The perils of presidentialism, convicted felon edition
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President-elect Donald Trump was sentenced Friday in his historic hush money case to an unconditional discharge — allowing Trump to avoid prison, fines or probation, but cementing his status as a convicted felon just 10 days before he takes the oath of office for his second term.
During a brief virtual hearing, New York prosecutors blasted him for engaging in a “direct attack on the rule of law” and making efforts to “undermine its legitimacy” by attacking the judge and others involved in the case. Trump’s defense team, which vowed to appeal, said the case should never have been brought and called it a “sad day for this country.”
Judge Juan Merchan, who was a frequent target of Trump during the trial, said the unconditional discharge was the “only lawful sentence” to protect “the office of the president … not the occupant of the office.”
Even with the benefit of hindsight, I’m still kind of shocked, to the extent that’s even possible any more in this surreal dumpster fire of a political culture, that Trump being convicted of structuring phony financial transactions to cover up his having unprotected sex with a porn star a couple of months after his latest wife had a baby, in order to deceive the public into voting for him in 2016, apparently had zero negative effect on his election chances in 2024, and for all anybody can tell may have actually helped him at the margin.
Also too I’m so done with all of the atavistic flim-flam surrounding the Most Holy and Sacred Office of the Presidency of the United States, which apparently requires treating a crooked game show host as if he were the Louis XIV of Atlantic City.