Trump has crossed a great divide in society.
www.theatlantic.com
The divide between convicted criminals and the rest of society is sharp, real, and typically enduring. Donald Trump now finds himself on the wrong side of that divide. If he doesn’t win in November (and even, to an extent, if he does), he likely will remain on that barren side of American life, subject to government oversight that normal citizens don’t have to endure, for the rest of his life.
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Trump was convicted in New York, and that state imposes this designation at the time of the jury verdict. That already entails privations. The New York City Police Department is seeking to revoke his license to carry a concealed weapon. Thirty-seven countries—including Canada and the United Kingdom—have laws prohibiting felons from entering (though they can, of course, make exceptions).
Trump’s fettered status will be driven home today when he has his first command performance as a convict, an interview with the probation office that can cover any number of factors for consideration in the office’s sentencing recommendation.
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Once he becomes a probationer, Trump, who all his life has acted as if the rules don’t apply to him, would exist in a “pretty please” world, subject to the ultimate discretion of a judge whom he has trashed ceaselessly and in vile terms.
That state of affairs would endure for the entire probationary term and by that point, one or more of the other criminal cases against him may well have gone to trial. Each of them, especially the two federal cases, is strong, and each carries substantially greater penalties than the New York case. A single additional conviction would make the former president a multiple felon with a criminal history, and the system would treat him more harshly yet. Legal troubles tend to compound.
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Trump and his supporters look at the convictions as freakish and partisan, and suppose that they can be undone, perhaps by the Supreme Court, which both Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson are asking to step in. But the supposition is fanciful. The convictions are indelible, and their consequences will be enduring. The odds of Trump’s walking away and again being a fully free man are remote.
www.rollingstone.com
