Trump’s Post-Verdict Playbook: Anger and
Retribution, Regardless of the Outcome
Former President Donald J. Trump has a history of
attacking investigators, blaming President Biden and seeking vengeance on those
who cross him.
Jonathan
Swan Maggie Haberman
By Jonathan
Swan and Maggie Haberman
Published
May 26, 2024
Updated May
27, 2024
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/26/us/politics/trump-trial-verdict.html
The verdict
in former President Donald J. Trump’s criminal trial remains a mystery, at
least for a few more days. Less of a mystery is what Mr. Trump will say and do
after it is announced — whatever the outcome might be.
If the past
is any guide, even with a full acquittal, Mr. Trump will be angry and vengeful,
and will direct attacks against everyone he perceives to be responsible for the
Manhattan district attorney’s prosecution. He will continue to level the
attacks publicly, at rallies and on Truth Social, and privately encourage his
House Republican allies to subpoena his Democratic enemies.
The pattern
is firmly established: After Mr. Trump escaped impeachment convictions twice
and survived a special counsel investigation led by Robert S. Mueller III into
ties between his 2016 campaign and Russia, he immediately went into revenge
mode — complaining about the injustices he was forced to endure and urging his
allies to investigate the investigators.
“Regardless
of the outcome, the playbook is the same,” said Alyssa Farah Griffin, Mr.
Trump’s former White House communications director, who began working for him
shortly after his first impeachment trial but has since become a sharp critic
of her former boss.
Mr. Trump’s
team is still determining his plans for the period after the trial’s
conclusion, timing that remains at the mercy of the jury.
It is
unclear how much the public cares about his trial over allegations that he
falsified business records to conceal hush money payments to a porn star during
the 2016 election. Mr. Trump’s advisers have been running a private poll
tracking public opinion throughout the trial, according to a person briefed on
the data, and have not seen a significant downturn in his support, even during
some of the more bruising days of testimony. Public polling also suggests a
relatively stable race.
But that
may change, depending on the verdict. A conviction could turn some voters
against him, polling suggests, but even his staunchest opponents feel little
confidence about that. And any other outcome could boost him at a time when he
is already leading President Biden in most polls of the states that will decide
the election.
“An
acquittal or a hung jury is just absolute gold for Trump. And it will resonate
with a lot of people,” Ms. Griffin said. “He doesn’t want to be convicted for a
variety of reasons, but I do think he realizes there’s a way to turn this into
political jet fuel.”
Some of Mr.
Trump’s former staff members who spent time with him after his previous
investigations said that he was in no mood to celebrate after these purported
victories but instead sought retribution.
Immediately
after the release of Mr. Mueller’s report, Mr. Trump demanded punishment for
the people who led the inquiry. His attorney general, William P. Barr,
appointed a special counsel, John Durham, to investigate the intelligence and
law enforcement officials behind it. But the Durham investigation proceeded too
slowly for Mr. Trump; he wanted his enemies prosecuted pronto, according to
several people who worked in the administration and who were not authorized to
speak publicly. That did not happen.
And after
surviving his first impeachment, in early 2020, for trying to pressure
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine into investigating Mr. Biden and his
son Hunter, Mr. Trump was in a mood so foul that it surprised some of his aides
who were relieved the episode was over. He sat in his private dining room
adjoining the Oval Office, scowling at the television and spewing expletives,
according to a person with direct knowledge of the events.
Mr. Trump
often lingers longer than necessary over perceived wounds. “In general,” Ms.
Griffin said, “he is completely incapable of taking a win, even when it would
benefit him to.”
On the
morning of Feb. 6, 2020, a day after the Republican-controlled Senate voted to
acquit Mr. Trump on both articles of impeachment — what should have been a
morning of relief and celebration — he appeared furious.
Mr. Trump,
at the National Prayer Breakfast, was in an Old-Testament mode, embodying what
he has said is his favorite message from the Bible: “an eye for an eye.” He
pursed his lips and lashed out at the Democrats who had impeached him. He waved
the day’s newspapers above his head: “Acquitted.”
Mr. Trump
conveyed the same sense of grievance, and the same urgency for revenge, after
his second impeachment. He studied the list of 10 Republican House members who
voted to impeach him, as well as the seven Republican senators who voted to
convict. He attacked them publicly and viciously.
Eight of
the 10 impeachment voters, including Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who was at the top
of Mr. Trump’s list, are no longer in Congress, either defeated in primaries by
pro-Trump challengers or driven into retirement.
“Two down,
eight to go!” Mr. Trump said in a typical statement, celebrating the retirement
of Adam Kinzinger, one of those House Republicans who had voted to impeach him.
The
retribution may be more serious this time, especially if Mr. Trump retakes the
White House next year. He has already said, without providing evidence, that he
holds Mr. Biden personally responsible for every one of his 88 criminal charges
in four jurisdictions. And he has promised that if he wins back the presidency
he will appoint “a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt
president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the
entire Biden crime family.”
The verdict
of this trial will land in the middle of a presidential campaign, which gives
the aftermath a new dynamic, especially if Mr. Trump is acquitted, said John R.
Bolton, Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, who has been deeply
critical of his former boss.
“He will
display the sense of injury that he had to put up with it at all because if
they couldn’t follow through with it then there was nothing there,” Mr. Bolton
said. He predicted Mr. Trump would blame Mr. Biden for the verdict, whatever it
might be.
Mr. Trump
already has many targets in his sights. He has publicly attacked Alvin Bragg,
the Manhattan district attorney who brought the charges; Justice Juan M.
Merchan, the judge overseeing the case; Justice Merchan’s daughter, who has
consulted for Democrats; and members of the prosecution team, in repeated
violations of a judge-directed gag order.
Allies of
Mr. Trump, including Stephen K. Bannon, his former chief strategist, have urged
House Republicans to start issuing subpoenas to people involved in the various
prosecutions of Mr. Trump. They have said, without evidence, that all the
charges against Mr. Trump are part of a sprawling Biden-directed criminal
conspiracy against the former president.
“This
criminal prosecution in New York is part of President Biden’s lawfare and
election interference against President Trump on many fronts,” said Mike Davis,
a Republican lawyer and vocal supporter of Mr. Trump.
“What
should come next is the House Judiciary Committee, including the weaponization
subcommittee, should be aggressively issuing subpoenas for documents and
witnesses,” he said.
In a
statement, Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign official, echoed the theme of
“weaponized” justice, saying, “President Trump is innocent and the American
people know it.”
Jonathan
Swan is a political reporter covering the 2024 presidential election and Donald
Trump’s campaign. More about Jonathan Swan
Maggie
Haberman is a senior political correspondent reporting on the 2024 presidential
campaign, down ballot races across the country and the investigations into
former President Donald J. Trump. More about Maggie
Haberman
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