This isn’t a surprise

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When the forewoman of the Fulton County special grand jury strongly hinted to the media on Tuesday that Donald Trump was on the list of people who have been recommended for criminal indictment, she said that the results aren’t some big surprise. This stood out to me, because it speaks to what I’ve been trying to get across all along.

Based on everything that’s come out and all the documented progress that’s been made, it’s been clear all along that Donald Trump was firmly on track for criminal indictment in Fulton County. For that matter it’s been clear for a long time that Trump is on track for criminal indictment by the DOJ. And it’s clear that Trump is on track for criminal indictment in Manhattan.

Trump getting indicted has always been the obvious, apparent, and extremely likely outcome. Everything that’s come out about the ongoing indictment processes has pointed to that. Nothing that’s come out has pointed to Trump somehow being off the legal hook. All you’ve had to do all along was pay attention to the actual news that’s come out, and to tune out the baseless ratings-driven doomsday hype that’s been served up on the days when there was no news about these criminal cases. If you were able to stay focused like that, then you knew that Trump was getting indicted. As the forewoman just said, it’s not coming as a surprise.

That’s why it’s so crucial for all of us to vigilantly filter out the baseless doomsday hysteria that the media and pundit class invents on slow news days. The only reason you’d be surprised that Trump is getting indicted is if you allowed that kind of repetitive, emotionally manipulative fear mongering to distract you from what you could clearly see what was actually going on.

It’s also important to keep in mind that when most of the media and pundit class tried to convince you that Trump was already off the legal hook and was somehow magically on track for 2024, the media wasn’t merely mistaken; the media was intentionally misleading you for ratings. You have to keep this in mind, because these same folks who told you Trump would never be indicted are now going to turn around and tell you that he’ll never be put on trial. Then when his trial starts, they’ll tell you that he’ll never be convicted. Then when he’s convicted they’ll say he’ll never go to prison, and so on.

To be clear, these kinds of prognostications aren’t merely some kind of pessimism. Things can theoretically go wrong in any process. But even the biggest pessimist would look at what all has been playing out in the indictment process against Trump and acknowledge that it was extremely likely Trump would be indicted, even while emphasizing specific things that might have a small chance of going wrong.

When most of the media and pundit class spent every day trying to convince you that Trump was off the legal hook and was in the clear for 2024, they weren’t being pessimists. They were bullshitting you. They knew all along that Trump was on a clear path to indictment in multiple jurisdictions. They just wanted to scare and outrage you into staying glued to your screen in the meantime. Now more than ever, it’s time to break that cycle. The media tried to bullshit you into believing Trump would never be indicted. Don’t let the media turn around now and bullshit you into believing he’ll never be convicted.