Democrats Hope Convictions Trip Up Trump in His Dance Back to Power

As President Trump awaits sentencing on 34 felony convictions, Democrats are pressing their political advantage. Trump’s supporters, meanwhile — like viewers of Adam West’s “Batman” — lean in to see how their hero slips out of this week’s trap.Campaigning in 2015, Trump delighted in giving children rides aboard his helicopter. When a boy in Iowa asked, “Are you Batman?” Trump replied, “I am Batman,” and like the Caped Crusader, he’s helped by bungling foes.As the old political adage goes, “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” Ignoring the advice in a gift to Trump, President Biden’s campaign sent out a flurry of fund-raising emails after the verdict.On Wednesday, the White House dispatched the actor, Robert De Niro, to the Manhattan courthouse, which distracted press attention from the drama inside. Trump has long called the charges against him “a political witch hunt,” and the Biden campaign errs by feeding that narrative. Mr. De Niro denounced Trump as a “clown” and warned that the former president “will never leave” office if he’s reelected, despite him having done just that in 2021. The actor’s remarks were so vitriolic, the nonpartisan National Association of Broadcasters yanked plans to honor him with an award next week.Trump can also adopt the Democratic defense from President Clinton’s scandals. Mantras like “Everybody lies about sex” were hammered into the American mind in the 1990s. While Mr. Clinton didn’t cut a check for Monica Lewinsky’s silence, he did help ensure it with a job at the Pentagon.Mr. Clinton also paid a $25,000 fine and had his Arkansas law license suspended over the Paula Jones sexual harassment scandal. The former president later faced disbarment at the Supreme Court but chose to surrender the privilege to avoid the humiliation.To settle Ms. Jones’s lawsuit, Mr. Clinton paid $850,000, which Trump can cast as “hush money.” To defend Mr. Clinton, Democrats built a wall of separation between a president’s personal and private lives. Expect the MAGA movement to shelter behind it with glee.That the two cases don’t quite line up matters little. “In politics,” as another adage goes, “perception is reality.” There’s more than enough spin — with Mr. Biden’s blatant fundraising in the van — to fight a delaying action while Trump appeals his convictions.The unflappability Trump displays is embodied by his dancing at campaign events — even as he ignores wounds that would be fatal for lesser candidates. Seeing his joy outrages Mr. De Niro — in whose name one of Mr. Biden’s fund-raising emails was sent — who are used to cutting the legs off those they dislike without hitting any bone.Trump’s dancing won’t earn him a spot in “A Chorus Line,” but the sharper the point. Favoring the Village People’s anthem, YMCA, he herks and jerks. He claps off the beat and pumps his fists. He dances as if nobody’s watching while knowing the whole world is.Emma Goldman, in her autobiography, “Living My Life,” the American anarchist described a “dear comrade” with a “grave face” confronting her for busting moves at a party. He whispered that it didn’t “behoove an agitator to dance” with “such reckless abandon.” Goldman “told him to mind his own business.” She “did not believe that a cause which stood for a beautiful ideal … should demand the denial of life and joy.”Like Trump, she delighted in poking bears and laughing while they mauled her. After the jury spoke, Mr. Biden emailed supporters to urge donations, but Trump’s supporters needed no such prompting. They flooded his website and the Republican National Committee’s with cash in such volume that they crashed the servers at both.

Democrats Hope Convictions Trip Up Trump in His Dance Back to Power

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