Over a five-month span, former President Donald Trump was charged in four criminal cases. Those charges against the former reality TV star ended a 234-year streak of American presidents and former presidents never being indicted. Together, the indictments accuse him of wide-ranging criminal conduct before, during and after his presidency; a presidency that saw him become the nation’s first Commander-in-Chief to be impeached twice.
Here is a list of the cases Trump caught
Hush Money Case involving money Trump paid to keep any negative stories about him out of the press in order to block any impact news of his accused wrong-doings could have had on his potential of getting elected during the 2016 presidential election.
Federal Election Interference Case involving the two months between Election Day in 2020 and Jan. 6, 2021 when Trump mounted a wide-ranging campaign to subvert Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election and illegally maintain power after losing the 2020 presidential election.
Georgia Election Interference Case regarding Trump’s phone call (which was recorded) and conversation with Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger. On that call Trump illegally “urged” Raffensperger to “find” 11,780 votes — the number needed to overcome Biden’s victory in that state. “Finding” votes that did not exist literally means Trump was urging the GA secretary of state to commit an egregiously illegal act.
The Classified Documents Case deals with Trump being accused of taking highly sensitive national security documents when he left the White House in January 2021. He stashed those documents throughout his ghetto Mar-a-Lago resort all willy-nilly and obstructed the government’s repeated attempts to retrieve them, prosecutors allege. On at least two occasions, Trump showed classified documents (top-secret military plans) to individuals who were not authorized to view them, prosecutors say. Persons in the past guilty f less were convicted and thrown in jail for putting U.S. national security at risk.
These four trials don’t include the nearly 30 allegations of sexual misconduct against Trump.
All that said, what lessons and takeaways should Black people glean from these legal proceedings?
White Privilege is On Trial
The two-tiered U.S. legal system is on front street for all to see. Trump gets hit with a new gag order every day, and he ignores them, breaking them during and immediately after the day’s trial. But he has yet to be held accountable. Moreover, Trump has openly and consistently attacked, degraded and threatened witnesses, the judge and even the judge’s daughter via his rants and tirades. Still, he has yet to be held accountable. Blacks, Hispanics and even poor whites who have spoken “too loud” in court, didn’t look in the judge’s direction while the judge addressed them, had looks on their faces that the judge didn’t like, have time and time again been fined, thrown in jail and had potential and real sentences (time to be spent in jail) increased dramatically. Trump has done light years more than any of those examples, yet has not even received a slap on the wrist.
Trump Stinks – Literally
Trump rancid body odor has been one of those secrets most people already know. Numerous individuals who worked with him from his days as a reality TV star to his time in the White House speak of the adult diapers he has worn for years and regularly soiled during meetings, earning him the nickname “Diaper Don.” But during his current trial in Manhattan, individuals in the courtroom have become unwitting victims of Trump’s funk which is said to include more than the business in his diapers. This is not meant t shade any adult who has to wear a diaper. But for someone (Trump) who has made a career of taking pleasure in attacking and demeaning others, it’s ironic that so few people have put him on blast for blasting his funk upon trial attendees.
Regardless of Outcome, White Grievance Still Targets Us
There are countless conversations happening regarding what will happen if Trump is found guilty in one, two, three or all four of his cases. Will we see a former president behind bars? If that were the case, what would those logistics even look like? Would his lifetime Secret Service security personnel (something received by all former presidents) be present with him in prison? Would he be placed on BS house arrest? No one knows the answers to these questions. But what we should know is that the MAGA horde and the insane level of anti-Blackness that they roll with will not just disappear. In fact, it may even increase with their mediocre messiah behind bars, playing the role of martyr. White grievance – the belief that any and all issues impacting whites negatively are Black and Brown peoples’ fault – is deep and is not likely to be locked behind bars or relegated to house arrest with Trump. All that angst and anger has developed a life of its own, separate and apart from Trump… because it existed before he became president. Trump tapped into deep-seated anti-Blackness that was already at the core of so many of their beings.
America is a “Mediocracy”
The fact that judges and lawyers and the entire “justice” system has time and again bent over backward to privilege Trump (even though he claims to be treated unfairly… the likes of which we’ve never seen) underscores the fact that America is not the meritocracy it proudly claims to be (a meritocracy being a place where the smartest, most creative and hardest working individuals get the promotions, the elected offices and the accolades because they’ve simply done more to deserve those things than other). Rather, this nation is a “mediocracy,” dedicated to elevating mediocre white men at the expense of Black and Brown men and women of superior intellect, work ethic, creativity, etc. Historically, mountains have been moved to maintain this system that elevates mediocre, average, so-so, white males over everyone else (to maintain the illusion of their supposed superiority). And the preferential treatment received by Trump thus far in his current legal dealings just further proves that point. Mountains are being moved daily to make way for a six-time bankrupt, alleged sex offending, gazillion-time indicted, intellectually incurious, insurrectionist-leading man-child. Meritocracy my a–.
Voting is Critical
These cases remind us (or at least should remind us) just how critically important voting is. Voting impacts the judges who preside over cases. Voting puts people in place who choose Supreme Court justices. Voting puts people in place who will either fight to protect the little sliver of democracy this nation has left or those who will use it like toilet paper to wipe their behind and go about disintegrating any and all rights we’re supposed to have.
(Source: Politico)
