It’s All Trump’s Fault

We’re all victims, blaming each other.

Yesterday, excellent Bulwark writer Jonathan V. Last made an incredibly important point that shouldn’t get lost in all the madness of right now. As we await (yes?) a potential arrest of former President Donald Trump, there is a natural tendency to have fights amongst ourselves about it. Republicans think the justice system is being weaponized. Democrats are worried whether this particular charge is the best one to throw at Trump first. The States Attorney office is bulking up its security; the Secret Service has been scrambled; everyone’s running around trying to make sure people aren’t throwing rocks at each other in the street. No one is quite sure how to handle this situation, and for good reason: This situation has never happened before. It’s scary and confusing. There’s a lot of things that people are going to end up doing wrong, because it’s the first time this has ever happened. We’re already all fighting with each other about it.

But Last reminds us where we should remain focused. This isn’t happening because of some mistake we all made. This is happening because of him.

There is only one person to blame: Donald J. Trump. Trump is the one who (allegedly) banged a porn star shortly after his (third) wife gave birth. Trump is the one who cozied up to Evangelical Christians as he ran for president. Trump is the one who retained a personal fixer. Trump is the one whose fixer paid said porn star for her silence weeks before the election. Donald Trump is the one who, at every turn, exposed himself to legal jeopardy. And he did it for the precise purpose of influencing his election to the presidency.

The Feds declined to prosecute Trump as a sitting president for these actions. Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg may try to make the case that Trump also violated New York State law. Such an indictment could seem either illegitimate, or unwise, or necessary, depending on the evidence. We don’t know yet.

But the point is that this is not a Democratic decision. It’s in the hands of a single prosecutor who operates independently. And this case is only before him because of Donald Trump’s actions.

How has this gotten lost? We have spent so much of the last eight years of American life watching Donald Trump…