Trump Is Now a Convicted Felon

The jury has spoken. What will the voters say?

Credit: Getty Images

Our country was built on the rule of law, and today it withstood a major test. Justice prevailed.

To all who follow this newsletter, the word my father passed along to me in uncertain times many years ago says it all: steady. We all need to stay steady and take in the enormity of what has transpired today. Yes, it was a case of falsifying business records. But at its heart, it was about subverting an election. The American people didn’t know about Donald Trump’s efforts to quash the story about his liaison with a porn star, and they should have.

Today will always be a date of historical significance. May 30, 2024. The day a former president of the United States became a convicted felon. Donald Trump was found guilty of all 34 counts against him by a jury of his peers. As someone who has followed this man for decades, that is a sentence I never thought I would have the opportunity to write.

I smile today because so many feared that the basic tenets of our democracy wouldn’t hold, but they did. Trump is not above the law, and there will be consequences for his actions.

This is not about red vs. blue, right wing vs. left. It is about right and wrong, and the defendant was found guilty. Resoundingly.

Somehow we all survived the last seven weeks of Donald Trump’s often unsavory trial. I say that only somewhat sarcastically. Much of this country never heard the facts of the case in that Manhattan courtroom. Instead, they heard right-wing pundits, who are paid handsomely to proclaim his innocence.

The MAGA media machine, led by the personalities (they’re not journalists — let’s be clear) at Fox “News,” is hell-bent on convincing viewers that everything is a plot against Trump, and the plotter-in-chief is none other than President Biden! You just can’t make this stuff up, but they do, night after night.

You can see the Trump post-conviction strategy forming already, from his very brief remarks outside the courthouse: Everything is rigged, and everyone is corrupt. Except Trump. He is willing to sacrifice the justice system for his self-interest. Of course he is.

It’s an eight-year-old playbook that is being amped up to new and dangerous levels. But will the plays keep working?

Sentencing for the former president is scheduled for July 11, just days before the Republican Party will almost certainly nominate him for president at their convention in Milwaukee. He could be sentenced to prison, as much as four years, and then run his campaign from inside a cell, with his secret service detail.  

Polls have shown that many Trump supporters are so locked into their candidate that this conviction, or any conviction, won’t change their minds. But remember it is the undecideds who will determine the outcome of the election. In polls that ask voters, who would you vote for if Trump is convicted in the New York case? Trump suddenly trails Biden by 6 points.

That being said, the economy, abortion, and the border are still the most important issues for the American electorate. Today’s verdict will not necessarily keep Trump out of the White House, but the conviction of a major candidate has never been tested.

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Stay Steady,
Dan