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Some will argue that a criminal trial doesn’t really begin until the opening statements. But none of that can happen until a jury is seated. In the case of Donald Trump, there’s something particularly fitting about the fact that these things begin with jury selection. For all the political overtones and undertones involved this case, it’ll ultimately be decided by twelve people who have been prescreened to the hilt in order to make sure they’re thoroughly politically unbiased.
In any case, starting today, people will begin paying attention to Donald Trump’s criminal trial in stages. As the news breaks that a jury is being seated, people will realize through word of mouth that Trump really is going on trial, and they’ll start following the story in waves. It’ll be remarkable to watch just how surprised people will be to find out that Trump’s trial really is happening.
After all, this is an occurrence that most of the media long and loudly insisted would never happen. Remember how Trump was going to be able to magically push this trial until after the election, just because he felt like it? But reality has a way of intruding on even the most ratings-friendly of false narratives. And now that Trump’s trial is indeed beginning, the media will have to shift from chasing ratings with “Trump will never go on trial” to chasing ratings with “Trump will win this trial” or whatever doomsday narrative comes next.
But even as the media prepares to mislead most of the public into believing that Trump will still “get away with it all” in some new way, the reality is that Trump is going on trial, and everyone is about to see him on trial. This is, after all, the trial of the century – at least until the next time Trump goes on criminal trial this summer.
Multiple polls say that Trump will lose a large amount of general election support if he’s convicted of a felony. These days the polls are never quite accurate. But even if these polls are off by a significant fraction, a conviction would still be a devastating political development for Trump. The kicker is that while this particular trial involves the lowest level of felonies, there are thirty-four of them. So Trump is very likely to come out of this trial convicted on thirty-four felonies, and polling says he’s doomed politically even if he’s convicted on one felony.
And yes, everyone is going to pay attention to this trial. No matter who you are, where you’re at, or what you’re doing, you’re going to follow this trial. It’s the OJ Simpson trial all over again, except that OJ didn’t think to run for President. And in this social media era of viral trending topics, the fact that the Donald Trump trial isn’t being televised almost doesn’t matter. There will be constant news coming out of this trial, and endless real time discussion, as if we were all sitting in the back row of the courtroom and chatting about it.
We’ll see how this all plays out. But for all the fear and loathing that we’re about to hear starting today, let’s keep in mind that this is exactly what we’ve been waiting for. Donald Trump is going on criminal trial today. This is the day they told us would never happen. Yet here we are.
