What do mathematics, Donald Trump, and pineapple pizzas share? People either love it or hate it- there’s no in-between. Donald J. Trump, a figure who has split the nation in half since his controversial inauguration in 2016, now faces four criminal indictments. When these charges were announced, the case quickly gained notable attention due to Trump’s past of evading legal investigations. Despite such recent criminal allegations, the former president announced his plans to run for candidacy in the upcoming 2024 Presidential Election. The impact of these recent controversies on his chances could go either way. No matter what, it will be a historic event for American politics.
The first case that Trump faced was the “Hush money case,” in which he was charged for paying two women to keep silent about their past affairs. The prosecutors claimed that Trump was trying to secure his electoral chances in 2016 by concealing negative information from the public. Trump allegedly had two affairs with Stormy Daniels, an adult film star, and Karen McDougal, an actress. In exchange for their silence, Trump paid the women up to $150,000, taken from the campaign budget, marking one of 34 counts in the charge. Trump has pleaded not guilty, stating that he was unaware of the payments. The trial for this criminal indictment of falsifying business records in the first degree is scheduled for March 25, 2024.
In June 2023, federal prosecutors charged Trump with illegally possessing over a hundred classified national defense documents in Mar-a-Lago, a luxury resort in Florida, and hindering government efforts to retrieve them. An audio recording of Trump discussing keeping documents from 2021 supports this indictment. Additionally, Trump has two co-defendants in this case, Walt Nauta, Trump’s personal aide, and Carlos De Oliveira, a maintenance worker at the resort. They have both been accused of assisting Trump in his efforts to move and hide the boxes of documents. Surveillance footage from Mar-a-Lago sent to the Justice Department allegedly exhibits Trump’s co-defendants transporting the boxes around the resort. Trump and his co-defendants have pleaded not guilty. The trial for Trump’s nine charges has been scheduled for May 2024.
Trump’s third indictment centers around his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election during the infamous storming of the capital that took place in January 2021. The case states that Trump and his co-conspirators took advantage of the chaos and violence at the capitol caused by his supporters by calling lawmakers and pressuring them into keeping him in power. A phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, revealed that the former president pushed him to overturn the election and find the exact number of votes needed to secure a win in Georgia. Additionally, the call references a co-conspirator persuading former Vice President, Mike Pence, to postpone President Biden’s victory. Trump has pleaded not guilty for all four counts in this case. Notably, this trial has been scheduled for March 4, 2024, the day before more than a dozen states cast their primary ballots.
The last historic indictment that Trump has faced involves overt efforts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. The evidence for this indictment includes a phone call with the previously mentioned Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, where Trump told him to “find” the votes necessary to win the election. On top of that, the former president sent a letter in September 2021 again encouraging Raffensperger to decertify Georgia’s vote. Notably, if Trump is reelected in 2024, he will be unable to pardon himself or his allies on any state charges, nor dismiss Fulton County prosecutors.
Amid the controversies concerning Trump, Biden officially declared that he will run in the 2024 election, hoping to extend his presidency. On the other hand, Trump is in the lead for the Republican primary, against his former rival, DeSantis, and newcomer Ramaswamy.
Some commentators, many of them Democrats and all of them opponents of Trump, claim that Trump’s candidacy is unjust because he faces criminal charges that would easily raise objections to the integrity of his moral compass. It is believed that the leader of such an influential nation should have a clear set of virtues. With this, democrats are hoping that these criminal accusations will hurt his chances of becoming the Republican candidate for the upcoming election, not to mention being elected as the next President.
Meanwhile, the Republican party supporters have defended Trump, arguing that he has not been proven guilty, that some of the accusations are irrelevant to his political integrity and competence, and that previous instances of leaders handling past classified documents in such ways exist. Given this, they believe the indictments should have a minimal effect on his candidacy. While such conflicting opinions continue to spark debates, it is still unclear how Trump’s cases will affect the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. Only time will tell.
