Donald Trump already has the stamp of a political martyr he was looking for: that of a former president, a candidate for re-election and, therefore, a common prisoner that the judicial system instrumentalized by Joe Biden and the other forces of evil want to crucify to prevent him from returning to the white house This has been his speech for months, now perfectly illustrated with his figure in front of the photobooth of a third-class prison.
The truth is that the leader of the Republican ultra-right of the United States yesterday descended into the worst hells reserved for white-collar criminals, after receiving treatment as a common criminal following his arrest on 13 charges related to the purpose of falsifying the election results from 2020 in Georgia; an attempt that he and 18 of his co-conspirators and now co-defendants carried out through mob-style intimidation, according to the Fulton County District Attorney's Office under the Organized Crime Racketeering and Corrupt Organizations RICO Act.
The sheriff of this county, Patrick Labat, threatened with death as a result of the imputation, as well as the prosecutor Fani Willis, immediately disseminated the photo of the police file of “prisoner no. P01135809, Donald Trump”, as he had done with those of his alleged co-defendants who had surrendered before, including the former lawyer of the leader and former mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, or his former chief of staff Mark Meadows.
In the sheriff's office register, Trump was listed as "77-year-old man, blond or reddish hair, blue eyes, 1.91 meters tall and 97.5 kilograms of weight."
As planned and agreed between his lawyers and the Prosecutor's Office, the ex-mandate was immediately released on bail of 200,000 dollars, 185,550 euros.
The procedure culminated in the historic and somewhat grotesque photograph, the first of a signed former US president, lasted only a short time: 20 minutes since, shortly after 7:30 p.m. on Thursday (1:30 a.m. yesterday in Spain), the former president arrived at the filthy Fulton prison, subject to official investigation for its deplorable conditions. It was a "terrible, uncomfortable and very sad" experience, the chef would say a few hours later.
The arrival of the accused insignia was spectacular, in a caravan made up of about 15 black armored vans and an ambulance; a convoy comparable to the one used to transport the sitting president, which was what it was all about.
The formation departed from the Atlanta airport after the accused landed in his no less imposing plane, unmistakable hundreds of meters away by the sign of his surname that runs along the fuselage.
The round trip, departing and returning to the airfield closest to the tycoon's residence and golf club in New Jersey, filled the evening schedule of every US cable television channel. A brand new Trump show.
Once the judicial and police procedure was completed, it was necessary to see if the leader and candidate for re-election in the presidential elections of 2024 turned his photo of a defiant and somewhat funny gesture into a campaign poster. And so it was.
At the outset, Trump published the image in his first tweet on the X network - formerly Twitter - after his readmission, in November, by a "popular" decision promoted by the new owner of the medium, Elon Musk. The former ultra president had been expelled almost two years earlier for his role as the instigator of the assault on the Capitol, on January 6, 2021.
In his return message, Trump prepared the photo of his police record with a predictable reiteration of his denunciation of the proceedings against him as judicial manipulation to prevent him from returning to the White House: "Electoral interference," he repeat And he added: "Never give up."
The president and presidential candidate also posted the photo on his campaign website, next to the request for donations, as well as on his own network, Truth Social.
The use of this photo as an electoral claim does not seem far-fetched - especially when it comes to Trump -, given the success of the victim strategy with which until now, acclaimed by the leadership of the Republican Party, he has managed to convert each of his imputations in a new boost to the polls with a view to 2024.
The formula for success is nothing more than a full-fledged challenge to the rule of law under the thesis that all the accusations made by the Prosecutor's Office in the four criminal cases followed against him, imputations approved by dozens of citizens gathered in grand juries and supervised by different judges, they are part of an enormous conspiracy of the "Deep State" led by Joe Biden to pervert justice in order to prevent him from returning to power.
Trump did not fail to emphasize the same thesis on Thursday, on the plane, before flying back to his residence in New Jersey after the trance in Fulton: "What has happened here is a travesty of justice. I have done nothing wrong and everyone knows it," he said.
The 13 charges against the ultra leader in the Georgia case are added, it must be remembered, to the 78 he was already facing for the three criminal cases brought against him since the end of March; that of the assault on the Capitol and other attempts to reverse his electoral defeat in different states (4 crimes); the one relating to the concealment of hundreds of secret papers in the Mar-a-Lago residence (40 charges), and the one of falsifying accounting documents to mask the bribe to porn actress Stormy Daniels (34 charges).
The day before his delivery in Georgia, Trump avoided the first debate between Republican candidates in the primaries for 2024, organized by the Fox network under the sponsorship of the Republican Party. The disdain for his absence did not prevent six of the eight candidates who did participate, pledging during the debate to support the former president if, in the event that he wins the primaries, he is convicted by justice.
So much loyalty from the rivals, in rejection of the action of the judiciary in a democratic country, was shocking even within the current parameters of the country; especially when, at the same time, the endorsed leader despised the rivals in question in an interview designed precisely to counterprogram their debate in which he went so far as to say that none of them deserved to run for the presidency.
Also, the fact that the first former US president to be criminally indicted is using his police record photo as propaganda may be shocking, no matter how logical it is at this point. But more shocks are likely.
The presidential campaign may be the most anomalous in the history of this nation. The candidate favorite of the conservatives will have to celebrate it between appearances and trials before judges and courts. Prosecutor Willis wants the Georgia case to be the first of these trials, as quickly as possible to begin on October 23. For his part, Trump will try to leave everything for after the election. But it will be the judges who will have to decide and, therefore, mark the country's political calendar in the middle of the election campaign.
In the meantime, in any case, the martyr Donald Trump will be happy to sell en masse the prints of his judicial viacrucis. Especially the one of his iconic photo in Fulton prison: an icon that is sure to be printed on thousands of t-shirts all over the United States, and far beyond.
