AI generated image of Trump being arrested

Once again before the judge, Donald Trump calmly pronounced “innocent” to each of the charges accusing him, this time, of conspiring against the political rights of American citizens. This new trial adds to the proceedings for improper manipulation of confidential documents and the alleged payments to silence a porn actress with whom he had an affair. Despite the gravity of the controversies surrounding him, the former president remains strong in Republican preference for the 2024 presidential election.

This week, I dove into the 45-page document published by special prosecutor Jack Smith, laying out the accusations against Trump. It caught my attention that the former president is not charged with sedition, crimes many involved in the Capitol assault have been convicted of, but with conspiracy. The trial seeks to clarify whether Trump became the axis of a conspiracy that threatens the political rights of Americans by:

• Inciting a violent mob against Congress.
• Endorsing false legal opinions.
• Promoting false electors to the Electoral Colleges.
• Dismissing legal evidence from official lawyers.
• Pressuring electoral officials to “find” thousands of votes allowing him to falsify the election.

Trump wields his right to freedom of speech to support his defense. A worn-out argument echoed by commentators and the vast right-wing communication machine to justify any excess, despite the high price networks like Fox News have paid for it. They reveal deep cynicism: if your revolt succeeds, you impose your law; if you fail, you take refuge under the same law you challenged. Constitutional freedoms serve as either shield or weapon, depending on the maneuver.

You don’t have to be a lawyer to appreciate the strength of the accusatory document. However, despite the avalanche of charges, Trump stands a chance of victory. On one hand, as absurd as it may seem, the jury could validate his freedom of speech argument. On the other, even if convicted, there is nothing preventing Trump from being re-elected as president and pardoning himself. A peculiar challenge looms over the American constitutional and institutional system, threatening to destabilize its very democracy through the cracks of its legal system.

It’s no coincidence that, just hours after being charged, Trump challenges the courts and the entire system: “IF YOU COME FOR ME, I’LL COME FOR YOU!”, a threat to fuel polarization and bet on the extremes: if jailed, his electoral chances increase from his hero-martyr position; if not, he also wins, elevating his revolutionary status among the fascist bases of the now hollowed-out Republican party.

Democracy at Stake

The mere act of putting a former president, popular no less and a dominant figure of one of the two hegemonic parties in American democracy, on trial, places this democracy on the brink. The binary nature of its resolution — guilty or innocent — can have far-reaching consequences for the nation’s political future.

If the former president is found guilty, the Republican Party — dominated by Trump and his followers — would intensify its identity narrative of a declining country due to a rigged system against the values that once made it great — “Make America Great Again”. This would further inflame the already polarized American society. If Trump is acquitted, suspicions of a corrupt institutionality favoring the powerful, immune to justice, will intensify, as already pointed out by those contrasting Trump’s treatment, free despite the plethora of charges against him.

Furthermore, if Trump emerges victorious in the elections, despite the multiple criminal accusations he faces, his tactics to attain power — even subverting the tenets of democracy — would be legitimized. This would call into question the legitimacy of Biden’s presidency and, simultaneously, reinforce the most harmful tactics of populism in contemporary politics.

Defending Democracy

Today, the main challenge for those of us who subscribe to the “democratic ideal of life” is to prevent Trump from returning to the presidency of the United States.

Mires warns, “more than to abstract liberal principles, we owe it to the defense of very concrete institutions: the parliament and its parties, the judiciary and its judges, the electoral power and its courts, the army and its weapons and not least, the Constitution and its laws.” The paradox in Trump’s case is that he exploits the cracks in this institutional design to try to subvert democracy.

Francisco Toro points out that the entire American constitutional system was designed from its beginnings to resist the onslaught of populist politicians who use the passions of their followers to subvert it. This is exactly what happened this week in the voice of prosecutor Jack Smith, who embodies the defense of democracy from within the institution. However, that is not enough to counter the threat Trump poses. It is necessary to confront fascism with full democratic force, also resorting to the mobilization of the people, as the Spanish socialists have just shown.

The Democratic Party, as the main political force competing with the Republicans, has the responsibility to learn from the strategy of the Spanish socialists, calling for a broad political coalition that electorally sweeps Trump and relegates Trumpism to the margins of the political spectrum, as has just happened with Vox.

The main challenge we face today, those of us who defend the “democratic ideal of life”, is to prevent Trump from returning to the presidency of the United States. If we fail in this endeavor, the consequences would be dire: it would boost the rise of populist rights in Europe, and the Putinist imperialism would have achieved one of its main objectives, even in retreat on the battlefield.

Personally, I bet on the strength of the democratic conscience of the Americans. They once knew how to rid the world of Trump. I trust they will do it again. We must drive the democratic surge represented by the elections in Spain, extending it next year with the electoral defeats of Trump, Maduro, and even the battlefield debacle of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Let’s bet on hope.