Rich writes that whatever the verdict, Trump “won’t be able to get back the time or resources he’s wasted fighting this case. . . . The cliché is that a candidate’s time is a campaign’s most precious resource, and Trump’s has been largely sucked away in a Manhattan courthouse over the last month and a half.”
I share Rich’s view that this case is an abuse of prosecutorial power. But I’m not sure that Trump would be doing any better in the polls absent this trial. It helps him to shore up his support by illustrating and dramatizing his central theme of his victimization by weaponized government, and it lets him make the case that he’s being persecuted as a means of disfranchising his voters. I don’t know that this is his most powerful campaign theme. But I think it is superior to any number of topics he might wander into off the cuff. And I also think that keeping him mostly off the trail has let the campaign continue to center on President Biden — which is in Trump’s interest.
Some dirty tricks backfire.