The Wall Street Journal editorial page calls him "The Self-Destructive Donald Trump."
While taking shots at the Justice Department’s "misguided use of prosecutorial power," the conservative page says: "If Mr. Trump is the GOP nominee, he is unlikely to defeat Joe Biden. But if he did win, the document fiasco is what a second term would be like. He wouldn’t be able to deliver the conservative policy victories that Republicans want because he can’t control himself. He’d be preoccupied with grievance and what he calls ‘retribution.’ The best people won’t work for him because they see how he mistreated so many loyalists in the first term."
What’s more, Trump won’t "own the libs," the libs will own him.
This is a barometer of how some conservatives – including rival candidates – are shifting their stance on the Trump indictment. Since it was unsealed, they have been more critical, a bit harsher, even as they utter the ritual incantations about the weaponized DOJ, and the double standard involving Biden and the Clintons.
TRUMP, AFTER ARRAIGNMENT, CALLS HIS INDICTMENT A DAY ‘THAT WILL GO DOWN IN INFAMY’
Former US President Donald Trump during an event at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, US, on Tuesday, June 13, 2023. Trump pleaded not guilty in a Miami courtroom to federal charges he mishandled state secrets and immediately resumed rallying supporters behind his 2024 presidential bid. (Bing Guan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
They are hardly a majority. A good chunk of the GOP remains loyal to Trump and his argument that he is being persecuted by the Biden administration.
But given that Republican criticism of Trump was until recently verboten, this is a striking shift in the political landscape.
Mike Pence, for instance, told the Journal: "Having read the indictment, these are very serious allegations. And I can’t defend what is alleged."
HOW THE TRUMP INDICTMENT PUTS OUR COUNTRY ON TRIAL
Ron DeSantis said he would have been "court-martialed" if he had done this while in the Navy.
Nikki Haley said that if the indictment is true, "President Trump was incredibly reckless with our national security… I’m a military spouse. My husband’s about to deploy this weekend. This puts all of our military men and women in danger."
Former President Donald Trump motions after speaking to supporters at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, Tuesday, June 13, 2023, in Bedminster, N.J. Trump is facing 37 counts related to the mishandling and retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. He plead not guilty to the charges in Miami federal court earlier Tuesday, alongside his co-defendant, valet Walt Nauta, and was released on his own recognizance without having to pay bail. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
And yet the next day, Haley told a radio interviewer that if elected she’d be "inclined" to pardon Trump. So much for being incredibly reckless.
Meanwhile, Jack Smith may be asking for a speedy trial, but legal experts are predicting that the Trump team will find ways to slow things down, perhaps even though the next election.
Former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., Tuesday, June 13, 2023, after pleading not guilty in a Miami courtroom earlier in the day to dozens of felony counts that he hoarded classified documents and refused government demands to give them back. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
At that point, the thinking goes, Trump might be back in the White House and could order Justice to shut down the prosecution. Or another Republican could be president and pardon him.
Trump’s lawyers could ask that the case be thrown out. They could also try to exclude the notes from his lawyer, Evan Corcoran, that quote the former president as saying maybe they should just tell the National Archives they didn’t have any more classified documents, which wasn’t true. (A court pierced attorney-client privilege in ordering him to testify.) And then there are appeals.
In a setback for DOJ, Trump-appointed judge Aileen Cannon was randomly selected to hear the Florida case. She bizarrely tried to name a special master during the probe, and was rebuked by an appeals court. But it would mean more delays if the prosecution tried to get her booted.
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And there is also the possibility that Trump could just win the case at trial, or get a hung jury.
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Trump may be experiencing an unusual degree of bad-mouthing by some on the right. But this is the umpteenth time the media have predicted the walls are closing in on him, and so far he’s always skated.