... to be over the moon that Trump has been found GUILTY on all 34 charges?

Presumably he is intending to send Melania and Barron packing as a migrant and child of a migrant respectively

Many of us are worried about a Supreme Court decision giving presidents immunity for actions taken in office. The American press has been focussing on the way the swing justices are hinting they might favour this

DH has just pointed out that the NY conviction is for stuff preceding Trump’s term as president. The only argument the SC has shown it is leaning towards doesn’t apply

Because at the time relatively normal conventions around politics were still in place.

How far the US has fallen.

The MAGA movement has degraded US politics beyond anything any of us could have imagined.

Evangelicals accept that Trump is a flawed human being AND they believe he is doing God's will - that God is working through Trump.

I must say that paying someone off to keep them quiet before an election looks pretty much standard behaviour in American politics.

Karen McDougall is her name, I believe.

Also didn't he pay more in hush money to another woman ?

It's the 'why' that confuses me, why go to the bother of paying women hush money/lying about it, if you know your voting demographic don't care about you having affairs/one night stands ?

There are Russian troops billeted in the $100m base that the US built in Niger. The State Department had a nice lady visit to tell General Abdourahamane Tiani (leader following a coup last year) that he should organise some elections.
By contrast, it has been observed that every time China visits Kenya they get a hospital, every time Britain visits they get a lecture.

Yup. That was pretty much the response when he was caught on tape talking about sexually assaulting women. Boys will be boys, locker room talk, etc.

It helps when the US’s most popular news network, by far, is a right-wing, post-truth propaganda machine. It’s hard to even blame the voters, they’re bombarded with lies from seemingly reputable news sources.

But, like with everything else, he’d just deny it, the right wing press would trash the allegations and his voters would believe it’s all lies.

Heck, even now, with all the evidence of the hush money payment, none of them believe he had an affair with Stormy Daniels.

One of the few things Trump has got right is when he said he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and none of his supporters would care.

Ultimately a years house arrest with a once weekly trip to the local parole office would be suitable punishment. With appropriate restrictions on internet usage.

This reminded me of a conversation I had with one of the Church ladies about a married minister who had left the parish in disgrace when it was discovered he was having affairs with multiple parishioners. The church lady was very disappointed he wasn't replying to emails sent by her or the other church ladies. When I suggested he was too embarrassed to because of his bad behaviour she went on a lengthy diatribe about how it was all his wife's fault because she travelled too much. For a lot of people the woman is always to blame and the men are always excused. "Boys will be boys."

Idk I suspect that some of his core vote, esp Christian women, may not believe rape victims necessarily, but they are not going to be happy voting for an adulterer who betrays his family to sleep with a porn star.

I suppose I'm looking at it as sequential events playing out.

I mean he likely wouldn't have been able to do any of the other things he's going to be tried for, if he hadn't committed fraud to win in 2016.
Although his campaign obviously felt otherwise at the time, I don’t think the Stormy Daniels story would have made a lick of difference to the election results. The other matters you reference (allegations of rape and child abuse) were public at the time of the election, as was the Access Hollywood tape, Trump University and a heap of other scandals and he still got in. Stormy Daniels.

I suppose I'm looking at it as sequential events playing out.

I mean he likely wouldn't have been able to do any of the other things he's going to be tried for, if he hadn't committed fraud to win in 2016.

In terms of severity of wrongdoing, I think the tens of rapes and cases of child abuse he has been accused of committing are the worst.

Sorry but of course it’s minor compared to his other transgressions. It’s the sort of offence that, no matter who committed it, is unlikely to result in a custodial sentence.

Compare that to Jan 6 and his theft, disclosure and concealment of classified documents. If anyone else had carried out similar crimes, they’d already have started serving a decades-long sentence.

Yes, although to be fair, I think that was partly because most people didn't understand the election interference part of it. Or how much corroborating evidence, outside of Michael Cohen, the prosecution had.

Hiding wrongdoing by committing fraud in order to get elected in 2016 doesn't seem very minor to me.

He only won some swing states by a few thousand votes in 2016. If his affair with Daniels had been revealed before the election, he might not have become president at all.

That's why he paid her in the first place, and why he's now a convicted felon.

Sorry, SerendipityJane; I realise nothing about this is remotely funny, but that last sentence has just cracked me up

When so many prefer soundbites it's uncommon to hear from someone who clearly understands why things were set up as they were, but you're quite right of course

Apparently this (NY hush money) trial was considered the weakest of the 4 ...

Yesterday's trial was also about election interference - he falsified documents to make payments that illegally influenced the 2016 election.

https://www.npr.org/2024/05/30/nx-s1-4977352/trump-trial-verdict

https://www.npr.org/2024/05/30/g-s1-1848/trump-hush-money-trial-34-counts

"The jurors said they unanimously agreed that Trump falsified business records to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to influence the outcome of the 2016 election."

So it was found that Trump falsified the documents to "commit or conceal a crime" - that crime being unlawfully influencing the 2016 election.

This link also has more details: https://www.npr.org/2024/05/30/nx-s1-4977352/trump-trial-verdict

That’s the Georgia trial. None of the other trials are happening before the election, unfortunately. This is it.

This is what turned the conviction from a misdemeanor into a felony, in the case that finished yesterday.

So if he hadn't paid off Stormy Daniels, he might not have been elected in 2016. That's why he paid her then and it was considered election interference, which is a felony.

But I'm not sure why no one is mentioning it either.

I’m somewhat happy to see Trump have some degree of accountability but (i) on the scale of his wrongdoings, this is very minor, and (ii) it won’t move the needle on the election race - if someone could forgive Trump for trying to overthrow democracy, they’ll certainly give him a pass on this too.

Every chance he is re-elected.