Up the down escalator, from rapists and thugs, through a pandemic, and artificial intelligence rearing its ugly head, Donald Trump was indicted yesterday. Going on eight years since he announced his 2016 presidential run, when an already dizzying cultural shift spun completely out of control, Trump will be arrested—technically. According to Yahoo News, “Trump will not be put in handcuffs, placed in a jail cell or subjected to a mug shot—typical procedures even for white-collar defendants until a judge has weighed in on pretrial conditions. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, which has been consulting with the Secret Service and New York City court officials, concluded there was no reason to subject the former president to handcuffs or a mug shot.”
What is Trump being indicted for? Charlatan liberals and cultural cowards are happy to see Trump arrested under any circumstances, forgoing the obvious long game advantage this will give the former president in his 2024 run. No mugshot is a loss for Trump, who could’ve sold millions of shirts and hats with the image. Instead, there will be a perp walk, simple as anything else, a triumphant day for everyone: arrested on a technicality, liberals will be happy for a day, and then he won’t go away. Look at CNN and MSNBC this week: they’ve had multiple “livecams” trained on various important locations in the Trump arrest saga. They know he’s their golden goose, and they want him back in office, whether they’ll acknowledge it or not.
Does someone like Rachel Maddow or Al Sharpton or Don Lemon or Joe Scarborough secretly want Donald Trump back in office? Have they ever had a moment? What about Chris Hayes? No, not him, simply too naive and earnest. But I don’t think any of the above really want another Trump term over a comatose Biden, or any modern Democrat, all indistinguishable corporate tools. Knuckle-dragging, fire-breathing Republicans are a different story, and luckily king of the homophobes Ron DeSantis somehow already disqualified himself a year and a half out from the election entirely due to his lack of charisma—not even Mayor Pete got kicked out so early! DeSantis won’t drop out—he hasn’t even announced yet—but this is Trump’s year.
And I’m sure all of the editors and op-ed writers at The New York Times and The Washington Post would rather see Trump than a real Republican, one who doesn’t believe in abortion or transgender people. There are genocidal people in office now, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, and I don’t think Maddow or Anderson Cooper would enjoy a real Republican presidency at all. Maybe they didn’t enjoy Trump’s four years, not even one moment, but they know it was a boon to their careers, and he didn’t start any new wars—coverage of “detention centers” on the border increased, but these camps were there under Obama and remain there under Biden, a shameful reversal from George W. Bush’s support for immigration. Trump made coronavirus confusion worse in America, but Biden and the CDC haven’t done any better in the last two years, so it’s really a draw.
People in the media know Trump isn’t going to put up with any more homophobic or transphobic legislation. Although he’s publicly against it, you know he doesn’t believe abortion is wrong, let alone a sin—please. He’ll keep access limited like any other Republican. Really, in this age of murderous Republicans looking to rip queer kids from their families, Donald Trump might just be the moderate option!
—Follow Nicky Smith on Twitter: @nickyotissmith