IMAGINE if, in the future, an administration were to arrest Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Marcos Jr. or Rodrigo Duterte ahead of an upcoming presidential campaign over what amounts to a procedural issue.
Foreign countries would accuse the Philippines of engaging in behavior fitting for a backward banana Republic, and they’d be correct. Criminally charging previous state leaders are widely considered a form of political persecution.
Well two weeks ago the US did just that. From what I’ve heard, a New York District Attorney indicted Donald Trump over hush money payments to a porn star.
The payment was supposedly marked as legal expenses by one of his lawyers. They weren’t, which meant that the payment was effectively fraud.
From where I am sitting, the charge seems less about fraud and more about a procedural issue, but that’s just me.
I don’t know what will happen next. This is all new territory. Although America’s economy remains strong (for now), it is also having issues with inflation and banking (like the rest of the world really) not to mention many political and social issues.
Trump’s indictment just adds more fuel to the fire, and this is at a time when the Federal Reserve expects a coming global recession.
Make no mistake. The indictment is not a show of strength. You don’t risk political instability by charging a former president, and you don’t risk turning him into a martyr type figure.
Already, Mexican President Andres Obrador and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele have criticized the indictment, and I have no doubt other world leaders will do the same if given the incentive and opportunity to do so.
For Trump supporters, Trump is already a martyr figure as the first president to be treated as a political prisoner by the US government. His case only further degrades US institutions, and without those, without the pretense of the Rule of Law, the US becomes a high GDP Banana Republic with nukes and aircraft carriers./PN
