We Have A Date

The clock is ticking

We have a date. A date of destiny, accountability, and historic import. A date the wheels of justice roll forward for a former president accused of trying to destroy the constitutional order he was sworn to uphold. 

There is something poetic about judge Tanya S. Chutkan’s scheduling March 4 as the start of Donald Trump’s federal trial for charges related to election interference. It was the original Inauguration Day, until 1937, when the 20th Amendment moved the date up to January 20. 

That means George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt all took their oaths of office on March 4 (although Roosevelt’s three subsequent terms began on January 20). John Adams also was sworn in on March 4, in the first peaceful transfer of power from one president to another. And exactly four years later, after the bitter and contentious election of 1800 (which wound up in the House of Representatives and inspired a song in the hit musical “Hamilton”), Thomas Jefferson swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States in the new capital city of Washington, D.C. 

Now this very same city — a place of majesty and history filled with marble temples to our democracy — will be the site of a trial, the first for a former president of the United States. The actions this man is alleged to have committed posed a grave threat to the legal, political, and social DNA that allows our nation to thrive and function. He desecrated the example set by every president who preceded him. 

He who weaponized lies, intimidation, and a mob of supporters to try to deny the will of the people will have to face a jury of his peers. Under the rules of law, he is not guilty until proven guilty. Seasoned prosecutors, armed with evidence, will make their case in open court. There will be witnesses and cross-examination. And if all goes according to plan, deliberation and a verdict. 

For most of his life, Trump has been able to outrun, outbully, and outlast a reckoning for his actions. That streak may be coming to an end.

The mug shot for the defendant’s case in Georgia received global attention, and for good reason. For one, there was his clearly practiced and deliberate facial expression — a Rorschach test meaning menace, ridiculousness, or defiance, depending on one’s opinion of the man himself. But also, the mug shots of the often-indicted former president and his alleged co-conspirators made the trial and the legal peril seem all the more real. 

So too does the trial date. In life and business, things change when someone says, “Let’s put it on the calendar.” The abstract becomes tangible. Expectation turns into a plan. And that’s especially true for a trial. A trial date sets off a cascade of pretrial hearings and other court machinations. 

Then there is the matter of the date itself — a big win for prosecutors and all who believe that Americans should know if Trump is a convicted felon before the November presidential election. Special Counsel Jack Smith had asked that the trial begin in January, a date so soon that it always felt like an opening bid. Trump’s lawyers countered with April, which would have been reasonable if it hadn’t been April of 2026. Judge Chutkan wasn’t having it. March 2024 it is. 

Observers note that this is the day before Super Tuesday and wonder how Trump’s multiple trials might affect his ability to campaign in the Republican primary. Well, the Iowa caucuses are on January 15, and at this rate it looks like Trump may have the nomination assured shortly thereafter. Within his party, he has more of the stature of an incumbent than a man who was already soundly defeated for the presidency in 2020. 

Outside of the GOP bubble, how will these trials play? What uncertainties do they have in store? We don’t know. But we do know that we have a trial date, circled in red. March 4. It’s not March 15 — the Ides of March — but it is no less portentous. 

All of us hear the clock ticking, strong and loud. For all of his bluster and incendiary rhetoric, so does Trump.

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