By presenting himself this Tuesday (4) to a court in New York for the reading of the accusations against him, Donald Trump, the first former president of the United States to become a defendant in a criminal case, further intensified the American political chess for the 2024 election.
As it is almost certain that Joe Biden will seek re-election, the question that remains is who will be the Democrat’s opponent in the Republican opposition.
Trump said he would maintain his candidacy despite his legal problems, and since news broke that he would be charged in the case of allegedly paying to silence a porn actress with whom he had an affair, many have wondered if he could run in the race. presidential candidate to the White House next year.
Jurists interviewed by the American press maintain that yes. “Legally speaking, there is nothing to stop a former president indicted on a felony from running for office — even if [tiver sido] convicted,” Jessica Levinson, founding director of the Public Service Institute at Loyola Law School, told USA Today.
She emphasized that the US Constitution establishes only three requirements for a citizen to run for president: to be a natural born citizen, to be at least 35 years old and to reside in the country for at least 14 years. That is, all the conditions that Trump meets, even if he is indicted or until he is arrested.
“It really becomes a question of, in practice, how would you run the country from behind bars if things got to that point?” Levinson said.
To face Biden, Trump will have to go through the Republican Party primary. Legend leaders have expressed support for the New York tycoon, such as his former vice president Mike Pence and Florida governor Ron DeSantis, but at the time of the dispute, it is likely that they will not be so friendly.
Pence, who is being considered as a candidate, condemned Trump’s indictment as an “outrage” and a “political persecution” at a conservative event on Friday (31), but also presented himself as a “common sense leader ” for the 2024 election, in a hint to the former running mate.
DeSantis, who also has not made his intentions to run for the White House official, said that he would not comply with a possible request for Trump’s extradition from Florida to New York – which was not necessary, because the former president traveled spontaneously to present himself to the Justice.
However, days before, the governor of Florida had said in an interview with the Fox News channel that, unlike Trump, he would govern “without daily drama” if he reached the White House.
Three confirmed opponents
In addition to Trump, three members of the Republican Party, Asa Hutchinson, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, have already confirmed that they will run for the nomination of the party for the presidential election, and all have suggested that the former president will be a target in the campaign and in the debates of the primaries. .
Haley, the former governor of South Carolina who was the United States ambassador to the UN under Trump, said at an event in New Hampshire last week that the former president has “no more than 25%” of voters. to the party. “The other 75% of Republicans are still looking for a candidate,” she said.
Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy said in an interview with NBC News that he is “doing what Trump planned to do in 2015 [ano em que este
lançou pré-candidatura à presidência]”, but intends to take the “America First” agenda “even further”.
Ramaswamy claimed that the United States needs “a courageous leader” and that Trump and “certainly” DeSantis would not fill that requirement.
“The Republican base, I can tell you from experience, is looking forward to a tradition in this party of putting a true outsider in the White House. Now, you can be the outsider only once,” Ramaswamy said, in a jab at Trump.
Asa Hutchinson, the former governor of Arkansas, is the most critical of the former president among the confirmed Republican candidates. In an interview on Sunday (2) with ABC News, he said “that the American people want leaders who seek the best of America, not their worst instincts.”
Hutchinson, who had criticized Trump for his allegations that Biden’s 2020 victory was a fraud, said the former president “should not be the next leader” of the United States and should abandon his presidential aspirations after being indicted in New York.
In addition to the Stormy Daniels case, Trump may become a defendant for other investigations, such as those investigating suspicions of his participation in the invasion of the Capitol, that he would have tried to reverse Biden’s victory in the state of Georgia and that he would have taken confidential documents from the White House to his Florida residence at the end of his term.
In an article for The Conversation website, Emma Shortis, a professor of US history at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), said that the former president could win votes by placing himself as a victim of persecution by the Democrats. – in the Republican primary and if he manages to advance to face Biden in November 2024.
“It is certainly plausible that Trump will be able to derive political benefits from the media spectacle – he has a long record of successfully turning his business investigations into a ‘witch hunt’ into a political weapon, effectively exploiting the conservatives’ obsession with ‘state excesses’. ”, argued Shortis.
However, if Trump is the target of more accusations, his intentions to return to the White House could go awry.
“It’s equally possible that multiple investigations and accusations will end up hurting Trump, forcing him off the campaign trail and into situations beyond his control where he doesn’t perform as well,” warned the professor.
#race #Republican #nomination #White #House #indictment #Trump