Jonathan Chait, a columnist for New York Magazine, has challenged the GOP’s narrative that the former president is being unjustly targeted by Democratic legal actions.
He explained how the GOP’s stance on his criminality has significantly changed ever since Trump’s rise to power in the party.
In his column, Chait recounted how key figures in the conservative party and editorial boards of publications like NPR and WSJ had raised concerns about Trump prior to the 2016 elections.
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He demonstrated how all of them expressed reservations about Trump’s legal and ethical conduct long before he clinched the GOP nomination.
According to Chait, the Republican Party was well aware of Trump’s questionable business practices, his tendency to deceive, and his association with dubious characters.
These concerns were only muted when Trump emerged as the party’s best hope against Hillary Clinton.
The columnist points out the irony in the GOP’s current defense of Trump, arguing that the legal challenges Trump faces now were foreseeable given his track record.
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Chait’s analysis suggests that the GOP’s unwavering support for Trump, despite these well-documented issues, signals a troubling decline in the party’s moral and ethical standards.
He criticizes the party’s portrayal of Trump as a victim of “lawfare,” suggesting that such claims ignore the former president’s long history of skirting legal boundaries.
The piece concludes by dismissing the idea of a Democratic conspiracy against Trump, asserting that his legal entanglements are the natural outcome of his lifelong disregard for the law.
Chait’s critique emphasizes the Republican Party’s complicity in elevating a figure with such a contentious legal background, questioning the party’s current narrative of victimization.
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“What’s unusual about Trump is not that a politician got into legal trouble, or even that a professional scammer went into politics, but that a political party allowed a crook to rise to its top,” he says.
He continues, “That, in turn, reveals the deeply unhealthy state of the GOP, not any extralegal steps being taken by his opponents.”
Concluding, Chait says, “But no plot was necessary here. The law finally catching up to a lifelong crook is utterly predictable.”
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