Trump’s enemies are pursuing more and more indictments to ensure his 2024 nomination

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There is being lucky with your enemies, and then there are enemies who help you take the first step in your political comeback.

Donald Trump and his opponents want deeply different things in the long run Trump wants to get back to the White House; Democrats want him in an orange jumpsuit.

But in the shorter term, they are both looking for the same thing that Trump is the Republican nominee, either so that he wins (Trumps view) or loses again and pays the price for his crimes (the Democrats view).

The series of accusations against Trump, even if this is not their main purpose, furthers this mutual interest.

With each indictment, Trump has dominated media attention and favored Republicans on charges of selective prosecution.

The routine is so predictable, it becomes boring.

The first indictment of a former president has some novelty, but now it seems as commonplace as a pork chop on a stick at the Iowa State Fair.

Pushing back against the notion that Trumps prosecutorial pursuers know they might as well be MAGA agents is too clever by half, that Trump has these legal weaknesses and is just paying the price. No theories about underhanded political motivation are needed.

Columnist Rich Lowry says Democrats want to see Trump face consequences.AP/Rebecca Blackwell Pages from a Department of Justice court filing in response to a request from Trump’s legal team for a special master to review documents seized in the Aug. 8 Mar-a-Lago search.AP/Jon Elswick

It’s certainly true that Trump got a lot of exposure in the documents case, but Alvin Bragg’s indictment is very thin, and we still don’t know what the next special counsel Jack Smith is or what District Attorney Fani Willis is doing in Fulton County, Ga.

Consider this thought experiment: If the Justice Department and other prosecutors knew that indictments warranted a nomination by Ron DeSantis or Tim Scott, would they still go ahead with them?

If they thought they made Trump a stronger candidate in the general election and the favorite to beat Joe Biden, would they still pull the trigger?

Or will they find some reason for endurance when there is much to be said for endurance in the first place?

It doesn’t take a sophisticated understanding of Republican politics to understand what’s going on.

Certainly, after the passionate pro-Trump GOP reaction to the Mar-a-Lago search, it’s clear that targeting Trump will benefit him.

US President Joe Biden delivers remarks during an event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC on July 7, 2023.SHAWN THEW/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

If there was any doubt, the Trump surge in the polls after the Bragg indictment should dispel it.

Still, Trump’s pursuers persisted.

For Trump, the Leninist logic of worse, better applies the more he is indicted and the weaker the charges, the more Republicans are inclined to believe he is the victim of a politicized justice system.

For Trumps opponents, meanwhile, quantity trumps quality; everyone gets a piece of the action, and it raises the possibility that a trial or two will happen before the November 2024 election.

If the indictments will boost Trump in the primaries, they will hurt him overall, and the trials and guilty verdicts will likely hurt him even more.

With each indictment, Trump has dominated media attention and has sided with Republicans on charges of selective prosecution, Lowry.AP/Matt Rourke noted.

Again, if Trump’s prosecutors believe that rushing to trial will somehow embolden Trump against Biden, it’s hard to see them being so desperate to get him to courtrooms as soon as possible.

Of course, Trump doesn’t want to be accused more than anyone.

His denunciations of the evil Communists, Marxists, Fascists, and Radical Left Democrats, THESE LUNATICS AND THUGS who are out to get him are honest.

But without the evil Communists et al., he might be down 10 points in the polls, and anything that makes the primary race look more competitive is bad for him.

The legal work of LUNATICS AND THUGS is one of the former presidents most valuable political possessions.

Trump and his enemies may despise each other, but they are striving for the same immediate result, namely a high-stakes, hate-filled, Third World-ish Trump-Biden rematch with the possibility of jail time for one of the opponents if he loses and intense prosecutorial scrutiny for the other if he falls short.

And everything so far indicates that they will get it.

Twitter: @RichLowry

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