It seemed inevitable that left-wing establishment media would explode when they heard the news that America would soon see a Trump indictment for alleged campaign finance law violations. That didn’t quite turn out to be the case, though. While the news obviously brought a lot of attention, the former president’s detractors in the business haven’t yet cracked open the champagne. Instead, there is an air of caution permeating most of the country’s editorial offices, it appears. Why? Because even though the indictment is now probably more a matter of when, rather than if, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office would be handling a prosecution, has a hard road to travel from charge (or charges) to conviction.
Not only that, but everyone is now wondering how the whole affair will impact Mr. Trump’s 2024 bid for the White House. The consensus is that it will help rather than hurt the 45th president’s chances of becoming the 47th.
Media Treads Carefully Around Rumored Trump Indictment
A couple of the most prominent national newspapers barely touched the story. Washington, DC’s most famous paper on March 18 published one of its signature analysis pieces – epically long, as always – detailing the complete history of what it described, in the article’s headline, as the “'zombie' case that came back to life.” That’s a pretty accurate description. The case of Trump’s former “fixer,” Michael Cohen, paying off the adult film star known as Stormy Daniels in 2016 to keep quiet about Trump’s alleged affair with her 10 years earlier has been prodded and probed and investigated several times before. No one has recommended criminal charges against Trump until now, a matter of weeks after he announces his 2024 presidential campaign.
Cohen was charged and served a stint in prison, but not primarily for the Daniels matter. He was convicted on tax evasion charges and for lying to Congress.
Donald Trump (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Overall, the anti-Trump media – as much as they would almost certainly love to see the former president clapped in irons and hurled into the deepest darkest hole the US government can find – are concerned. They should be. Indicting Trump would be a huge gamble unless Bragg is sitting on some solid evidence of a far more heinous crime than election finance irregularities. As many media types on both the right and the left are suggesting, an indicted Trump might attract a great deal of renewed support from people who drifted away from him since 2020 but still always suspected the Democrats were out to get him by any means possible – and for any reason or no reason at all. He could become a martyr, of sorts; a symbol of how willing Democrats are to weaponize the criminal justice system against their political foes. In short, a Trump indictment could propel the former president, once again, to hero status; the man who stood against the Deep State, no matter what it threw at him.
Trump himself sparked a frenzy of tongue-wagging, though, when he called upon his supporters to “protest” and “take our nation back.” This of course led to ridiculous claims that he was inciting violence. An echo of Jan. 6, 2021, perhaps – though the newly released video footage from that day proves the massive pro-Trump demonstration was not the violent insurrection the leftist media and Democrats made it out to be.
Meanwhile, right- and left-leaning media have found another point on which they at least somewhat agree: The prosecution’s star witness, Cohen, is a convicted felon, a known liar (he went to prison for that, after all), and a man whose animosity toward Trump appears to know no bounds. That’s a credibility problem if there ever was one.
Everyone is expecting the Trump indictment to come on Tuesday, March 21. There’s always the distinct possibility that it might not happen on that day. If it doesn’t, the media onslaught may begin in earnest. Either way, the US seems poised to tread a political path never explored. By his supporters, Trump will be seen as a champion if he is charged – whether convicted or not. The Democrats and their backers in the news business can only hope that a conviction, if it happens, will turn off conservatives, causing them to abandon the man who still appears ready and able to take the 2024 Republican nomination. Considering that a conviction will inevitably look politically tainted, they would do well not to hold their collective breath.
