Presidential reprieve: On U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, the road ahead
The HinduPresident-elect Donald Trump was handed an “unconditional discharge” in a felony case in New York, where he was earlier found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records to make $1,30,000 in hush-money payments to an adult films star over an alleged affair. His indictment for his role in instigating a mob attack on the U.S. Capitol in January 2021 and his indictment for mishandling classified documents discovered at his home in Florida, after his 2020 election defeat, were withdrawn by then Special Counsel Jack Smith because the Department of Justice “forbids the federal indictment and subsequent criminal prosecution of a sitting President”. In the New York case, following his appeal to delay the sentencing, the Supreme Court ruled that sentencing could proceed after the judge, Juan Merchan, said that he would hand down an unconditional discharge — implying no jail time, monetary fine, or probation — given that this would be “the most viable solution” in such unprecedented circumstances. The deeper questions that America will wrestle with, however, transcend these legal minutiae — they relate to the fact that Mr. Trump, his 2024 campaign, and the MAGA movement more broadly, remain polarising and there is near-complete breakdown of bipartisanship within political circles as applicable to critical issues of social and economic policy, including the economy and jobs, reproductive rights, the criminal justice system and immigration reform.