Donald Trump just became the first former U.S. president to be found guilty of a felony, having been convicted of all 34 counts of his hush money trial on Thursday afternoon.
However, the law of the land says he’s still eligible to be elected to a second presidential term and his supporters will certainly be out in full force to support him on November 5, leaving many Democrats scratching their heads, wondering how it’s possible that Trump is a viable candidate for president following a conviction — not to mention the strife and violence he caused while in office.
Fortunately, there’s no inevitability about Trump winning the White House in 2024. Polls show that his early lead over President Biden is marginal at best. And there’s no telling how his 88 criminal indictments will play out in the courts and among independent voters who will likely decide this close presidential race.
Still, even if Trump is not elected president, he has puppets in high places who have unabashedly shown their allegiance to him and “Trumpism.”
In a stunning revelation, The New York Times reported that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito flew an upside-down U.S. flag outside his Alexandria, Va., home after Trump supporters attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
MAGA Republicans have coopted the inverted flag that the military has used to signal distress. Unsurprisingly, some of them flew it at the riot, but it was shocking to see a Supreme Court justice boldly display his alliance with the insurrection.
Alito blamed his wife for displaying the controversial symbol. But a week later, The Times reported that Alito also flew the “Appeal to Heaven” flag, another MAGA symbol, two years after the insurrection from his vacation house in New Jersey.
Alito, a staunch conservative, has written opinions against voting rights for African Americans and opposing abortion and LGBTQ rights. Yet, he claims that liberals pose a threat to freedom. As a Trump loyalist, he’s now poised to hear cases involving the Capitol riots and whether the former president has immunity for his role in sparking the insurrection.
If Trump fails to win the White House, his mini-me, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is waiting in the wings for a 2028 presidential bid after losing the 2024 GOP primary to his boss.
Trump and DeSantis are sometimes allies and sometimes enemies. Recently, the pendulum swung back to allies in April when the governor met privately with Trump and kissed his ring. According to The Washington Post, they buried the hatched, and DeSantis agreed to help Trump retake the White House.
Like his mentor, DeSantis has fashioned himself into a right-wing political warrior in his “war on woke,” which amounts to attacking diversity, silencing discussions about racism, whitewashing America’s racist history and reversing progressive policies. DeSantis is the evil wizard behind a series of anti-Black policies in Florida that prompted the NAACP to warn that the Sunshine State is dangerous for Black people.
Meanwhile, the second person in line for the presidency, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, created, what the Associated Press described as “a remarkable moment in modern American politics,” when he traveled to Trump’s hush money trial in New York to condemn the court system as “corrupt.”
Indeed, Johnson has a history of supporting Trump’s mess. According to NBC News, he was instrumental in aiding Trump’s efforts to overturn Biden’s 2020 presidential victory. It’s a shameful about-face for Johnson, who said in 2015 that Trump was unfit to serve as president and could be dangerous.
Since then, his dependance on Trump has grown. In November, Johnson sought the GOP boss’ help to save his speakership when hard-right Trump allies in the House threatened to remove him for joining with Democrats to avert a government shutdown.
Trump is a puppet master. Johnson, DeSantis, Alito, and many others are undoubtedly ready, willing, and able to carry out his bidding.
