In case you haven’t heard, a jury convicted Donald Trump on all 34 felony counts in the famed New York hush money trial. And today is a good day.
Although we don’t know what will happen next, between the inevitable appeal process and the upcoming presidential election, we do know what has gone down up until this point. The conviction of Trump who, ironically, as a convicted felon, will be unable to vote in his home state of Florida as he has sought to undermine Black voters – means many things and reminds us of many things.
Trump’s conviction reminds us that in any other country, a president who led a coup attempt would have been imprisoned under the jail or forced to flee into exile in another country.
Trump is a reminder of the mediocrity, corruption and narcissism of our political leadership, and the gullibility of voters who have bad political options and are known to make unwise decisions at the ballot box. Wealthy men in high places with the complexion for the connection (white, that is, and orange in Trump’s case) rarely face consequences for their actions. No comeuppance. The Donald is by no means the first or only criminal U.S. president – we see you Andrew Jackson and Richard Nixon, you too George W. Bush – but he is the first convicted felon president, so there you go.
And the ex-president’s conviction reminds us of the cold-bloodedness with which he treated young Black men. Let’s go back to 1989, when the Central Park Five, five Black and Latino teen boys were wrongfully convicted for the brutal rape and beating of a white woman jogger. At the time, Trump placed a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for the death penalty for the five teens. After spending many years behind bars for a crime they did not commit, they were exonerated, and one of them is now a New York City councilmember.
So now the former president – who has criminalized Black and Brown, Muslim and Latinx people for votes, media exposure and for cash money – now has a criminal record. In a nation where darker folks have been locked up for nothing at all, or for something as inconsequential as allegedly stealing a candy bar, voting or a possessing a dime bag of weed, powerful people such as Trump commit the real crimes. Stealing a whole actual country, stealing trillions of dollars, scheming to become a dictator for life – these are true crimes, to be sure. But usually, the crimes of the rich and powerful are not on the books, in a system with laws designed to protect them. And in any case, punishment is reserved for the poor and powerless.
Trump is a reminder that a racist man with a low mentality and no accomplishments beyond his inheritance can use the media to manufacture an image of a successful real estate mogul and titan of business, when in reality he was a two-bit hustler and a crook. No one asked New Yorkers, who knew this from day one. The media executives who greenlighted The Apprentice and boosted their ratings – and Trump’s electoral prospects – by centering him in their news coverage and programming must take some of the blame for this Frankenstein monster.
Finally, the Trump conviction reminds us that despite the jury verdict, Trump remains a viable candidate for president, and America cannot afford to make the same mistake twice. And a system where that is possible is itself criminal.
