Global Insight | His Case Further Intensifies the Party's Struggle for President in the United States | Trump | The United States
On August 3rd local time, former US President Trump appeared in court for the first time in a criminal investigation against his attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and refused all charges.
One day later, Trump submitted court documents and pleaded not guilty to the latest charges made by the special prosecutor in the case of improper handling of classified documents.
This is within 24 hours, Trump has twice shown a "no guilty" attitude.
Against the backdrop of the upcoming US presidential election next year, no one doubts that the Trump criminal case will further ignite the conflict between the Democratic and Republican parties, exacerbating the social divide in the United States.
Criminal charges become "political capital"?
Since stepping down in 2021, Trump has been criminally charged three times: once for paying a "sealing fee" to a pornographic star, once for mishandling classified documents, and once for the violent assault on the Capitol by Trump supporters in early 2021.
As before, Trump called the latest accusations another "false prosecution" aimed at interfering with the 2024 presidential election.
According to Trump's account of Republicans, the criminal charges against him are acts of political persecution. Democrats are weaponizing the judiciary in an attempt to undermine their opponents' election prospects.
Democrats, on the other hand, are trying to convince voters that suing Trump is legal and that no one can surpass the law.
Michigan Secretary of State and Democrat Joslin Benson said in an interview with local radio that these "historically significant" accusations are "based on a comprehensive investigation.".
Regardless of who is more reasonable, in the eyes of many media outlets, the Trump criminal case is being packaged as a "political show", and both parties are using this show to build momentum for next year's election.
Reuters: Republican campaign strategists believe that Trump's criminal charges will actually "boost" his campaign.
The fact also shows that despite being plagued by lawsuits, Trump's approval rating has not decreased but increased, making him the most popular candidate for the Republican presidential nomination so far.
A recent poll jointly released by The New York Times and Sienna College showed that Trump has a far leading approval rating within the Republican Party, surpassing his second ranked competitor by 37 percentage points.
Screenshot of The New York Times website
Not only that, but Trump's campaign fundraising has also surged after his first two criminal charges. No wonder many people roast that the former president "is benefiting from the lawsuit".
It is widely believed that the truly worrying issue is not the outcome of the Trump criminal case, but how this controversy will further exacerbate political polarization and social division in the fierce struggle between the Democratic and Republican parties in the United States.
Because everyone sees that every time Trump appears in court to answer a lawsuit, the outside of the court becomes a gathering place for his supporters and opponents to gather and confront. However, no one can predict which gathering and confrontation will escalate into the Congressional riot more than two years ago.
On August 3rd local time, numerous Trump supporters and opponents gathered around the federal court.
Beyond party struggles, is it still party struggles
The Trump criminal case is just one of the tools of the American party struggle. There are many similar tools available.
For example, in recent years, the immigration crisis has become increasingly severe.
On August 1st local time, the door of the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City was once again crowded with illegal immigrants seeking asylum. Similar scenes are already commonplace in today's United States.
Due to differences in immigration policies between the Republican government of Texas and the Democratic government of New York, many illegal immigrants entering from the US Mexico border have been "transported" by the Texas government to New York.
On August 1st local time, a large number of illegal immigrants crowded outside 45th Street and Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, New York.
For a long time, the Democratic and Republican parties have been in constant conflict over immigration issues, leaving illegal immigrants stranded in the middle and becoming pawns and victims of political disputes in the United States.
However, the two parties in the United States have fiercely criticized each other on immigration issues, releasing conflicting information and exacerbating the chaos at the US border.
In the words of Texas Congressman Basque, the immigration policy of the US government has been constantly changing over the past two and a half years, allowing smugglers, drug trafficking groups, and human traffickers to take advantage of the difficult situation of illegal immigrants. The fact is, the issue of illegal immigration has become a political ball, the same for both parties in Congress.
On August 1st local time, immigrants entered Texas from Mexico and bypassed barbed wire along the banks of the Rio Grande.
The negative effects of party struggles are also reflected in the economic field.
International rating agency Fitch recently downgraded the default rating of long-term foreign currency issuers in the United States from AAA to AA+. This is the first time that Fitch Ratings has downgraded its US credit rating since its release in 1994, and the second time in history that the US credit rating has been downgraded.
As for the reasons for the downgrade, Fitch explained very clearly: over the past 20 years, the US's fiscal and debt problems have been deteriorating, and increasingly polarized politics and intensifying party struggles have led to repeated political deadlocks caused by debt limits, which have weakened people's confidence in the US government's fiscal governance.
In fact, the Congressional Budget Office of the United States has predicted that by 2025, when the two parties restart debt ceiling negotiations, the federal debt of the United States will exceed $36 trillion, and the two parties will inevitably engage in more intense fighting.
Source: Global Information Radio's "Global Deep Observation"
Planning | Liu Peng
Reporter | Shang Juan
Editor | Zhu Wanling, Shan Lijuan, Li Yan
Approved by Liu Peng and Wang Jian
Producer | Guan Juanjuan
