Speaker of the House Mike Johnson visited New York to show support for Donald Trump during his trial. This makes the highest profile government official to visit Trump, a huge boost to his legitimacy.
Speaker Johnson has also been facing dissent from within his party, with Margery Taylor-Green leading the charge for his ouster over Ukraine aid. Johnson has to govern with a razor thin majority, not to mention a hostile Senate and Presidency. AP News says:
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson assailed the U.S. judicial system on Tuesday, becoming the highest-ranking Republican to show up at court with Donald Trump and using his powerful position to attack the hush money case against the former president as an illegitimate “sham.”
It was a remarkable moment in modern American politics: The House speaker turning his Republican Party against the federal and state legal systems that are foundational to the U.S. government and a cornerstone of democracy.
Rather than make Trump a pariah, the trial has rather made Trump more important in the Republican Party. Regardless of the outcome, it seems that Americans have already made their mind about Trump and this will not be an issue. The NY Times continues:
The warm embrace was a sign of just how far Mr. Trump’s legal troubles are from making him a party pariah. Instead, the trial over hush-money payments to the porn star Stormy Daniels is a staging ground for aspiring politicians to prove their fealty, the latest litmus test in a party increasingly defined by loyalty to Mr. Trump.
“What’s going on inside that courtroom is a threat to American democracy,” Mr. Vance declared on Monday in a news conference outside the courthouse in Lower Manhattan, attacking some people, including the judge’s daughter, that Mr. Trump has been expressly barred from talking about via gag order.
Trump’s trial is expected to conclude soon, as it has started a month ago. Michael Cohen was the prosecution’s last witness. Trump can probably expect a hung jury at most, and the prosecution filing for a new trial would only strengthen his hand.
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