Trump’s troubles embarrass rivals

Former US President Donald Trump has this problem: he did not much care for rules when he was in office as he did not care for them before he became president. And he has tried to make a virtue of this cavalier attitude towards rules. It is for this reason that he did not seem to understand the gravity of the situation when he took away top-secret documents while leaving the White House in January 2021 after his defeat in the November 2020 presidential election.

When the officers in justice department found this out, he would not accept his guilt. He could have said that he was not aware of the secret official documents that were taken away to his home in Florida. Instead, he said that he did not have any secret documents in his possession, and secondly when the authorities checked at his place they found documents marked ‘top secret’ lying on the floor of the bathroom and that of the living room. And Trump showed no concern about these papers lying all around.

But it is a known rule that ignorance of law is not an excuse. A person violating the laws, knowingly or unknowingly, has to face the consequences. That is the situation that Trump finds himself in.

But he is still surprised and angry that the Department of Justice (DoJ) are still chasing him and filing a case because of what he considers to be nothing more than an oversight, even if it is one that was wilful. That he knew that these are secret documents but he did not much care about the secrecy part. That is why, Trump thinks he is innocent and that the DoJ officials are just being vindictive.

But this creates an embarrassing situation for everyone, and not just for Trump. President Joe Biden, who has announced that he is running for the 2024 presidential election, does not want to be seen as pursuing a case against Trump, who is also looking for a Republican nomination for 2024, and who seems to be ahead of other Republican presidential aspirants right now. So, Biden is maintaining a discreet silence over the subject, and he is giving the impression that what DoJ officials are pursuing has nothing to do with him, and that they are following rules.

The other Republican presidential candidates are embarrassed too because when Trump stands indicted – and there are 37 charges he is facing – it is a reflection on the Republican party, and it would affect their own political standing as well. Trump is aware of this and he wants to press home the fact that he is a victim of vendetta on the part of the Democrats on the one hand, and Republican rivals on the other. It is, of course, not very clear as to how much the victimhood card will help Trump to race ahead of others in the battle for Republican nomination. And if he does get the Republican nomination, it is again not clear as to how the victimhood card will help in the election as such. But Trump plays it blind. He does not calculate. He will play the victimhood card with all the force at his command.

Trump poses plenty of problems to American democracy. He is an outsider to politics and he plays up the fact. He has set himself as the man who is fighting the political club in Washington, and this includes politicians of both the parties, and he also feels that he does not have to play by the political rulebook as it were. This makes it difficult for his opponents to pin him down because he does not follow the rules. Trump scores because there is an anti-politician sentiment among the people in America. And that makes Trump a dangerous opponent.