Exactly thirty years ago, the whole world discovered the city of Waco (Texas), the scene of a dramatic and bloody siege. Before making the final assault, the police had surrounded the ranch for fifty-one days, in which lived a hundred members of a religious sect, equipped with weapons of war. It is in this same city, which has become a symbol for far-right militias hating the federal state, that Donald Trump chose to hold his first official presidential campaign meeting, on Saturday March 25, in front of his most resolute supporters. “The most innocent man in history” of the United States, in his words, listed for an hour and a half the long list of his enemies: “deep state”, “Communists”, “globalists”, “the warmongers”. As the judicial investigations tighten around him, Donald Trump continues his headlong rush, in front of a paralyzed Republican Party.
We have known it for a long time: Donald Trump prefers to start fires rather than suffer them. In a message posted on his Truth Social network on the morning of March 18, the former president warned of his imminent arrest, three days later, at the initiative of Manhattan Democratic prosecutor Alvin Bragg. “Protest, take back our nation!” », he wrote. This call for the mobilization of the MAGA world (« Make America great again », his slogan) allowed him to launch another successful fundraiser, thanks to a flurry of emails. The news channels, they were placed all week in special edition.
Of all the court cases that target him, that of Alvin Bragg is very old. Donald Trump is implicated because of the sum of 130,000 dollars (120,750 euros), paid in cash by his former lawyer and handyman, Michael Cohen, to the porn star Stormy Daniels. She says she had an affair with Donald Trump, who would have liked to buy her silence with a sort of private contract, as the 2016 presidential election approached. It is not the payment itself that constitutes a potential offense under US law, but the fact that the sum – later reimbursed in checks by Donald Trump to Michael Cohen – was recorded as legal fees in campaign expenses.
The Trump paradox is confirmed
On March 21, no trace of the former president in court, contrary to his preventive denunciation. No grand jury deliberation. Donald Trump has however redoubled his vigor, in a torrent of violent messages, even threatening to “potential death and destruction”in case of “false accusation” brought against him. A man has become the favorite target of Republicans and conservative channels: Alvin Bragg, in office for fourteen months. Several MAGA elected officials in the House of Representatives sent letters to the magistrate, asking him to provide information on his investigation and to appear before them. A gratuitous theatrical gesture, Mr. Bragg not being able to speak on an ongoing investigation.
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