There’s a lot of stuff going on with Trump these days. Multiple law suits, a presidential run, and of course the carnival row of his arraignment. I’ve been asked what the Left thinks of all this, because it’s hard to get information from The Other Side due to media bias. Well… okay then.

Caveats: I’m definitely not Republican, but I’m definitely not Democrat either. All opinions expressed are my own unless I’m linking to someone else, which will be properly indicated. And I don’t like Donald Trump, but don’t think he’s the “devil” that some on the Left paint him to be.

Right now, I’m seeing attacks on the judge in Trump’s NY case, both because he donated $15 or $20 to Biden in 2020, because he presided and some people think that’s a good reason to send death threats. People are reporting that there’s no way Trump will get a fair trial in NYC. Christopher Buckley likens the entire thing to Trump putting the citizens in jail. There’s a lot of crowing about how Trump is claiming to be not guilty of all 34 charges brought against him. There’s a fairly high level of apparent joy that Trump’s “sleaziness” is being brought into the public light.

A lot of my friends are Democrats, or “very left of center.” But my friends are also a biased group, people I’ve chosen to spend time with because, even if I disagree with them politically, they’ve shown the ability to learn and grow. They base their opinions off of facts, as they know them, and are willing to change those opinions if shown their information is in fact false.

Most seem to be low-key pleased that Trump will see a day in court. Several people are complaining because the charges are pretty dismal, and wish that the courts had gone after sexual assault claims or something more Big Ticket. The response to that is to point out that Al Capone, known criminal and mob boss, was taken down for simple tax evasion, so that must be good enough for Trump. There’s no question in their minds that Trump might be innocent. They know he’s guilty.

The New York Post is very pleased to see, “Former President Donald Trump has made it into New York’s infamous criminal record database – alongside accused killers and hardened felons.” (Crane) They go on to talk about his age, how he slouched, and otherwise focusing on physical things.

Many in my circle seem to believe almost all of what’s been said about Trump over the past 8 years. None seem to be educated about how Trump ended up with the nomination from the Republicans, and they aren’t all that interested in any case. They just know he’s an asshole.

It’s hard to get past that. Trump is not a Nice Person [tm]. He’s loud, brash, rude, in your face. He’s not well spoken. He doesn’t come across as “presidential” in any way. He’s not interested in making friends. He lashes out, sometimes in a very random way. He doesn’t know “the game” when it comes to politics, and his handlers did a poor job of keeping him in line. The people in charge of his media should be charged with criminal intent, for letting it get as bad as it did.

What I’m not seeing, other than from a few outliers who are most definitely not friends, are death threats, or gloating. If anything, they see this indictment as a necessary evil. Most don’t seem all that desperate to see him go to jail; they simply don’t want there to be even a chance for him to run again for President. However that’s achieved seems to be okay. At least as reported in both my news feed and by my friends, the death threats all seem to be against those supporting Trump.

Those threats could be fabricated, of course. The people involved (judges, prosecutors, Stormy herself) could just be making it up. I don’t see the point, though. Admittedly, it makes Trump look bad, but the number of people making the claims makes it feel like that’s unlikely.

There’s a definite sense of relief that no one was shot, arrested, killed, etc. during the entire arraignment process. Within my circle of friends, no harm is desired. They do seem to want him arrested, on whatever charges. Most seem to be unaware of what, exactly, Trump is charged with. They think that he’s being charged with paying Stormy to keep quiet. They don’t understand that it’s perfectly legal to do that, and that what’s alleged is that Trump double handed money through other people and used campaign funds to pay Stormy off. There doesn’t seem to be a differentiation in their minds. That may be an important point.

The big question that seems to be floating around my feed is why a billionaire would need to solicit funds from the public. It doesn’t surprise me that he is doing so (all Presidential runs are expensive, and funds that don’t go to his legal fees will inevitably be shunted over to help with his politicking). Big supporters of Trump (according to my feeds here) are so lacking in brain cells that they’ll continue to hand money out, good after bad.

I have my own opinions about the whole debacle, but I’ve tried to be as “left friendly” in this as I can, as that’s what I was asked to report on.

Yours,

Hagar

Crane, Emily. “Donald Trump Now Officially in NY’s Criminal Record Database.” New York Post, 5 Apr. 2023, nypost.com/2023/04/05/donald-trump-now-officially-in-nys-criminal-record-database/. Accessed 6 Apr. 2023.