Trump is a cheat who has been lying his way out of taxes for the past decades. Not only that, but Trump is also taking advantage of the judge and the trial itself to both demonize the judicial system along with furthering his own presidential campaign.
Trump’s latest scandal came in the form of a civil court case brought up by Letitia James, a New York attorney who has had a history of being a progressive political figure in New York City. In the past, she has had multiple instances of speaking out against the former president, especially during her 2018 campaign for attorney general. Due to her liberal background and beliefs, Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, was quick to deflect her claims against him as purely motivated by political factors. “I have been unfairly sued by the Trump Hating Democrat Attorney General of New York State, Letitia James” said Trump during the first day of his trial. However, James has expressed multiple times that this is not the “witch hunt” that Trump thinks it is and simply believes that “no one is above the law”. This Trump case is a great example of that, showing that even the richest of men are susceptible to the US judicial system. This whole scandal is creating further alienation between Conservatives and Liberals, along with causing unnecessary doubts of the US judicial department.
The judge presiding over this trial, Arthur Engoron, has ruled that Trump, his two adult sons, and ten of his businesses were guilty of fraud for inflating the worth of their assets. However, Trump will not face as normal charges for these crimes due to the statute of limitations, as his crimes were committed in 2014. Trump is currently trying his best to avoid these charges, as if he is found guilty, not only will he be fined 250 million dollars, but he will also be unable to do any sort of business in New York. This means that he will have to liquidate all of the properties he owns in New York City. Not only has he already been found guilty for most of these charges, but the way that he decides to try and appeal them is both unethical and even dangerous.
Trump is painting the picture that the courts are attempting to push this trial onto him at this specific time to debilitate his presidential campaign. Yet Trump is the one who created this problem for himself, as he has been trying to delay and appeal the trial to a later date for multiple years now. He does this in hopes that he will eventually have his charges dismissed due to the statute of limitations. The only reason why this court case has fallen into his lap now at such an unlucky time is his own nearsightedness.
The most dangerous thing about this case, however, is the alarming ideals that Trump is passing on through the trials. He is attempting to demonize the attorney general, the judge, along with the entire judicial system. His claims, while impossibly dramatic, have reached a large number of citizens. His plan, if it succeeds, is to sow seeds of doubt in everyone’s head that the system and the people within that system cannot be trusted and need to be disbarred/switched out. Thankfully, the righteous attorney general office is successfully showing the world the fraud that he is. He claims that everyone is against him, but the real issue is that the simple facts are against him. He may see it as an unfair world, one where he is unreasonably trialed and charged, one where the cards are stacked against him every single time, but the rest of the world simply sees it as justice being served.
