- Several items today about the indictment against Trump for his mishandling of top secret documents, how his fans still support him, and how this affects America’s reputation around the world.
Snopes, 9 Jun 2023: Yes, Trump Said ‘No One Will Be Above the Law’ Regarding Protection of Classified Information, subtitled “This genuine remark from the future president came during an August 2016 campaign rally in Charlotte, North Carolina.”
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NY Times, news analysis by Peter Baker, 10 Jun 2023: Trump’s Case Puts the Justice System on Trial, in a Test of Public Credibility, subtitled “The former president’s efforts to defend against multiple felony counts by discrediting law enforcement pose a grave challenge to democracy.”
The print title in today’s paper is a bit more blunt: “U.S. Justice System Put on Trial As Trump Denounces the Rule of Law”
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NY Times, 19 Jun 2023: Worldwide, Trump’s Latest Legal Woes Draw Outrage, and Shrugs, subtitled “Allies and rivals alike, beholding the messiness of America, must calculate the risks and opportunities in the latest plot twist in Donald Trump’s legal troubles.”
There’s a world out there that is wider that American partisanship.
As details emerged from the indictment charging former President Donald J. Trump with mishandling classified documents, global reaction ranged from strategic silence to unbridled outrage, with room in between for world-weary shrugs, wild conspiracy theories and ominous predictions of American decline.
China’s propaganda machine, which would normally leap on a U.S. scandal, stayed quiet. Russian commentators called the charges a fake production of the “deep state.” And among American allies in Asia and Europe, there were concerns that the episode hurt not just the former president, but also the United States by highlighting that security secrets were not safe in America’s hands, and that the country’s disorienting, partisan fever has yet to break.
“The case shows once again that Donald Trump belongs behind bars, not in the White House,” Ralf Stegner, a German Social Democrat who sits on the German intelligence oversight committee, said in a text message, adding: “This man is a threat to security and democracy in the U.S. and around the world.”
The world, it seems, is once again gawking at the messiness of the United States and calculating the costs and opportunities of the latest Trump revelations transfixing and dividing the country. It is a moment that feels familiar yet not quite the same.
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The Atlantic, David Frum, 9 Jun 2023: An Exit From the GOP’s Labyrinth of Trump Lies, subtitled “The special counsel’s indictment offers party leaders their best escape from the loyalty trap yet—if they choose to take it.”
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The Atlantic, David A. Graham, 9 Jun 2023: The Stupidest Crimes Imaginable, subtitled “The federal indictment of Donald Trump depicts a man who knew that what he was doing was wrong and went to great lengths to cover it up.”
We knew it would be bad. Even so, it’s bracing just how bad the evidence laid out by the Justice Department against Donald Trump is.
The indictment against Trump and his personal valet, Walt Nauta, unsealed this afternoon, lays out the federal case against the former president in vivid, shocking, and sometimes even wry detail. An indictment is not a conviction—it’s a set of allegations by prosecutors, without rebuttal from the defendant. Trump is innocent in court until proven guilty, and has loudly and insistently proclaimed that he is an innocent man. But the evidence included shows why the case against Trump is so disturbing, and why it will be tough for him to defend. And the crimes it details are among the stupidest imaginable.
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His fans won’t read the indictment, don’t want to hear about it, and are convinced everything that Trump does or as ever done is perfectly fine. We’re witnessing how an idealistic nation is being taken down by a megalomaniac would-be dictator and his fans. It’s happened before. An example of a basic tribalistic behavior that modern governments and idealistic platitudes and law and order and human rights were supposed to prevent. But these tendencies toward tribalism and authoritarianism are part of deep human nature; they will never go away. Even if America is strong enough to rebound, the damage to America’s reputation around the world may not be repaired any time soon. Empires come and go.
