Here’s the thing about Donald Trump being on the verge of criminal indictment in New York
The signs are all lining up. The Manhattan DA, who’s retiring at the end of this month, has spent this past week having witnesses testify to the grand jury he’s convened in the criminal investigation into Donald Trump’s finances. Even though we’re up against the holidays, the DA seems to be making a point of ramping things up.
The current DA is seemingly either trying to complete the criminal case against Trump so the new incoming DA can make a charging decision in the new year, or he’s planning to indict Trump himself before he retires so he can take credit for being the one who took Trump down. Take your pick, but either of these explanations points to Trump being indicted and arrested soon in New York. At this point the question seems to be whether it’s sort of soon or really soon.
Here’s the thing though. Even though the media and the pundits are finally about to begin acknowledging the reality that Trump is facing criminal indictment in New York, they’re still going to want to do it in a way that keeps them relevant and boosts ratings. In other words, we’re about to see a whole lot of fretting, hand wringing, and even doomsday narratives about how Trump getting indicted will somehow be good news for him.
If this sounds overly cynical on our part, keep in mind that large chunks of the pundit class are still trying to insist that Steve Bannon somehow won by getting criminally indicted for contempt. This is just what the media and the pundits do. If they simply acknowledge the obvious, that Trump getting indicted in New York would be absolutely terrible for him, how do they remain relevant as pundits?
So now is probably a good time to brace yourselves for what’s coming. When Trump is indicted in New York, we’ll hear pundits lament about how the charges aren’t severe enough. Doesn’t matter how severe they end up being, the pundits will insist they should have been more severe, and that Trump got off lightly. We’ll hear other pundits insist that Trump will be acquitted at trial because of his “base” or something, even though no one that partisan would end up on the jury. And we’ll hear that because it’ll take months for Trump’s trial to begin, this will somehow translate into a win for him.
We’re already seeing some prominent pundits suggesting that it won’t even matter if Trump is indicted in New York, because the (supposed) lack of a federal criminal case against him means we’re still doomed. There’s zero logic to support this; Trump going to prison is Trump going to prison. But because the media tends to repeat these scary narratives ad nauseum, audiences end up being conditioned to simply accept them as being true, regardless of how illogical they might be.
So yeah, it’s time to acknowledge the reality that Donald Trump’s indictment in New York, which was always going to happen, could finally be upon us. It’s also time to acknowledge the reality that most of the media will do everything it can to ruin this moment for you, by flooding you with nonsensical doomsday narratives about how Trump’s arrest doesn’t matter or is somehow a “win” for him. We shouldn’t have to steel ourselves for the bullshit that the media is going to flood us with. But the media problem is getting worse, not better, and we have to learn to be proactive about it so we can’t be manipulated by it.
