Editorial | Trump’s sentence deepens the dividing lines in the United States

OFearly Friday morning Finnish time, the New York jury unanimously found that the former and possibly future president of the United States, Donald Trump, is guilty of all charges in the so-called incitement trial. The court will hand down the actual punishment in July.

Despite the verdict, Republicans plan to nominate Trump for the November presidential election, and Trump is likely to appeal his conviction. Still, nothing changes the fact that the second main candidate in the election has a recent criminal conviction.

The explanations end there. It is impossible to predict how Trump’s sentence will affect the election result. According to opinion polls conducted in advance, only a little, because the verdict mainly makes mobile voters think about choosing a candidate. The majority of voters have also not been as interested in the trial as the headlines might have suggested. Until now, the lawsuits have mainly strengthened Trump’s popularity.

Law-abiding Republican voters may be more critical of Trump now that the verdict has become a reality. On the other hand, the verdict will probably only radicalize many of Trump’s supporters: for them, it is just another example of elite corruption and the pursuit of Trump, and as such Trump himself presents the verdict.

In a state governed by the rule of law, crimes must be prosecuted and the guilty convicted, but the convicted person has the right to appeal his sentence to the next court level and criticize his sentence in public. However, Trump criticizes the entire judicial system and calls it rotten.

Even if the verdict does not affect the election and even if Trump is not elected, the verdict is guaranteed to affect the American society. It deepens the dividing lines even further, and that is what Trump seems to be aiming for.

The editorials are HS’s positions on a current topic. The articles are prepared by HS’s editorial department, and they reflect the magazine principle line.