Political persecution.

I've seen a lot of people, either intentionally or unintentionally misunderstanding why Trump supporters are upset with the trial, or mentally lump it in with earlier election denial or something. Like... they seem to think MAGA is just reaching because they think their man can do no wrong and are sore losers or something.

I think I can translate.

Whether he admits it or not, I believe he cheated on his wife with Stormy. But that's not a crime. He paid her hush money. That's not a crime. Whether or not it should be classified as a campaign expense or a personal expense is debatable, given it was both, and if what was written down was "legal fee" when he did it through a lawyer, it's still a stretch to say it's worth prosecution.

If that's all it was, it's a misdemeanor he couldn't be charged with because the statute of limitations was up. The only way to do it was to say it was in commission of another crime... and he was never convicted of another crime. In fact, the prosecution didn't even say what the other crime was. Even worse, the jury was told they didn't even have to agree with one another on just what that other crime might be. He wasn't allowed to even present a defense against it, because he wasn't told what it was, and we still don't know.

I'm not saying it was a show trial or proof of a banana republic or something I'd be told is hyperbolic, but not being allowed to present a defense or be told of what the underlying crime was the entire trial is absolutely Kafkaesque. If the system is legal, it shouldn't be.

This is a novel legal theory used by an elected prosecutor who literally ran on finding a way to prosecute Trump. I have zero doubt the prosecution was politically motivated, and that nobody else would have been charged with such petty vindictiveness for something similar. They didn't start with seeing a victim that was wronged and working their way into how they were wronged by someone else breaking the law.

There literally was no victim.

They started with a perp they wanted to prosecute and then tried to figure out how, and that's disgusting, unfair, and unamerican. I'm pretty sure it'll be overturned on appeal, but the case was brought knowing it eventually would be (belatedly), because the point was being able to say "convicted felon" during the election rather than anything approaching justice. I shouldn't need to throat clear and say "I've never voted for Trump and never will", though it's true... but when his supporters say he was railroaded, they're right.

MAGA don't have to claim that Biden orchestrated it directly or even at all to say it was politically motivated, they don't have to believe the jury was corrupt somehow or even that the judge was unfair. Hell... they don't have to even say the law doesn't allow this to say it's morally unfair, gross, politically motivated bullshit.

And I do think it's not just MAGA peeps that think this. I think there's a significant amount of anti-Trump Republicans, independents, people who aren't all that politically active, and even some Democrats (even if that last group don't wanna say so out loud). A high percentage of new donations to him that came in the wake of the trial came from first time donors and even non-Republicans.

If they wanted to hurt him through the legal system, they should have dropped this and focused on the ongoing cases against him that actually have some meat on them. Hell... this conviction makes it more likely voters will just assume the other ones are bullshit too, including the ones that ain't, because they'll all be lumped together.