Trump at the hush money trial
Trump’s first criminal trial of many is starting to wrap up. This trial deals with Trump making false statements on business records regarding payments to cover up an affair with Stormy Daniels. Daniels is a famous adult film star, and it has been alleged that she and Trump had an affair in 2006. Before the 2016 election, Trump had his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, pay Daniels $130,000 to keep silent. While this act itself is not illegal, Trump used campaign money to do so and falsified business records as a result. Currently, he faces 34 criminal counts related to this matter. Trump also has four other criminal trials due to start, including the Georgia election interference case, where we got the infamous Trump mugshot, a trial related to the events of January 6th, and another regarding Trump’s refusal to hand over classified documents.
Stormy Daniels testifying at the trial
If Trump were hypothetically convicted on all these charges, he would spend several lifetimes behind bars. Obviously, this is unlikely, and Trump is already 77 years old. The longest a human being has ever lived is 122 years. Unless he’s somehow secretly immortal or a Vulcan, it’s not happening. I feel like Trump will go scot-free regarding the Stormy Daniels case. I question the strength of the case against him; it’s taking place in a highly partisan environment and is not as severe compared to the other cases. I would personally love to see Trump behind bars, as I believe he’s a horrible human being, but it won’t be for the Stormy Daniels case.
Trump mugshot
I would argue the classified documents case is the most serious since it violates the 1917 Espionage Act. I don’t know how he’s going to escape that one. So, with Donald Trump facing potential prison time, what would it look like if he were elected again, and how could he be president?
There’s nothing stopping anyone from running for president from jail and being president while in jail. As long as you meet the constitutional requirements—being 35 years of age, a natural-born citizen, and having resided in the States for 14 years—you can run for and be president. Candidates have run for president from jail before, with the most famous case being Socialist candidate Eugene V. Debs, who ran in 1920. He was charged under the Espionage Act in 1918 for denouncing U.S. entry into WWI and was sentenced to ten years in prison. Despite not being able to campaign, he still managed to receive a respectable 3.4% of the vote, nearly a million votes. The infamous Joe Exotic also tried to run for president in 2020 and 2024 from prison as a Libertarian but later withdrew his campaign. So, there’s nothing stopping someone from running, but in most states, they wouldn’t be able to vote for themselves. Depending on the crime, most convicts can’t vote, which largely affects people of color.
Photo of Eugene V. Debs in prison for a campaign poster
It baffles me how this happens, as in Canada, you don’t lose that right and can even vote in prison, but I digress. So, what would a Trump presidency look like from prison? Depending on where Trump is jailed, he wouldn’t be able to occupy the White House unless placed under house arrest there. The logistics of assembling a cabinet, greeting foreign leaders and dignitaries, traveling to respond to natural disasters, and visiting foreign countries would be a massive headache in itself. Given his high-profile status, he would have to be kept separate from the general prison population and probably would end up in a minimum-security prison to facilitate better movement and security. All of this would be done under high security. A likely option is that many of his cabinet meetings and meetings with foreign leaders would be done virtually, solving many logistical and security issues. If under house arrest at the White House, I imagine many of those meetings would take place there, as they normally would during any presidency.
Foreign leaders, journalists, and any sort of visitors would be under immense security and scrutiny to ensure they aren’t carrying any illegal contraband. There is so much else in terms of logistics and security that I could write many pieces on it. The other thing to consider is what the legal, moral, and ethical concerns of a prisoner-in-command would be like.
The most immediate impact would be on the Republican party. They would literally be supporting a criminal as their leader and the leader of the free world. What message does that send to their voters and the world? If convicted, would a second civil war start? What potential ramifications would convicting a president have?
For starters, in other Western democracies like Japan, France, and Israel, presidents and prime ministers have been convicted of crimes. The political system and country didn’t fall apart; I would say it strengthened it. It showed that nobody, not even the highest person in the land, can escape justice and should be held accountable like everyone else. The belief that the president has executive privileges and can’t be tried under the law is nonsense. You could, however, argue that Bush Jr. and Obama should be tried for war crimes under that same logic. You could argue most presidents could be. This is why it’s such a slippery slope because it questions what can be counted as a crime. But in Trump’s case, it’s crystal clear. Given the current highly polarized political nature of the United States, how would the nation react to such a thing? If convicted of a crime, 13% of Republicans said they would vote for another candidate, including Joe Biden. This would also be a boon for Democrats, as they would have the moral high ground if Trump is convicted. Any logical, sane person would not want a criminal as their president. But that wouldn’t stop people from voting for him.
Trump is highly likely to be convicted of crimes related to his four ongoing federal and state-level trials. What do you think a Trump presidency from behind bars would look like? Please let me know.
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