After a Manhattan jury found Donald Trump guilty on 34 felony counts at Thursday’s conclusion of the politically motivated trial, many Trump critics are glad to see him held accountable for, well, being so dislikable.
Ana Navarro, co-host of political talk show “The View” and notorious Trump-hater, put it this way: “This is a man who made my life a living hell for four years, has made the life of our country a living hell for six years,” Navarro said. “And so he deserves to be accountable. He’s been Teflon Don his entire life. He has been getting away with cheating and lying and doing things and criminal acts for all this time.”
Alex Shephard wrote much of the same for The New Republic. “The hush-money trial gets at some of that.… Was Trump trying to manipulate the election? Was he trying to hide an affair from his wife? Was it a little bit of column A and column B? We’ll never know precisely,” Shephard said. “What is clear is that Trump is crooked and more than a little sleazy — two things that have been part of his self-image, to varying degrees, since he first became a public figure more than 40 years ago.”
To Navarro, Shephard, and many others, the fact that Trump seems politically unpalatable and criminal is proof he deserves to be convicted of some sort of crime, whatever that may be.
Not only is this sentiment unprincipled — it is dangerous. Individuals who share Navarro
