Donald Trump is getting blown out in this trial. Now what?
As I prepare to watch Donald Trump’s criminal trial resume today, I’m reminded oddly enough of a football game I watched last year. I’m a long suffering Miami Dolphins fan, but there was a remarkable game last year in which the Dolphins were ahead by a 35-10 score at halftime. And that kind of feels like where we’re at right now in this Trump trial.
Prosecutors are piling on with one devastating witness after another – David Pecker, Hope Hicks – and are opening up quite a lead. Trump and his defense are scoring some minor points along the way, but not nearly enough to help them. It’s halftime in this trial, and we already know who’s overwhelmingly likely to win. That doesn’t mean it’s over.
When the Dolphins were up 35-10 at halftime against a team that really did seem to be truly lost at the time, the real intrigue – at least among observers – shifted to just how big of a historic event it might end up being. Unless you were a fan of the losing team, you wanted to see even more track meet style touchdowns, even more records set, a performance for the ages.
But for the players and coaches, the priorities were somewhat different in the second half. By the time they’d scored fifty points or so, it was time for them to start protecting key players, locking in the lead and so on. Late in the game, fans (including me) wanted even more points to be aggressively piled on, because it was fun. But the correct move was to simply lock in the big win.
This brings us back to Donald Trump’s criminal trial. We’re roughly halfway through the big name witnesses for the prosecution (that we know of). The score is a blowout. Those of us watching at home would love for the prosecution to go for an “aggressive” knockout blow with these remaining witnesses. But prosecutors know that the smart play is to simply keep methodically building on their lead. No mistakes. No risky moves that could backfire. None of it’s needed. All that Alvin Bragg and his team need to do is keep playing their game, and they’ll very likely win.
