The New Trump Indictment and the Reckoning Ahead

With the former President still far ahead of the rest of the Republican field, the American electorate is headed for a crucial test.

By David Remnick, August 1, 2023

The former President continues to attract millions of supporters who have such antipathy for Biden and the Democrats that they interpret Trump’s deviance as defiance and his fury as their fury.Photograph by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP / Getty

To read the stark criminal indictment, returned by a federal grand jury on Tuesday, charging Donald Trump with conspiring to steal the 2020 Presidential election is to realize more deeply than before that the country is headed for a great reckoning—in the courts and at the ballot box.

It suggests a question that cannot be escaped: Will the American electorate show itself capable of overlooking a conspiracy to undermine democratic rule and return the chief conspirator to power?

The third and latest indictment against Trump sets out four charges and makes the case against him in the plainest terms. “Despite having lost, the defendant was determined to remain in power,” the introduction to the forty-five-page document reads—and where have you seen a more succinct summary of criminal intent?

Editor’s note: Featured image is mine, free to re-use.

Source: https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-new-trump-indictment-and-the-reckoning-ahead