That page has changed since I posted it, so for people wondering about what was on it I found the Wayback Machine’s archive of the page for posterity.
My favourite magazine is having fun with this – this is apparently (really) the planned cover for the next issue!
The Times headline this morning was one five letter word in 72 pt type. I measured it; the letters were 1" high.
I still don’t think he will ever pay any penalty. He will appeal and appeal, find some argument to appeal the SCOTUS and they are thoroughly in his corner.
Have you seen Time’s cover?
I think it’s worth mentioning that the title of the cover art is “A Man of Conviction”
This is the one I liked the best.
I want either that New Yorker cover or his mug shot to be his official presidential portrait.
Stern warnings from the Toronto Globe & Mail which argues all this will make Trump much more popular. As if that is the main consideration of these things (excerpt/link).
There has been no lack of Democrats celebrating Mr. Trump’s conviction. But anyone who is concerned for the health of American democracy should consider what effect such scenes will have on his supporters. Don’t get it twisted: Thursday was a catastrophic day for the Republic. The chances of a Trump presidency increased drastically. Nothing has more glamour in American life than the status of an outlaw, and Mr. Trump now qualifies. And Christians in the U.S. will not see a conviction relating to hush-money payments to a porn star as the comeuppance for an immoral life; they will see it as persecution by secular society.
The law worked, it is true. But the idea that Mr. Trump’s conviction is evidence of the system working is simply inaccurate. A powerful man committed a crime, and he was held responsible; so far so good. The Biden administration offered a single comment: “Nobody is above the law.” They are right. But the legal system only works if its validity is accepted by the people under it. The law only works if it is a transcendent force subsuming the fury of partisan politics.
The moment when we let Trump and people like him get away with whatever they want because we are too afraid of their supporters retaliating is the moment when we truly lose our country.
With no due respect to the author this is a pile of steaming crap. The idea that the law only works if it influences politics is the product of a sick and deluded mind.
Well said.
I agree the article is a steaming pile of crap. I agree that it won’t change the opinion of many Trump supporters. But it also won’t make him more popular - people already know his opinion of the law from the incredible respect he shows its officials. He might have won the case, just maybe, if he attacked Cohen’s credibility instead of the judge and his family and a thousand irrelevancies?
However, The Economist argues this helped Trump too.
Could a conviction help him in November?
Our leader argues that this verdict is particularly vulnerable to appeal because of the lack of clear precedent for the charges Manhattan’s district attorney chose to bring. Prosecutors are supposed to consider the seriousness of the crime and the public interest at stake. Compared with the other cases pending against Mr Trump [totalling 88 felony charges, but unlikely to be heard before the next election] this one always seemed too much of a stretch to command widespread public legitimacy. It has done more to help than hurt Mr Trump’s chances of winning back the White House, and, as the insurrection of January 6th 2021 ought to have made clear, that is a greater hazard to the rule of law than any fraudulent book-keeping.
Because they think it might. Okay. From the quote you provided, they seem to be guessing.
Of course. Here are the outstanding charges.
This is just nonsense. The Globe and Mail is, overall, a respectable paper, but it’s not averse to the occasional crackpot columnist or crackpot editorial. Statements like “The chances of a Trump presidency increased drastically” are simply without foundation, and the next sentence, “Nothing has more glamour in American life than the status of an outlaw, and Mr. Trump now qualifies” simply descends into inanity.
Also abject nonsense in this context is the claim that “The courts are now simply politics by other means”. A significant segment of the Supreme Court, yes, and apparently Aileen “Loose” Cannon, too, but the other judges that have dealt with Trump’s issues have been consummate professionals, Judge Merchan perhaps the most impressively fair-minded of them all.
Also notably missing from that article is any indication of what the writer thought should happen. Should Trump have been allowed to skate because he’s a politician and a conviction has political implications? This is precisely the kind of dangerous thinking that threatens to put certain people above the law.
I will grant that it’s unfortunate this this conviction was over the least serious of the charges Trump is facing, but it’s absurd to suggest the charges should never have been brought.
[That was a quote from the Economist]
A post-verdict Morning Consult poll has bad news for Trump.
Among the poll’s findings:
- A clear majority, 54%, approve of the jury’s decision to convict Trump on 34 felony charges for his 2016 hush money scheme with adult actress Stormy Daniels. If the poll is accurate, that means that for Trump to win, he would have to win the votes of people who think he’s a criminal, and are happy he was convicted.
- Only 34% “strongly” or “somewhat” disapprove. That is, the Republicans losing their minds over the conviction are only a third of voters, a distinct minority.
- The pollsters says that “just 15% of Republican voters nationwide want Trump to drop his White House bid, a bit higher than the 8% of Trump supporters who said the same.” Excuse me? “Just”? This is a tight election! The fact that 8% of Trump voters want him to drop out is incredible! Throw in another 7% of likely Nikki Haley voters, and that’s a real number of energy-suppressing dissatisfied Republicans. That’s not to say that Biden doesn’t have similar challenges, but it’s okay if they offset.
- A whopping 49% of independents think he should end his campaign.
- The question of prison time is more polarizing: Just 44% think he should go to prison, while 49% would prefer probation.
- The poll continues to have the race tied: Biden 45, Trump 44. Do some math—54 approve of the conviction, which means that Trump has perhaps two more points to grow, assuming people who consider him a criminal and are happy he was convicted don’t end up supporting him. How percentage of the vote did he get in 2020? 46.8%. In 2016 he got 46.1%. That means he’s still capped at around 46%!
Don’t know if those numbers are sound. But one can hope.
The numbers may or may not be accurate, but they have greater legitimacy than the opinionated guesses coming from the Globe and the Economist.
Here’s an analysis from CBC News about how this verdict has intensified the divisiveness in American politics and the potential for violence. What I find even more scary is the systematic program of malevolent revenge that will be unleashed if Trump gets elected. It will make his previous term look like a benign walk in the park.
One good thing about Morning Consult polls is that they use much larger polling samples than other pollsters. Their presidential polls sample about 10,000 people compared to the 1,000-1,500 most other pollsters sample.