Original title: World Weekly｜The farce of “arresting Trump” shows the pathological characteristics of American society
One of the hottest words at present can be said to be “AI”. The trained artificial intelligence platform can generate a perfect picture by inputting a few words.
This week, the AI-generated pictures of “Trump’s arrest” on foreign social media became a mess. Of course, these AI-synthesized photos themselves aren’t real. However, under the background of the “big fight” between the two parties in the United States, it is really possible to make this absurd scene comparable to a “Hollywood drama”.
On March 21, local time, an impact-resistant metal guardrail was erected outside the U.S. Capitol, and the Washington police were on standby. In New York City, 36,000 police officers in uniform stood by and set up barricades around the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and Trump Tower.
U.S. Secret Service Director Zittle acknowledged that the Secret Service has discussed security plans with the New York Police, Manhattan Court Marshals and other law enforcement agencies.
On the same day, the Manhattan court responsible for hearing the lawsuit against Trump received a bomb threat call.
A week ago, Trump announced on his own social media platform “Truth Social” that he would be arrested on March 21, and called on supporters to hold protests and take back the country.
Former US President Trump:Our enemies are desperate to stop us because they know we are the only ones who can stop them and they know it all too well.
The British “Guardian” quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that Trump hopes to wear handcuffs when he appears in court, so that his supporters can appreciate this ironic “spectacle.” The New York Post described it as a kind of “love in handcuffs.”
At the same time, some photos suspected of Trump’s arrest have been circulated on social networking sites, and various media have also begun to analyze what may happen next.
However, it was later reported that these pictures were synthesized by artificial intelligence, and the New York police also confirmed that Trump has not been arrested so far.
In fact, on March 21, none of what he predicted happened.
Still, some Trump supporters have taken action, leading to a standoff in front of Trump Tower in New York. In Florida, Louisiana and other places, Trump supporters also responded to the call to hold rallies.
Outside a courthouse in Manhattan, New York, a Trump supporter wearing animal skins was apparently imitating Jacob Qiansley, the “horn man” who crazily stole the spotlight during the riots on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021.
At that time, Trump launched a rally called “Save America”, and the protest eventually turned into a major riot that resulted in the death of 5 people and the injury of about 140 law enforcement officers. So even his supporters were worried when he once again called for “protest” and “save America” in an all-caps post.
Trump supporter Tamimi:He (Trump) should be careful with the word protest, we don’t need another riot on Capitol Hill. Even though I am his supporter, I think the word protest should be used judiciously, as it can create some confusion.
The US “Newsweek” noticed that in Manhattan that day, the number of journalists who arrived at the scene of the protest was even greater than that of Trump supporters, so that there was a dramatic scene: a reporter discovered that the other party was also a reporter during an interview.
In fact, Trump and his legal team have not received any arrest notice at all. Trump said in the post that his source of information was the so-called “illegal leak” of relevant information by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office stated that Trump himself created “false news” that he was about to be arrested.
The Wall Street Journal reported on March 24 that a grand jury will not take action against Trump this week in the hush money case. But the prosecution’s investigation continues, and Trump could still be indicted any day.
Former U.S. Attorney Rahmani:Now that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has opened that door, others may follow.
Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan District Attorney who led the investigation into Trump’s alleged payment of hush money to porn stars, is good at commercial fraud and civil rights cases, and can be said to be Trump’s deadly enemy.
During Trump’s four years in office, he has assisted in suing the Trump administration more than 100 times, and led a team to sue the “Trump Foundation”, which led to the dissolution of the “Trump Foundation” and let Trump The $2 million settlement was paid out of pocket.
In September last year, the Prague office filed a lawsuit against Trump’s so-called former “National Teacher” Bannon on multiple charges including alleged fraud.
Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman:From day one, I’ve always thought they were targeting me and a few others, trying to attack Candidate Trump, and then President Trump.
In the eyes of anti-Trump people, Prague is about to become a fighter against Trump.
On March 19, Trump labeled Prague a “reverse racist” and a “pawn” of the Democratic Party’s funder.
According to Fox News, during the 2021 Manhattan district attorney campaign, Democratic financier Soros donated $1 million to a political action committee that heavily funded Prague’s campaign.
In addition to Soros himself, Soros’ son Jonathan and daughter-in-law Jennifer have made direct donations to Prague’s election campaign, donating $10,000 each.
According to the statistics of Fox TV, American billionaire Soros has so far invested more than 40 million U.S. dollars to fund the election of district attorneys across the country, and 75 prosecutors won the election with his funding.
However, the irony is that Fox TV, which has a large number of “money politics” in the United States this time, has always been criticized by liberals as the right-wing “spokesperson for the interests of the rich.” The “financial master” behind it is the 92-year-old “media predator” Murdoch who is about to enter his fifth marriage.
