The recent indictment of Donald Trump by New York grand jury can be seen as a fresh lease of political life for the US’ 45th President. Trump specialises in two things — being in denial and playing the victim card.

He now faces 30 or more charges pertaining to business fraud and Campaign Finance laws.

The “beauty” of the indictment was that no one had details of what it was all about.

At the time of writing the indictment is yet to be unsealed and reports have it that the former President is expected to turn himself in next Tuesday. Even the modalities of this process is something no one is sure of as there have been no precedents — it is for the first time that a sitting or former President has ever been indicted and to be arraigned.

The primary charge has to do with cooking the books — how the Trump Organisation paid some $1,30,000 to Stormy Daniels, an adult movie actor who is alleged to have had an affair with the former President in 2006 and then was paid money through Trump’s lawyer to buy her silence at the time of the 2016 election. The timing of the payout is important as a state law violation could turn into a federal one pertaining to political campaigning.

Trump has repeatedly denied that he had an affair with Daniels alluding that the payout was to silence the noise.

The indictment was something that Trump was waiting for by last week he had even set a date; only to apparently sink into a feeling that this was not about to happen at all.

So the announcement came as a shock not only to Trump but also to members of Congress who had packed up their bags for a two week “state work period”, or recess.

Still feelings of outrage came in by statements and through Twitter.

Advantage Trump

There is no doubt that in the short term Trump has the advantage.

Even his competitors within his party for the 2024 race have come rushing to his support — this includes former Vice-President Mike Pence; former Congressman and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; former Governor of South Carolina and Indian American Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. DeSantis even said that he will not extradite Trump to New York to appear before a Judge.

A dominant force

In fact even before Governor DeSantis’ ‘magnanimity’ Trump’s lawyers and Manhattan Prosecutors apparently had worked out the details. So much for loyalty!

It appears that there are two things that Trump and his loyalists running for Presidency are doing this time.

First they are making sure they are within the radar of the Trump base; and second, they are ensuring that all screams of support for Trump fills up their campaign coffers.

In fact all indications are that Trump himself is working on that strategy or has given his campaign managers the authority to do so. However uncomfortable it may seem, the fact remains that Trump is still a dominant force in the still unofficial Republican pack of contenders for 2024.

But the real attention is in the long term and how sentiments shift within the Grand Old Party.

For now much of the high pitch has been from Republicans in the House of Representatives.

In fact seasoned members of GOP will wait until the present indictment is unsealed and ponder over the impact of at least three other larger headaches that await the former President: a state Grand Jury in Georgia looking at efforts to overturn election results in 2020; a Special Counsel looking into Trump’s involvement with the attack on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021; and in the handling of secret documents seized by the FBI.

The writer was a senior journalist in Washington DC covering North America and United Nations

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