Gotta give credit to The Trump Show. Only everyone decided that it had little to show, as it returns with a new episode of the blockbuster. This week, the show delivered sensational courtroom drama as Donald Trump became the first former American president to face criminal charges..
There were 34 in total, writes The Economist.. These allegations related to three bribes for silence, including one for a former porn star. These episodes are allegedly linked to violations of campaign finance laws.. Sounds familiar, but still scary enough to grab an audience's attention.. Trump denies all allegations. America, as always, is bitterly divided in its reaction to the latest plot twist, but united in its attachment to the spectacle.. What is the whole world to do? There are two opposite reactions..
The first is to be relatively relaxed. All of this may be a first for the US, but not for other democracies where bringing former leaders to justice has become a fairly common practice.. From France (think Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy) to Italy (Bettino Craxi, Silvio Berlusconi) to Israel (Moshe Katsav, Ehud Olmert and now Benjamin Netanyahu), the list of ex-presidents and prime ministers impeached is long.. In Taiwan, blaming former presidents borders on tradition.
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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva returns to office after 580 days in prison. This week, former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci pleaded not guilty to war crimes and crimes against humanity at a special tribunal in The Hague..
“Although Trump called his court verdict “an attack on our country that has never happened before,” in other countries such things obviously did not become a disaster for democracy.. More often than not, it’s just the opposite,” writes the publication..
It is true that Trump's opponents tried and failed to eliminate him through the political system.. The House of Representatives impeached him twice.. Twice the Senate failed to muster the two-thirds of the votes needed to convict him.. The American constitution deliberately complicates the process of impeachment. Trump survives televised House committee hearing on Jan. 6 events when the Capitol was stormed. Now the attempt to punish him through the courts begins with a case that seems to be the most shaky and confusing of all the various court cases that threaten him.. That's why the indictment in New York looks like a mistake.. But the persecution of the former president at least confirms a basic principle of democracy: no one is above the law..
Serious "
On another level, however, America's friends have cause for concern.. Many have spent the past two years blessedly relieved that Trump is no longer in office, desperate to believe that given his post-election misbehavior in 2020 and his many problems, he cannot return to the White House..
" The latest attack on Trump has cemented his status as Republican leader with a difficult but plausible path back to the presidency.. This fact will begin to influence the calculations of other countries,” writes The Economist..
For example, you can look at Ukraine. The publication suggests that Ukrainian leaders will come to the conclusion that the possibility of Trump's return to power makes achieving military success as quickly as possible an even more pressing need.. In Moscow, Vladimir Putin will draw the opposite conclusion, that he should hold out as long as Kiev’s main Western ally is headed by Trump, who despises Ukraine and says Russia will eventually conquer all of it..
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Or NATO. Many feared that Trump, elected to a second term, would abandon NATO. Fortunately, Russian aggression has strengthened and expanded the alliance. The day Trump was put on trial, Finland officially became the 31st member of NATO.. Now all involved are interested in strengthening the organization to withstand another shock caused by Trump.
Of course, a lot could happen to prevent a new episode of The Trump Show at the White House.. Now that the Manhattan case has set an American precedent for indicting a former president, it is more likely that other, stronger cases will emerge, such as those involving Georgia election interference or his mishandling of classified documents.. Legal hurdles could still get the better of Trump. Even if he wins his party's nomination thanks to his Republican connections, the wider electorate could punish him in a rematch with Joe Biden..
" But America's friends must remember the terrible truth: this is reality, not a show..