The day I recorded this commentary, the print edition of the New York Times published an OP ED by Michelle Cottle entitled “Inside the MAGAverse on the Eve of Trump’s Trial” (April 17, 2024: A20). In it, Ms Cottle captured the self-satisfaction of the cult-members she interviewed at a Trump rally Saturday, April 12 in rural Pennsylvania. Before I get to the subject of the oral commentary, I want to give a flavor of Ms. Cottle’s experience by quoting at length:
“One of the women said she felt Trump was on trial only because he’s running for President. Pressed on that matter, she said she was concerned that most Americans were freaking “morons” these days. Except she went a shade bluer than freaking. From person after person, I heard variations on this theme: Mr. Trump is the victim of a political witch hunt. The Democrats are panicked and desperate to take him out …. All of which speaks to a big part of the appeal of these gatherings. They aren’t merely opportunities to celebrate Mr. Trump … They are alternate reality bubbles where his trials and tribulations are fake news … Trump rallies are the happy place where MAGA fans can be their authentic selves, …. In here, Jan 6 is no big deal --- mostly peaceful and, anyway, not Mr. Trump’s fault. In here, the former president is the savior of democracy who will end wars and bring about economic prosperity with a snap of his fingers --- which he would have already done by now if the 2020 election hadn’t been stolen, thank you very much. In here. all the chaos and troubles of the modern world can be laid at the feet of radical extremist Democrats, which means, by extension ---- and this point is important – fixing the mess is really as simple as replacing Joe Biden with Mr. Trump… Where else can a person get this kind of reassurance about their world view on a run-of-the-mill Saturday night?”
These quotes demonstrate the incredible hold that Trump and Trumpism has on his cult followers. And my oral commentary was designed to give one more installment of what I have tried to present as “ways of talking to Trump-worshipping friends and relatives.” The issue I chose to focus on for my commentary was the New York trial that will probably see opening arguments beginning Monday the 22nd.
As readers can tell by the quotes from Ms. Cottle’s interviewees, they have drunk Trump’s Kool-Aid and believe that all the cases against him represent a weaponization of the Justice Department by the Biden administration and that every case against him is totally bogus. “I did nothing wrong!” he whines. “It’s a witch hunt!”
And your Trump-worshipping relatives and friends nod their heads and echo his charges just as the people encountered by Ms. Cottle. And I have no doubt that many members of Trump’s cult (perhaps including your relatives and friends) sincerely believe he is innocent.
Of course, it is a hopeless waste of time to point out that the Biden Justice Department has actually given the federal cases to a Special Counsel who is acting independently of the Attorney General. Similarly, it is useless to remind your friend or relative that State prosecutors are totally independent of the Justice Department. I do not recommend direct argumentation and contradiction.
For those who are actually interested in learning about the four criminal case that have been filed against Trump there is a book that covers all four indictments with commentaries as well:
[Melissa Murry and Andrew Weissmann, The Trump Indictments: The Historic Charging Documents with Commentary. (W. W. Norton: 2024)]
I am not going to comment this time around on either of the federal cases or about the Georgia RICO case except to say Trump is convicted in Georgia by his own words caught on tape where he attempted to convince the Georgia Secretary of State to “find” enough votes to flip Georgia’s electoral votes in 2020 from Biden to Trump. As of now it is unclear if any of those three cases will come to trial before the election.
So, I will focus on the New York case. The charge is that he committed election fraud by hiding a hush-money payoff to former adult film (a/k/a pornography) star, Stormy Daniels. The goal was to buy her silence in the weeks before the 2016 election. Remember, his campaign had been rocked by the “Access Hollywood” tape where he bragged about grabbing women by the p ……y! The payoff to Daniels kept the fact of his affair with her (which had occurred years earlier) from getting publicized. After the election, he paid his lawyer-fixer Michael Cohen to cover the money Cohen had laid out to Daniels. He falsified his business records, making it appear that Cohen was being compensated for legal services rather than for bribing Daniels. The bribe paid by Cohen ---for which Cohen went to prison – was in effect an unreported campaign contribution to Trump’s election.
I would like to propose a way of responding to your friend or relative’s knee jerk support for Trump’s defense (a “defense by offense” technique he learned from his mentor Roy Cohn) in the NY case.
First, ask your friend or relative how they would react if they had been arrested for a crime they didn’t commit.
The response would almost certainly be that they’d be outraged. But what would they think of the accusation? They’d think it was either a terrible mistake or that nefarious motives were at work --- that it was a disgusting HIT job. And your friend or relative would probably remind you that that is exactly how Trump has responded.
FAIR ENOUGH --- Next question for your friend or relative: Wouldn’t you want to have your trial as soon as possible? Wouldn’t you demand to see the evidence against you and want to present your rebuttal to an impartial jury of your peers?
Give that time to sink in. If you are innocent of the crime for which you are charged it is possible that law enforcement people made honest mistakes that could be rectified by good defense. Maybe you could get the case dismissed by convincing the authorities of their mistake. On the other hand, you may be the victim of perjured testimony in which case you want your attorneys to have a chance to destroy the accusers’ testimony before that jury.
Here comes the punch line ---- has TRUMP behaved like an innocent man wronged by false accusations? Has he embraced the possibility of trials so that he can let loose his attack dog attorneys on the lying witnesses who have accused him?
The New York case is made for such an aggressive defense strategy. It’s a “he said …. he said” because Michael Cohen is going to be a major witness against Trump. If you were an innocent person accused by a convicted felon, wouldn’t you be salivating at the chance for your attorneys to expose that witness before the jury and get a verdict of not guilty? A swift verdict of not guilty would surely vindicate your claims that this trial was a politically motivated HIT job --- wouldn’t it?
So, how has Trump behaved? He has thrown everything he can against the wall to DELAY the New York trial. He tried to get a change of venue. He tried to get the Judge to recuse himself. He tried to get the trial delayed until the Supreme Court of the United States decided whether or not as a former President, he is immune from prosecution for anything he did while in office. (He reimbursed Cohen – lying about it --- while he was President even though Cohen and he conspired to pay Daniels before he was elected.)
Instead of embracing the chance for his attorneys to destroy Michael Cohen’s credibility on the stand he has run away from the trial. Ask your friend or relative, is Trump behaving like an innocent man falsely accused?
I repeat: Is Trump behaving like an innocent man falsely accused?
(I admit such an approach might not work --- but it would certainly be better than getting into a shouting match where you both call each other idiots for believing things that are patently untrue!)
Michael Meeropol is professor emeritus of Economics at Western New England University. He is the author with Howard and Paul Sherman of the recently published second edition of Principles of Macroeconomics: Activist vs. Austerity Policies.
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