“Trump will use this to his advantage”

Donald Trump is the first former president in US history to face criminal charges. In the indictment, the public prosecutor accuses him of falsifying business documents in 34 cases. Central to the allegations is the payment of hush money to a porn actress.

After the sensational reading of the Trump indictment in New York, the former US president has challenged his innocence. International media commented on the start of the trial. It becomes clear that Trump could even benefit from the indictment.

An overview:

«Wall Street Journal», New York, USA: Trump charges raise questions

“Trump is being charged with conduct that took place in 2016. Federal prosecutors have already investigated these activities and appear to have decided to stop them. Seven years later (…) an elected Democratic Party prosecutor filed suit against Trump, and they did so in a case that could potentially come to an end midway through the 2024 primary.

The question that keeps haunting our minds is whether this case would have been brought against a defendant other than Donald Trump. It’s hard to answer anything other than no. How the case will affect Trump’s 2024 candidacy can only be guessed at. Perhaps a better question is how it will affect public opinion of the judiciary.”

“Verdens Gang”, Oslo, Norway: Trump strengthened by indictments

“All eyes are on Donald Trump again. Everything revolves around him. The former president has been indicted on 34 counts. He will use that to his own advantage. Before the indictment, it was uncertain whether he was the Republican candidate for president. ” In 2024 it will be. Now there is no reason to doubt it. The indictment did not weaken Trump politically. He is now more popular among Republican voters than he was a month ago.

Everything points to Trump being the 2024 Republican presidential nominee. Hardly anyone in the Republican Party, which once cared about law and order, dares to disagree. Whether something is true or not doesn’t seem to mean much anymore in the party. Trump is her man, it doesn’t matter. It certainly doesn’t matter what he did.”

«The Guardian», Manchester, UK: Bragg took a bold stand

“Trump’s prosecution is a triumph. No shame. No tragedy. A triumph – one of the greatest events in the history of the US presidency. , but the significance of what Prosecutor Alvin Bragg has accomplished will remain substantively completely untainted by the outcome of his case.

One of the most important questions in American political and legal thought is whether presidents can commit crimes. For half a century, the Justice Department has held that a president should not be prosecuted while in office. And while it’s theoretically not even impossible to prosecute a president after he leaves office, no one has ever attempted to do so, so whether criminal law applies to presidents at all in practice is pure speculation.

Here Alvin Bragg made a bold statement: a person can actually be charged with a crime, even if he was once president, just as if he were a normal person to whom the law applies. That’s great news.”

“Südwest Presse”, Ulm, Germany: The indictment against Trump leads to a further explosion of popularity

In Donald Trump’s world, the opposite is actually always the case. The mere fact that he had to pay a porn actress to hide money in order to cover up an affair would normally be enough to make a political career into a In Trump’s world, just an accusation that he also financed this money from campaign donations leads to a further rise in popularity.

Time and time again throughout his political career, Trump has exploited this political paradox – using the outcry of the mainstream press and political opponents to his advantage. This presents them with a dilemma. The only plausible tactic against him would therefore be to ignore him as much as possible.”

«La Vanguardia», Barcelona, ​​​​​​Spain: Trump trial is a trial by fire for American democracy

“The Trump trial is a trial by fire for American democracy. The 45th US president is now a commoner who can be prosecuted. But it is clear that he is much more than a commoner. With the indictment of a former White House Chief , the country has crossed a red line, with many questioning whether Trump should be treated as a normal citizen or whether it might not have been better to avoid a trial against a presidential candidate who will do everything in his power to remedy the situation. He will try to turn it into electoral capital and organize demonstrations that can lead to violence.(…)

The process can take a long time and Trump is preparing a defense based on denials, procrastination and victimization. There is nothing legally preventing him from continuing his election campaign, even after a possible conviction. This will cause an increase in polarization and tensions that will last for months.”

“La Repubblica”, Rome, Italy: Trump’s verdict falls on the people, not the courts

“Nobody questions whether Trump deserved the arrest on purely legal grounds. So whether it is a crime for a White House candidate to buy a mistress’s silence and do so without mentioning such anomalous “election spending” as required by US law. The debate is about something entirely different: whether the prosecution will benefit him or the Democrats, so what are the political implications of the judicial affair.

We Italians were already there. And we have experienced how weak, minimal, unimportant the legal content is compared to the deadly weight of politics. (…) The real tragedy – also in the Trump affair – is that vulgarity and the claim of impunity (“I am me, you are shit”) come to power because many people like them. Long before the judiciary acts, and even after it has acted, the verdict is rendered by the people when they determine and determine the course of events, more than any court.”

(dpa, lw)