Donald Trump had a moment in the midst of all his legal woes. For years, Trump has argued that he was the victim of a vast and ongoing conspiracy against him, first in 2016, when hostile elements in the government concocted the now provably false accusation that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians to rig the outcome of the 2016 election.
From there, Trump was mired in endless controversies resulting from leaks and other investigations that partisan foes subjected the forty-fifth president to.
After losing the 2020 presidential election, Trump argued that it was only because the Democrats had stolen it. The awful events of January 6 followed on from those claims. Now, as Trump has been indicted on a combined 91 felony charges, Trump is using all the legal problems he’s facing—some of them the result of politicized investigations and some of them the result of his own irresponsible behavior—to further galvanize voters.
It’s a strange tactic that only “Teflon” Don could conjure.
Whether it will be effective in a general election, if Trump is indeed the Republican Party’s nominee, is another question. But for now, Trump is doing what he has always done: turning putrid lemons into overpriced lemonade and placing it in slick packaging.
The Trumpiest Show of All
Last week, Trump stood defiantly outside a New York courtroom detailing the blatant politicization that is being perpetrated upon him by the New York justice system.
No, I’m not talking about the New York “zombie case” that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted Trump over alleged hush money payments to the adult film star, Stormy Daniels. That’s another travesty of justice in New York.
I’m referring to the abuse of power that the New York Attorney General Letitia James is engaged in as it relates to claims that the former president routinely and flagrantly lied about the worth of his properties in order to get favorable bank loans.
To be clear, what Trump did was fraudulent.
But anyone in real estate—especially the cutthroat world of Manhattan real estate—knows that this routinely happens. Plus, Trump’s defense is that every loan he was given was repaid in full.
That’s not a lie.
That’s why the banks were perplexed when the New York AG insisted on taking this case to trial. Many more experts have been utterly confounded by the bizarre behavior of the presiding judge, Arthur Engoron.
No other person engaged in the real estate industry, even an unpopular and controversial former president, like Donald J. Trump, would have been made to endure such a petty and politicized court proceeding. Again, that’s because most of the successful real estate developers in Manhattan engage in the behavior that Trump did.
The Letitia James case is yet another example of extreme, politically motivated impropriety on the part of Trump’s left-wing foes, who will stop at nothing to criminalize his very existence. But the case in question has many wealthy individuals in New York (those few who remain), who are engaged in real estate throughout the Big Apple, worried.
A Threat to New York’s Ailing Tax Base
After all, Judge Engoron ordered the dissolution of multiple Trump Organization-owned Limited Liability Corporations that owned several of Trump’s most iconic properties, all of which are worth millions upon millions of dollars (just not the many millions that Donald Trump had claimed they were worth). Although Judge Engoron did issue a temporary reprieve on the Trump Organization. But it is only temporary.
Both the city and state governments of New York have been conquered by the most Far-Left leaders imaginable.
Their policies have prompted a massive capital flight from the region. High taxes and even greater regulations have all compounded to form a capital flight the likes of which America has never before seen. For the sake of their tax bases, the state and city of New York should be doing its best to keep capital in New York.
Judge Engoron’s dissolution of Trump’s LLCs for exaggerated accusations could do more harm to New York’s dying tax base. Other rich people in New York might begin looking around and thinking, if the state can do that to Trump for political purposes, what’s to stop them from doing that to my real estate holdings in New York?
This is to say nothing of the egregiousness of the court proceedings. And that’s what Trump has turned to his advantage. Even people who hate Donald Trump can see the absurdity of what New York state is doing to him. It’s petty and political. Trump has, therefore, turned a partisan pantomime into a Trump-style circus.
In so doing, Trump is getting more powerful politically.
Trump’s Enemies, As Always, Go Too Far
Thus, just as with the Russia collusion lie and the sham impeachment of the former president for his phone call with Ukraine, the left’s ceaseless drumbeat against Trump is only serving to make him stronger.
The only question astute political observers should be asking themselves is whether this is part of a deliberate Democratic Party plan to elevate Trump to the GOP nomination, believing him to be the most beatable Republican candidate in 2024, or if this is just blind incompetence by perennially enraged leftist partisans?
A 19FortyFive Senior Editor and an energy analyst at the The-Pipeline, Brandon J. Weichert is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, as well as at the Asia Times. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower (Republic Book Publishers), Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life (Encounter Books), and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy (July 23). Weichert occasionally serves as a Subject Matter Expert for various organizations, including the Department of Defense. He can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