According to the “Capitol Hill” report, on March 5, the non-profit organization “Media Matters” has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, accusing Murdoch of sharing unaired political ads by Biden with Trump’s son-in-law Kushner. , making “illegal corporate in-kind contributions” to Trump in this way.
According to the New York Times, Bragg, the prosecutor who investigated the “hush money” case, was inevitably involved in “political muddy waters”.
In early 2023, Prague set up a grand jury to investigate whether there was enough evidence to indict Trump over alleged hush money payments to American porn star Stormy Daniels.
reporter:Mr. President, do you know about the $130,000 paid to Stormy Daniels?
Then-President Trump:no no.
Years ago, during his businessman years before becoming president, Trump reportedly owned a TV show and Daniels was an adult film star at the time.
According to Daniels, when Trump was running for president in 2016, Trump’s personal lawyer Cohen approached her and paid her $130,000 to deal with the so-called “extramarital affair” that the gossip media hyped was not good for the election. remain silent.
In January 2018, the Wall Street Journal disclosed that, according to the settlement agreement signed at the time, Daniels had to pay Trump $1 million in compensation for every violation.
However, only two months later, Daniels suddenly stated that the non-disclosure agreement signed that year was invalid.
Trump has vehemently denied Daniels’ allegations.
Then-President Trump:To make this kind of nonsense, to keep bringing up this witch hunt, is that what you want?
But then lawyer Cohen suddenly came forward and admitted that he had privately paid Daniels.
In February 2019, when Cohen testified in Congress, he showed a copy of a $35,000 check signed by Trump on August 1, 2017, saying that the money was used to reimburse the hush money paid to Daniels.
Wright, professor of political science at Indiana University:It was the eve of the 2016 general election at that time. If word of those censored stories got out, it could have swayed the outcome of the election, which makes the case significant. If American voters knew what Trump was trying to cover up before the election, he probably wouldn’t have won the 2016 election.
At the time, Cohen was already in prison on charges including tax evasion, bank fraud and violations of campaign finance laws, and Trump accused Cohen of making up the story.
What is intriguing is that Trump’s big move this time coincides with the delicate moment of Silicon Valley Bank’s “thunderstorm”.
Trump’s own “Truth Social” only has 4.84 million fans, far less than the 87.7 million on Twitter and the 34 million on Facebook. It is now in financial trouble and on the verge of bankruptcy.
The media noticed that Trump, who had been self-willed and not posting before, first declared “I’m back” on Facebook in a high-profile manner, and then suddenly declared “I’m going in” a few days later, making people confused for a while.
Reuters noted that Trump’s campaign spokesperson had previously stated that returning to Facebook would enable Trump to obtain “an important tool for the 2024 campaign to reach voters” and serve to obtain political donations.
In the eyes of some netizens, Trump’s “arrest Trump” farce this time is more like a wave of operations to harvest fans. The American mainstream media, which has always boasted of reporting serious news, has also paid attention to the topic of traffic, which is surprising.
CNN commented that this intensifying legal farce may drag the United States to the cliff of history.
Adam Smith, a professor at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, believes that the weird response of American society shows some pathological characteristics.
A notice caused a thousand waves, and the attacks of the two parties once again tore the United States apart.
Regardless of whether Trump is ultimately prosecuted or arrested, Agence France-Presse pointed out that this case that has set off a storm of public opinion has marked an explosive and unpredictable development in the 2024 US election.
On March 21, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and California Republican Congressman McCarthy publicly stated his position on “arresting Trump”.
McCarthy, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives:It’s (Trump’s) personal money, it was nearly seven years ago, and the statute of limitations has passed. I think you also know in your hearts that this is a political incident.
Previously, on January 7, which was the second anniversary and one day of the “Capitol Hill Rebellion”, McCarthy was elected speaker of the House of Representatives after 15 rounds of voting. Trump at the time attributed it to his own endorsement.
However, when Trump supporters now declare that they want to “return to Capitol Hill”, McCarthy, who has just sat on the speaker’s throne for more than two months, made it clear that “you don’t come.”
Other Republicans, from the perspective of so-called procedural correctness, accused Trump of having a political purpose.
Former US Vice President Pence:At a time when New York City is seeing a wave of crime, the Manhattan District Attorney has made prosecuting former President Donald Trump a top priority. This feels like a politically charged indictment.
What is intriguing is that former Vice President Pence is seen as a potential competitor of Trump in the 2024 election. On March 11, Pence declared that Trump would be held accountable for history.
The latest Ipsos poll shows that about 44% of Republicans believe that if Trump is indicted, he should withdraw from the presidential race. This has been interpreted by the US media as that establishment Republicans, on the one hand, are eager to persuade voters to move away from Trump, and on the other hand, must face the fact that he is still the most popular figure in the party.
