Donald Trump may have won himself a reprieve in paying his $454 million fine, meaning his assets aren’t about to be hoovered up just yet after all, but that doesn’t mean his troubles are over. In fact, he’s already back in court ahead of his next, and most egregious, trial — one that has made American history.
On March 25, Trump had no time to enjoy the fact that he’d been granted a lifeline over his civil fraud case ruling ⏤ he now only has to pay back $175 million of his bond and has 10 days to do it ⏤ because he had to attend a pre-trial hearing for another misdeed. The result of the hearing saw Judge Juan Merchan schedule the former POTUS’ criminal trial to commence on April 15. Having been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records, allegedly in order to pay Stormy Daniels hush money, this marks the very first criminal prosecution of a U.S. president.
Trump spoke to the media at a press conference following the hearing, which saw him peddle his usual conspiracy theories and claims of being persecuted by the liberal elite. Just in case we hadn’t gotten the message, he decided to repeat his mostly incomprehensible arguments (sample quote from the conference: “We’ll bring crime back to law and order”) on Truth Social afterward, with his signature random capitalization added in for yuks.
“The PEOPLE know it’s a SCAM!” he yelled. Out of context, you might view that as a surprising admission of guilt from the Home Alone 2 star, admitting that everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie. However, it’s actually referring to the hush-money trial itself. In an attached clip, Trump denounces the trial as “a Biden trial” and issues his belief that it “could also make me more popular” because “the people know it’s a scam.”
Still, in a follow-up post, Trump does actually break the habit of a lifetime and say something that it would be hard for anyone to deny is quite possibly the absolute truth. Even if not in the way that Donald intends it: “It’s a DISGRACE what is happening in our COUNTRY!” Trump trumpeted on Truth Social. “WE have to get our COUNTRY back—and we’re going to get our COUNTRY back, that’s what’s going to happen—November 5th will be the most important day in the HISTORY of our COUNTRY!”
However events transpire, Nov. 5, 2024 could well go down as one of the most important days in American history ⏤ if not the most ⏤ just as the past two presidential elections have also been; 2016 because the population decided to elect a man with all the respectability and humanity of Jabba the Hutt and 2020 because it was the closest we’ll get in real-life to knowing how the galaxy felt at the end of Return of the Jedi.
This year, the country has an opportunity to break with Star Wars tradition and not simply bring back the evil Empire despite its earlier defeat. We’d really rather not have a Rise of Skywalker situation on our hands this November and have to accept that somehow Trump has returned.
