, my final takeaway today reflects it. Last night I put up a Twitter poll on my soon-to-be-unverified Twitter account (legacy blue-check marks like myself go away tomorrow unless we start paying which I’ve not yet decided to do). On the question as to if the indictment of former President Donald Trump would make you more or less likely to vote for him for President... The survey currently says... 93.9% more likely. 6.1% less likely. If anything, Trump’s campaign will be supercharged with this news. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a surge in Trump primary polling. An already heavily divided country is more so today. Those fervently backing Trump are even more resolute today. Nothing’s changed in that regard. What I will be curious to see is head-to-head polling with Biden. How will those in the middle in this country react to this? That to me may be the biggest story to come out of this.