Yes, Trump Should Be Prosecuted, Charged and Sentenced. But That Won’t End Trumpism.

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Today, The Boston Globe published an editorial calling upon the Justice Department and other law enforcement officials to prosecute former president Trump for crimes committed while he was in office. This is a fairly significant statement because while there are likely forthcoming indictments from the grand jury against Trump for tax and bank fraud committed as a private citizen, his illegal actions committed while he was president remain far from any kind of clear resolution.

“Presidents also need a clear message, one that will echo through history, that breaking the law in the Oval Office will actually be punished," the editorial board wrote. They continued, “Trump’s presidency didn’t just expose glaring legal weaknesses: It also made clear that our institutions are incapable of holding presidents accountable for breaking even our existing laws. If Congress had played the role the Founders envisioned, by removing Trump from the presidency after his criminality became clear in the Ukraine affair, that might have been enough of a deterrent to scare future presidents straight. But lawmakers didn’t.”

The Globe’s board noted that coming after presidents after they are out of power cannot be done lightly, as this could be viewed as raw political vengeance (something Trump himself has already convinced his base to believe). Any move to arrest a former political leader could thus result in a downward slide as subsequent governments, once in power, attempt the same against their own political opponents. But as the board also pointed out, other democracies, such as South Korea and France, have successfully prosecuted former presidents without their democracies unraveling. 

In my view, the real danger is that prosecution might turn Trump into a kind of martyr, someone whom the “deep state” hates and has always tried to destroy. The ex-president is a master at shifting attention from his own wrongdoings to his being a victim of a witch hunt. He is already regarded by much of his base as a type of Messianic character, and so even if he were garbed in prison orange, they likely would not abandon him. Indeed, they might flock to his cause with even greater fervor. 

This is not to say the prosecutions shouldn’t go forward. Indictments are likely forthcoming against his closest aide, Rudy Giuliani. Cy Vance’s investigators are now leaning heavily on the CFO and Controller for the Trump Organization to pressure them to turn state’s evidence. At the end of the day, Trump still needs to be held legally accountable for his actions, both before and during his presidency, even if only for the sake of the integrity of our system and to deter would-be future leaders from his crimes, which include obstruction of justice, election fraud, and incitement of insurrection, to name a few. 

But for Trump-ism to be defeated, we shouldn’t pin our hopes on indictments and sentences, even of Trump himself. MAGA must be defeated resoundingly at the ballot box in 2022 and perhaps again in 2024. Nothing short of continued and catastrophic loss of political power will cause the GOP to finally abandon Trumpism. So long as the political calculus dictates that you cannot win a primary in your districts without swearing fealty to the former president, that is what we will continue to see from his many acolytes and sycophants, even if Trump becomes a convicted felon and must dole out his blessings from a prison cell. 

What a picture that would make.