Trump desperate in the face of indictment

Donald Trump is facing four criminal charges over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election result. Yet he still claims he is the victim of a persecution “reminiscent of Nazi Germany”.

Godwin’s law is one of the internet’s most famous rules. Anyone who tries to win a debate by invoking the Nazis automatically loses, or so the adage goes.

It is also yet another law Donald Trump is willing to ignore. Because when he was charged on Wednesday over his efforts to cling to power after his 2020 election defeat, he claimed he was the victim of a persecution “reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s”.

In Trump’s case, this offensive analogy will not end the argument. It must instead be decided in a federal courthouse in Washington DC and, most likely, at the ballot box next year.

But the former president’s statement – which was carefully drafted as he waited to be charged – shows how desperate he is in the face of an indictment based on his words and deeds.

Donald Trump is showing signs of desperation in the face of an indictment. Picture: AFP

Trump cannot dispute most of the evidence presented, because he still maintains the fantasy that the 2020 election was stolen. That does not mean he is guilty – as special counsel Jack Smith said on Wednesday, the indictment remains a set of allegations.

There is also no precedent for a prosecution like this, although that is only because there is no precedent of a US president trying to reverse the will of the people to remain in power.

Trump’s defence – at least politically, if not legally – is that the case is a criminalisation of the political process and his right to ensure it was a free and fair election.

However, as the indictment makes clear, Trump was repeatedly told his claims of fraud were false. And not by his political rivals, but by his Vice President, his Justice Department, his Director of National Intelligence, his Department of Homeland Security, his White House lawyers and his campaign staffers, not to mention the Republican legislators and officials who resisted his pressure and the courts which shot down his unfounded lawsuits.

In the aftermath of January 6, Republicans had a chance to walk away from Trump, to impeach him and disqualify him from returning to the White House. They didn’t, of course, and these latest charges are unlikely to weaken his stranglehold on the party’s nomination for next year’s election rematch against Joe Biden.

But Trump’s supporters should read the damning indictment. If that doesn’t change their minds, they should ask themselves a question: if the roles were reversed, and it was President Biden who tried to overturn his defeat, would they want him to be charged?

The answer is obvious. And so too is Trump’s unfitness to sit in the Oval Office again.