As a consequence of his usual attitude but above all of his four criminal indictments with 91 counts ranging from fraud to mafia extortion, in particular to reverse his defeat in the 2020 elections, Donald Trump is a dysfunctional candidate. And the anomalies that this dysfunction contains are going to be seen soon.
This week, the former president plans to avoid and counterprogram the first debate between the Republican candidates for the 2024 presidential elections, a debate called by the ultra-conservative Fox network for Wednesday. The next day or Friday at the latest, Trump and 18 alleged accomplices should appear in the Fulton County (Georgia) jail for arrest proceedings and arraignment of the 41 charges a state grand jury indicted against them on Monday (13 of them to Trump) for his dark maneuvers to falsify the result of 2020 there.
Such a tricky week for the one who nevertheless remains the Republican candidate with the best chance of reaching the presidential race on the 24th begins with a notorious gap in his agenda. Well, late on Thursday, Trump suddenly announced his resignation from the press conference that he had called today to present a "conclusive and irrefutable" report that would dismantle the indictment approved by the Georgia grand jury at the request of prosecutor Fani Willis. The defendant alleges that his lawyers prefer to present the “overwhelming” exculpatory report through “formal legal channels” and not at a press conference.
Trump communicated that resignation through his network, Truth Social, hours before confirming the news from some media in the sense that he would not go to the first debate between Republican candidates either. The reason: that none of the six or seven rivals who have announced that they will attend (the main ones) even reach the soles of their shoes. He put it like this: “As everyone knows, my poll numbers are extraordinary. In fact, I'm first with an advantage of 50 points over the runner-up. So why should you debate? I'm your man!"
There may be another explanation. And it is that the leader's strategists and lawyers have advised him not to go to the debate so as not to expose himself more than necessary, and above all to avoid the risk that, if he repeats his usual atrocities against judges, prosecutors and prosecution witnesses, the magistrate in the case of the assault on the Capitol, Tanya Chutkan, comply with the warnings that she gave her after her indictment for four crimes in that case; Specifically, the judge reminded him that the right to free expression that he has "is not absolute" nor does he allow "inflammatory statements" such as his very recent one of "if you go for me, I will go for you", which preceded the news of different threats to Chutkan herself and to the juries in the Georgia case. The magistrate warned Trump that, if he continues on that path, she could advance the trial date, which the Prosecutor's Office proposes for next January and he, for the year 2026.
The former president plans to counter-schedule Wednesday's debate with an online interview with star host Tucker Carlson, who was expelled by Fox in April just because of disagreements over Trump's handling of the network's lies. The snub that Trump's non-attendance to the debate would represent for the Republican Party and Fox and his betrayal by leaving with a ousted by the network could, in theory, take its toll on the candidate. But it is also very possible that, as on previous occasions, the three parties reach a non-aggression pact, at the very least.
Not so negotiable is Trump's appearance in the Fulton jail, at the latest on Friday. His lawyers are trying to avoid or reduce the bail that the prisoner must provide before the act, as well as to make the appearance as less humiliating as possible for him, even using videoconference, at least in the part of the reading of charges. But the drink is not taken away from Trump ... even if he tries to turn it into a new campaign ad.
