Explained: The rise and fall of Donald Trump
FirstpostDonald Trump, who once boasted he could get away with shooting someone on Fifth Avenue, faces criminal prosecution while campaigning to win back the White House in 2024 Washington: From his earliest business days, Donald Trump has always wanted to be the centre of attention. Now the showman finds himself in an unprecedented spotlight, as a grand jury indicted him Thursday over hush money payments made to a porn star ahead of the 2016 election — making Trump the first former or sitting president to be charged with a crime. The Republican’s first term began in 2017 with a dark inaugural address evoking “American carnage.” It ended in mayhem when the former real estate entrepreneur refused to accept his defeat by Joe Biden, and then stoked supporters to storm Congress on 6 January, 2021. In a statement minutes after news of the grand jury move broke, a defiant Trump branded it “Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history,” adding: “I believe this Witch-Hunt will backfire massively on Joe Biden.” They laughed Back in 2016, many Americans literally laughed at the prospect of a Trump White House.