The end of Teflon Trump

The latest polls speak for Donald Trump. His lead over his party colleague Ron DeSantis has grown to 36 percentage points. In a direct duel against Joe Biden, he leads by 6 percentage points. So why bother with a verdict in a civil trial finding him guilty of sexual assault when he can afford the $5 million in damages he’s owed out of pocket change?

To slightly modify his own legendary quote: Trump could rape a woman on the street, more specifically on New York’s Fifth Avenue, his fans would still stand by him. The ex-president responded to the jury’s verdict in the usual manner: all a political witch hunt by his opponents and a bad joke.

Court calls Trump a ‘sexual predator’

And yet, for the first time, a court has not only ruled against Trump, it has done so in a way that is unsurpassable in terms of clarity. The jury reached its verdict after just two hours of deliberation — a process that normally takes days, if not weeks — and Trump was pilloried not only as a misogynist, but also as a “sexual predator.” The ex-president Houdini’s ploy to finally free himself from even the most hopeless cases didn’t work this time.

Teflon Trump is in the past and the ex-president has himself to blame. His own past caught up with him. In the legendary “Access Hollywood” video, the super macho boasts that as a star he can grab women between the legs with impunity. He provoked outrage from women and the MeToo movement. Thanks to this movement, a law was passed in New York that allows women to pursue civil prosecutions for rape, even after their criminal record has long expired.

This, in turn, has enabled Trump’s prosecutor, journalist E. Jean Carroll, to take the ex-president to court and emerge victorious.

Access Hollywood also played a key role in the process itself. Carroll’s lawyer was able to cross-examine Trump. The video recording of it – the ex-president stayed away from the trial – was played to the jury, showing Trump at his worst. Here’s an excerpt:

To ask: “When you’re a star, you can get away with anything. They can grab women’s pussy. That’s what you said. Is that correct?”

Trump: “From a historical perspective, this is true.”

To ask: “So it’s true that a star can grab a woman’s pussy?”

Trump: “Well, for the past millions of years that has largely been true. Not always, but usually.”

To ask: “And you think you’re a star?”

Trump: “I think you can say that.”

These testimonies had a devastating effect on the jury. The fact that Trump contemptuously insulted his accuser as “not my type” while at the same time mistaking her for his second wife in a photo didn’t help him either.

Should Trump actually be nominated as a Republican presidential nominee again, his misogynistic behavior in the actual election could be his downfall. Without the votes of the independent voters in the suburbs, he cannot win the march, even though Joe Biden is currently in a depressed mood.

Legally, however, the defeat does not harm Trump. It was a civil process with no criminal consequences. However, Trump already has such an accusation on his hands. It’s about his hush money payments to the porn star Stormy. With a probability bordering on certainty, at least two more indictments will follow.

In the state of Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis has already warned police to prepare special security measures between July and September. A clear indication that lawsuits will rain. It involves attempting election manipulation — “Find me the 11,780 votes,” Trump asked the Secretary of State in a legendary phone call — and preparing an alternate list of electoral votes.

With no charges against Trump yet to be filed before the primaries begin next year, there is a good chance that special counsel Jack Smith will also indict the ex-president later this summer. It’s about Trump’s role in storming the Capitol. Smith has already managed to interview ex-President Mike Pence as a witness. The special investigator is also investigating the case with the illegally hoarded secret documents.

Trump has survived the Russia affair, two impeachments and scandals so numerous that most of them have already been forgotten. But now the ex-president does not face a “winter of discontent”, but a summer in which he can hardly relax on the golf course. Instead, he will be forced to devise new defense strategies with his lawyers.

This will not only cost him a lot of money, but also political capital. Or as even the conservative Wall Street Journal warns: “Mr. Trump could face even more legal challenges. Grand Old Party voters must therefore decide whether it is worth continuing to support Trump and possibly exposing the country to four more years of Oval Office chaos.”