Morning Note

Democrat efforts to lock Donald Trump up may have been closer to succeeding than what meets the eye.

Jack Smith’s office released Volume One of its report on the political persecutions of the president-elect last night, concluding that the system likely would have convicted Trump of a plethora of crimes if he had not won reelection. Members of the political establishment, of course, never even would have faced charges if they’d done the exact same things.

We’ll never know for sure if that’s true. Smith closed his cases immediately after Election Day, citing DOJ precedent that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted. If it is, then the American electorate saved Trump from becoming American history’s most high-profile political prisoner.

America’s Trump moment is fast-paced and chaotic, but it’s worth pausing to think about everything the president-elect’s late-life political career has brought upon him. Ten years ago, Trump was a wealthy reality TV host who could have ridden off into the sunset and retired to a life of golf, fancy dinners, and luxurious travel without anyone batting an eye. Today, he prepares to enter the country’s most taxing office after being arrested, sentenced, nearly imprisoned, and shot. 

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