I’ll make this easy on Donald Trump. If he wants to fulfill his pledge about “making America great again,” then he needs to get far away from the presidential stage and never look back.
As he faces his third criminal indictment – and arguably the most serious to date – the former president and current GOP front-runner should leave his ambitions and ego aside.
This latest federal indictment charges Trump with a scheme “to defraud the United States by using dishonesty, fraud, and deceit” in an attempt to overturn an election and stay in office.
‘An assault on this republic’:What the Jan. 6 charges Trump faces say about our democracy
It doesn’t get more consequential than that. Our republic depends on the peaceful transfer of power.
Just take in these words following Tuesday’s indictment from former Vice President Mike Pence, now a presidential candidate himself, who was loyal to Trump until the president threw him to the wolves and threatened his life for doing the right thing and upholding the Constitution on Jan. 6, 2021:
“Today’s indictment serves as an important reminder: anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be President of the United States. … Our country is more important than one man. Our constitution is more important than any one man’s career. On January 6th, Former President Trump demanded that I choose between him and the Constitution. I chose the Constitution and I always will.”
2024 election would be referendum on Trump, not on nation’s other problems
Now, I am a firm believer that no accusation is the equivalent of guilt, and Trump deserves his time in court on all three indictments – just as any American would.
Yet in our polarized society, most Americans aren’t going to take the time to read through the pages of charges filed by special counsel Jack Smith, who has also brought an indictment against Trump in regard to mishandling of classified and national defense documents.
Betsy DeVos:Trump’s actions on Jan. 6 were ‘line in the sand’ that led to resignation
The reality is most of us have already made up our minds: Either this is a political witch hunt by Democrats and the Biden administration to swing the outcome of the 2024 election (as Trump himself is alleging), or this is another instance of Trump’s wretchedness and criminality – and Republicans’ complicity. The truth may be somewhere in between, but also is somewhat beside the point by now.
If Trump stays in the Republican primary, the focus will be on litigating the past and on Trump himself. It won’t be on the vital concerns most citizens are facing, including those related to the economy, crime and immigration.
A number of excellent Republican candidates are vying for their party’s nomination, and most of them would do a fine job leading this country – certainly they’d be a better choice than President Joe Biden, a Democrat who most Americans wish would just go away.
For whatever reason, however, Trump maintains a stranglehold on the GOP – one I can’t comprehend but that doesn’t appear to be fading.
America is at risk if Trump stays
Trump’s diehard supporters have stuck with by him, even at their own peril. That became painfully obvious in the wake of the 2020 election, which Trump can’t admit he lost. The former president’s refusal to accept that reality have now led to the latest charges against him.
Trump hasn’t worked to take just himself down. He has let a multitude of his believers make fools of themselves, not only during the U.S. Capitol riot but also in what Republicans in individual states tried to do in his defense.
Winners of Trump indictment:The former president and Joe Biden. DeSantis? Not so much.
For instance, in my state of Michigan, 16 Republicans were recently charged by the state’s extremely partisan Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel with multiple felony counts on falsely stating that Trump won Michigan in 2020 and claiming they were the rightful electors. Some of these people I know – they aren’t just names on a piece of paper.
I don’t defend their actions one bit, but I also think the former president brainwashed them into thinking they were doing the right thing.
That is as selfish and dangerous as it gets.
Special counsel Jack Smith is ‘meticulous’
The Jan. 6 charges against Trump are serious, and Smith, the special counsel, wouldn’t have brought them if he didn’t have a strong case. That’s the opinion of former Michigan U.S. attorney Matthew Schneider, who was appointed by Trump.
Schneider has worked with Smith on his investigation, too. Schneider is representing GOP Michigan state Sen. Ed McBroom, who led an exhaustive investigation into possible fraud in the 2020 state election – and found none – to the chagrin of the Trump wing of the Michigan GOP.
Schneider describes Smith’s work as “meticulous.”
“It’s kind of step by step,” Schneider told me. “It’s not the type of work where we’re just going to throw this up against the wall and see what sticks, which some people have said. That’s not my impression at all.”
Yet the unprecedented nature of the charges against Trump means it will be extra challenging to get a conviction. And the process will take time, just as we’re heading into an election year.
What’s certain is that the political rancor and division that has pervaded the country in recent years will get decidedly worse if Trump stays in the race.
I don’t think Trump has it in him to sacrifice his presidential obsession for the well-being of America. But we should all hope that he does.
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques
