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The immediate reaction to the indictment of Donald Trump by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg has been a run to support the former president from his fellow Republicans, including those who are or soon might be competing with him for the GOP’s 2024 nomination. But underlying this unanimity of disgust at the flagrant disregard for historical precedent, and the inflation of glaringly weak charges by Bragg, there is an obvious split in the right’s response to this new stage of lawfare against Trump — one which could become more obvious in the coming months.
On the one hand, you have the right-of-center Americans who are just plain shocked at this development. These include many Republican voters who really did not think Democrats would roll forward with something so thin and pathetic as this to indict a former president. You should expect these voices to be calling for moderate Democrats, centrists, cultural figures and the like to stand up against an insane step that will run down faith in law enforcement and the courts. Most GOP politicians in Washington will likely sound this note — essentially demanding that the Democratic Party live up to the “return to normalcy” they claimed to espouse just a few short years ago. Expect a lot of phrases about “the good of the country” from them.
On the other hand, there are the more apocalyptic-minded among the right’s cohort for whom these moderate Democrats or civic-minded centrists just don’t exist any more. For those who view a national divorce as an inevitable and maybe even a good thing, the call will be for Republicans to adopt the same standard toward Democrats as former speaker Nancy Pelosi has for Trump: we have trials so you can attempt to prove you’re innocent — go ahead and try.
The right’s two responses to Trump’s indictment
