Former President Donald Trump’s Thursday indictment inaugurated America’s stage as a banana republic. Now, Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin both have something in common as authoritarian rulers: their chief political opponents are both under arrest.
On Tuesday, Trump arrived at a New York City criminal court to face charges brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who campaigned for the office two years ago on a platform to investigate the former president. Bragg’s success in capturing an indictment marks the first time a former president has seen charges brought against them. The Manhattan charges stem from 2016 hush money payments in a case so weak prosecutors previously declined to pursue.
Trump is scheduled to make prime-time remarks from his Mar-a-Lago palace Tuesday night. The Florida residence was raided by FBI agents last August under a separate investigation at the personal direction of Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland. President Biden, meanwhile, has remained silent on the political prosecution of his chief antagonist and likely opponent in the upcoming election. Trump leads nearly every poll conducted for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination by double digits.
“Biden’s strategy on Trump’s indictment: No comment,” read a headline from the Associated Press.
The incumbent president’s silence speaks volumes while the administration continues to conduct prosecutorial investigations of the Democrat’s Republican White House predecessor. One investigation by the Department of Justice is probing whether to indict Trump on charges related to the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, and another is investigating possible violations
