'Scorched-earth': Analysis maps out Trump’s next steps

31 May 2024

After two days of deliberation, a Manhattan jury found former President Donald Trump guilty of 34 criminal counts in District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Jr.'s hush money/falsified business records case. Justice Juan Merchan set sentencing for July 11 — only four days before the Republican National Convention begins in Milwaukee.

In an op-ed published by MSNBC on May 30, journalist Molly Jong-Fast warns that the verdict doesn't make the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee any less "dangerous" — if anything, Jong-Fast argues, it makes him even more "dangerous."

"Trump, a self-proclaimed wannabe autocrat, has made his own criminal case an attack on the rule of law from the start," Jong-Fast explains. "It is incredibly dangerous to have someone who is supported by a significant percentage of the American people focus on degrading an important American norm. When Trump calls the justice system 'corrupt' and 'conflicted,' he undermines one of the central tenets of our rule of law: the right to a fair trial."

The Vanity Fair and MSNBC writer continues, "This explains why Trump effectively attempted to undermine a verdict before it was even passed down. He has sought to damage the institution of our justice system from the start. And he has succeeded in chipping away at its perceived legitimacy, long before any verdict was handed down."

Trump has been angrily railing against Merchan, Bragg and President Joe Biden since the verdict was handed down. And Jong-Fast predicts that the former president will only intensify his attacks in the weeks and months ahead.

"We should expect him to go scorched-earth, because he so often does," Jong-Fast writes. "We know he will try to weaponize this verdict and craft it into an assault on the rule of law, on the judge and the jury and on New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg."

The journalist adds, "No matter what the outcome, Trump was always going to try to use candidate Trump to help defendant Trump. And any verdict was destined to be molded into his branded narrative of persecution, witch hunts and a fight against the political system. Of that we can be certain."

Molly Jong-Fast's full MSNBC op-ed is available at this link.

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