What if Donald Trump actually has to go behind bars? Earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 on the Richter scale hits western France

Okay, there may still be a fair amount of wishful thinking involved, and yes, we shouldn’t rush into anything. But the unthinkable has become thinkable. Donald Trump could become the first US former president to be found guilty by a jury and sentenced to prison by a female judge. These are the reasons that speak for this scenario:

From this point of view, you don’t have to be a notorious Trump hater or naive idealist to toy with the idea that the ex-president could actually end up behind bars. His own former lawyers are already doing this. Ty Cobb, Trump’s former White House lawyer, fears he will go to prison, as does former Attorney General William Barr, who has said unequivocally: “If even half (of the charge) is true, then he is finished.”

Americans hold the principle of “everyone equal before the law” in high esteem. This also speaks against Trump. A general has just been sentenced to three years in prison for leaking classified documents. Jack Teixeira, a young National Guard soldier, was charged Thursday with distributing classified documents on the Internet. He faces a prison sentence of up to 60 years.

After all, it wouldn’t be the first time a presidential candidate has campaigned from prison. In 1920, the socialist Eugene Dobbs did this. He then received a million votes.

Should Trump actually go to jail, it would lead to a series of curious problems. As a former president, he is entitled to lifelong personal protection. How is this possible in a prison? Should the bodyguards go into the cell with him?

If he were even elected, how would he rule? Where would he hold his cabinet meetings? Could he use the prison phone to call other heads of state? Could he forgive himself?

These bizarre scenarios will not happen. If Trump is actually found guilty, the responsible judge should probably sentence him to house arrest. Maybe he should wear ankle cuffs.

Even without a conviction, Trump has already done enormous damage to the American rule of law. Above all, he undermined the strict separation of executive and legislative branches. During his tenure, he attempted to use the Justice Department against his political enemies. He was only partially successful in that. Jeff Sessions, his first attorney general, has walked away from the Russia affair because of bias and has refused to reverse it despite pressure from Trump. Sessions was fired and replaced by William Barr. This made the bad game with part.

Although Joe Biden is doing his best not to be involved in the Trump trial in any way, the ex-president accuses him in chorus of his party and the conservative media. Trump presents himself as the victim of a political conspiracy by the White House, the Justice Department and the Deep States.

This is a classic projection. Should Trump actually win the election again, the first thing he would do would be to remove the separation between the executive and the legislature and launch a massive revenge campaign. “I will appoint a special investigator to prosecute the most corrupt president in the history of the United States, Joe Biden, and his family,” he threatened in a speech after his trial in Miami. “I will completely destroy the Deep State.”

These threats must be taken seriously. Two former senior officials in the Trump administration are already working out the legal justification for this threat. They are Jeffrey Clarke and Russell Vought. Clarke played a more than dubious role in the Big Lie. Trump wanted to appoint him as attorney general at the last minute because he agreed to investigate a nonexistent voter fraud.

Clarke and Vought want to fundamentally change the existing system. The Justice Department would no longer be independent, but would report to the President like all other ministries. This would pave the way for its use as a weapon against political opponents. The FBI would also be reimagined from the ground up.

The worrying thing is that this proposal is receiving prominent support. For example, Kevin Roberts, president of the influential Heritage Foundation think tank, told the New York Times, “The FBI has to be built from the ground up. Reform is no longer possible.” Ron DeSantis, Trump’s Republican rival, also wants to force the Justice Department and the FBI under the president’s thumb.

Trump’s seeds are growing, with terrifying consequences. “A sitting president ruling behind bars? Isn’t that totally unbelievable?” Nicholas Kristof told the New York Times. “The very possibility speaks to the tragedy of our nation.”