Why is Trump so eager to run under impeachment?

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Former President Donald Trump’s recent announcement that he will remain in the 2024 presidential race despite being indicted in any of his ongoing civil and criminal investigations may seem ridiculous. Most politicians under investigation or facing criminal charges would think twice before running for office, not least because an electoral campaign brings unwanted scrutiny.

But strongmen like Trump are not most politicians. Think like a corrupt autocrat, and you’ll see the many advantages of running for office while running afoul of the law. Such leaders have little interest in governing; their goal is always self-preservation. The temptation of having the power to shut down investigations, dismiss troubled prosecutors and gain immunity from prosecution led former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to carry out successful electoral campaigns while under investigation.

The essence of authoritarianism is the prevention of crimes.

No wonder Trump refuses to stand down no matter what. Legal experts agree that he could still run for office from behind bars, if any of his multiple civil and criminal investigations lead to a conviction. Anything is possible in the strongman world.

The essence of authoritarianism is the prevention of crimes, and sending the message from the start that you believe you are above the law is a start. That was the purpose of Trumps infamous boast in 2016 that I could stand on Fifth Avenue and shoot someone, and I wouldn’t lose any followers, OK? Building a cult of victimhood is also important, so you can brush off any dirt the media or prosecutors dig up as a result of the witch hunt.

A friend of mine said I was the poorest person in the history of our country, Trump declared in July at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit. Certainly, no politician or president has been treated like I was treated. There’s power in playing the victim: An NBC News poll registered an increase in Trumps popularity within the GOP after the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago a month later. He returned to that message in his speech Saturday to this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference. Our opponents are doing everything to hurt me politically, he told the crowd, because they fear me and they fear you.

The Berlusconis’ first government, from May-December 1994, set an example for authoritarians who destroy democracy by making institutions and standards their personal financial needs and legal problems. In July of that year, with his holding company Fininvest under investigation for bribery, he passed a decree removing bribery and corruption as offenses requiring detention. Although public protests forced him to withdraw the order, such measures were carried out frequently in his subsequent governments from 2001-2006 and 2008-2011.

The tax fraud and bribery charges he faced during his first election campaign did not hurt his electoral outcome — quite the opposite.

Putin, also under scrutiny when he first ran for president in 1999, was censured by his native St. Petersburg for collaborating with criminal organizations when he was deputy mayor. All that was forgotten when he was brought into the office posing as a strongman to restore order after a series of horrific apartment bombings around Moscow (bombings that may or may not have been perpetrated by his former charges in FSB intelligence services). He won. the March 2000 elections with around 53% of the vote, amid accusations of voter intimidation, ballot box stuffing and vote-switching that paved the way for his next steps.

There is nothing more dangerous than an autocrat who personalizes power (I am your justice, Trump declared at CPAC) and promises retribution against enemies by using the legal and penal tools of the state for those private purpose. This appears to be the current strategy of Netanyahu, who also ran for office while under investigation for corruption. The charges he faces are likely on his mind as he tries to restrict the independence of Israel’s judiciary.

Trump is an old hand at this game. The tax fraud and bribery charges he faced during his first election campaign did not hurt his electoral outcome — quite the opposite. The allure of the guy who gets away with things that others can’t do is a basic one, even if men like Trump are working overtime to protect themselves from unwanted information coming out. In governing democracies, they must use armies of legal, propaganda and security operatives to spin or suppress harmful information that may emerge. Many of these individuals have one degree or less of being close to criminals — Berlusconis right-hand man, senator Marcello DellUtri, for example, was convicted of Mafia association. The strongman has less chance of persecution than his fellows; they almost always take the fall for him, as Trumps personal lawyer Michael Cohen did in 2018. Making sure you have immunity, while those who did your dirty work go to prison, is an important strongman skill.

But while Trump’s behavior is far from unprecedented, we shouldn’t take it for granted. Normalization is really decriminalization, a willingness to forget that things were once thought of as lawless behavior, Iwrotein January 2017 and that remains true today. We should take seriously everything a front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination says about his intentions if he returns to the White House. Like other strongmen, he will focus on gaining control of public institutions for revenge. It was a sense of his declaration at CPAC to finish what we started and his styling of himself as a warrior. That means punishing all those who did not cooperate in his attempt to overthrow the government and complete his captivity in the judiciary so that he can achieve the strongman’s dream: being above the prosecution as a whole.

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