Belt, professor of political science at George Washington University:We know that 35% to 50% of the people in the Republican Party are big fans of the former president, and whenever we see him in the news, whether it’s the Mar-a-Lago file case or this case, they tend to to support Trump, at least in the short term.
Kate Shaw, a professor of law at Cardoso Law School, pointed out that since the U.S. Constitution does not limit the eligibility of those who have been criminally prosecuted or convicted of a crime to participate in elections or become president, even if Trump is eventually criminally prosecuted, he still has The right to continue to participate in the election.
And even if the grand jury finally decides to indict Trump, it does not mean that he will be arrested immediately, because according to the practice, if the accused refuses to cooperate, he may be forcibly arrested.
Former U.S. Attorney Rahmani:He could be extradited in New York, and if the indictment goes out and Trump doesn’t voluntarily appear in court, that’s when the judge must issue a warrant. Under the constitution’s full confidence and credit clause, a Florida judge may have to step in and may have to extradite Trump from Florida to New York.
So, can he still represent the Republican Party and attack the presidency?
“I’m back!” On March 17, local time, after being banned for two years, Trump announced the news simultaneously on YouTube and Facebook.
Two days earlier, Quinnipiac University released a poll showing that Trump would beat Florida Governor DeSantis by 51% to 40% in the Republican primaries. And if there is another final showdown with Biden in the 2024 US general election, he will lose by a narrow margin of 4%.
Now, various contradictions within the Republican Party are also looming in the farce of “arresting Trump”.
Reuters believes that with the recent lifting of the ban on Trump by multiple social media platforms, he has once again mastered a key tool for political fundraising. over 40% of the U.S. population.
On March 21, Trump sent mass emails to his supporters on the grounds that he might be indicted soon, asking them to raise money to support his third presidential campaign.
Belt, professor of political science at George Washington University:After the Mar-a-Lago papers case, Trump once again took center stage and returned to the media spotlight, and he seized the opportunity to raise money.
The French “Parisian” believes that Trump, as always, is trying to play the image of a victim. The conservative media “New York Post” had a big brain hole, saying that if Manhattan prosecutors prosecuted Trump, it would be equivalent to assisting him with a wave of sympathy votes, thereby expanding his advantage in the Republican Party and defeating his potential opponent Florida Governor De Santis.
Florida Governor DeSantis:I don’t know what the point of paying a porn star to keep quiet about some kind of affair is, I can’t say. All I can say is that if there is a prosecutor who ignores the daily crimes that occur in his jurisdiction and instead chooses to pursue hush money payments to porn stars many, many years ago, that is a pursuit of a political agenda that puts the prosecutor An example of the weaponization of the office.
The BBC noticed that Trump had previously given DeSantis ironic nicknames such as “Lockdown Ron” and “Meatball Ron”, but DeSantis never responded positively.
And DeSantis mentioned keywords unfavorable to Trump such as “porn star” and “hush money” many times at the press conference, which seems to be hinting at the vulgar origin of this case. On the same day, DeSantis brought up another major shortcoming of Trump intentionally or unintentionally.
Florida Governor DeSantis:Our approach to the pandemic is different, and I would fire someone like Fauci. The way I run my government is without the daily drama, with a focus on the big picture, and with clarity.
According to this, the “New York Post” has already smelled a “battle for the White House”.
The British “Daily Mail” stated that assuming Trump refuses to go from his Mar-a-Lago home to Manhattan to surrender to the police, then Florida Governor DeSantis will decide whether to sign a local arrest warrant.
Regarding the various speculations from the outside world, DeSantis said that he did not know any arrangements about Trump by the local law enforcement agencies, and that he was “not interested in participating in some kind of circus activity created by Soros-related district attorneys.”
The BBC pointed out that if Trump is really arrested, he will be fingerprinted, photographed, and read Miranda’s rights like all defendants in criminal cases, and then wait in a detention area or cell until he appears in front of a judge.
If convicted of a misdemeanor, Trump will be fined; if convicted of a felony charge, he could face up to four years in prison.
Trump Tower is located right on Wall Street in Manhattan, New York. It is often regarded as the “Financial Capitol Hill” that can secretly manipulate the United States.
On March 18, the day Trump posted inflammatory posts, searches for bank runs nearly tripled from March 17, and continued to grow on March 20, the data showed.
As Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank “exploded” one after another, Trump supporters are likely to brew a nationwide bank run to protest.
As the “New York Review of Books” pointed out, the United States has become a “state of two countries”, with the Democratic and Republican parties leading two sharply opposed national groups, and performing bizarre and absurd dramas.
The open and secret struggles surrounding this incident have shown that under various political and economic crises, the American elites are releasing the most negative energy, bringing great destructive power to the already battered American society.
