Should the Republican Party Be Jailed en Masse?

J udge Merchan’s daughter is making millions doing online fundraising for Democrats, including Democrats raising money off the Trump trial.

See what I did there? I violated the Trump gag order.

Republican politicians have done the same, at least according to progressives outraged by the recent procession of top Republicans who have trooped to New York City to assail the prosecution of Donald Trump.

The cavalcade of Republicans, who have indeed said very similar things about the trial, including noting the partisan work of the judge’s daughter, may be a sly way for Trump to get around the gag order (the judge could look into whether Trump has been directing his allies to deliver lines that he can’t).

Mostly, though, the Trump supporters, sometimes dressed in Trump-like blue suits and red ties, are demonstrating the un-American absurdity of the gag order.

This is an inherently political trial that the other side explicitly wants to use for political purposes, and here we are supposed to believe that there’s something wrong with Republican politicians commenting on it and making points favorable to their presidential candidate and unfavorable to his legal enemies.

The New Republic ran an item on Trump’s supporters attacking the process headlined “Trump Draws Fire for Using Obvious Mafia Tactic on Gag Order.”

This analogy might work if, say, Mike Johnson gunned down David Pecker after setting up a meeting with him outside the social club, or if J. D. Vance were discovered to have placed a severed horse head on Michael Cohen’s pillow.

The mob wouldn’t be nearly as notorious if all it did was organize people to say critical things about legal proceedings.

Another left-wing trope is that Trump’s supporters are “saying the quiet part out loud” by admitting that they are helping Trump “overcome this gag order,” as Tommy Tuberville said, or expressing what Trump “is prevented from saying,” as J. D. Vance put it.

But if these Republicans agree with Trump’s interpretation of the trial, which they almost certainly sincerely do, and think the gag order is unjust, which they also do, what’s wrong with them speaking accordingly?

If they are doing it explicitly at Trump’s direction, that’s going to be a problem, but by now, Republicans should be perfectly capable of saying these things on their own. In fact, they should take it up a notch. Republicans should give “one minutes” on the House floor criticizing the trial and, yes, noting the partisan work of the judge’s daughter; they should hold press availabilities not just in New York, but around the country; heck, they should print T-shirts and hats.

Shout it from the rooftops, and then let the other side bray that only they should be allowed to discuss the trial and that every Republican is, in effect, a violator of the gag order by proxy if they say the wrong things.

The gag order itself is a joke. Trump isn’t threatening anyone; he’s just questioning their integrity, which should be in-bounds in such a politically charged case. He is using political weapons against a proceeding that is itself a political weapon against him. And witnesses like Michael Cohen aren’t barred from saying extremely harsh things about Trump.

If the red-tie brigade has found a way around the gag order, so much the better. Judge Merchan can make Trump shut up, but he can’t fine or jail an entire political party.