Trump Should Refuse To Appear In New York City

Yesterday, Florida governor Ron DeSantis issued the statement many of his detractors in the Donald Trump camp have been demanding since word of Trump’s indictment began to percolate.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Thursday called the indictment of former President Trump “un-American” and said the state would not assist in any extradition request.

“The weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda turns the rule of law on its head. It is un-American,” DeSantis, who is seen as Trump’s top rival in a potential 2024 GOP primary, tweeted after news of the indictment broke.

“The Soros-backed Manhattan District Attorney has consistently bent the law to downgrade felonies and to excuse criminal misconduct. Yet, now he is stretching the law to target a political opponent,” DeSantis continued, adding that Florida would not assist in an extradition request “given the questionable circumstances at issue.”

A Manhattan grand jury on Thursday voted to indict Trump on criminal charges for his role in organizing hush money payments made to an adult film star during his 2016 campaign.

But the problem is that Trump’s lawyers say he’ll go to New York and surrender to the authorities next week.

Why? Other than so he can milk the media circus for his own purposes?

The smart play, the correct way to protest this flaming injustice vomited forth from a lawless dunce of a prosecutor and a grand jury full of substandard rabble in Manhattan, is to refuse to go.

Trump should take DeSantis up on his statement denying Florida’s assistance in extradition. Let the lawyers quash the indictment, which has no basis in law, and then go to New York.

They’ll probably move on his properties in the city. Trump should transfer their ownership to his kids before they can.

Yes, all that’s likely to happen on Tuesday is he comes in, gets fingerprinted and then does a chaotic and likely highly entertaining press conference on the courthouse steps or somewhere nearby at which Trump unloads on Alvin Bragg as the worthless sluicebag that he is.

But he’s much better off making DeSantis his personal bodyguard in Florida, which puts his chief rival for the nomination in a largely subservient position – because now that DeSantis has pledged his support by denying extradition, he really can’t go back on that. And then Trump can spend the next several weeks or months while this stupid case sputters and dies traipsing around to various red states where he’s also not going to be extradited to New York and doing big rallies.

Surrendering to authorities in Manhattan is a short term spectacle. What Trump needs is a long-term spectacle. He needs to cast himself as Robin of Loxley, roaming Sherwood Forest and marauding the lawless, unjust and the depraved leftist elite. Trump should be running around the country, at least in selected places, and thumbing his nose at Alvin Bragg everywhere he goes.

Making Bragg a figure of ridicule before your arrest won’t negatively affect the unviable case against you. It likely makes that case wither and die in front of the public, and it makes you the biggest figure in American politics. And nothing about those antics will make the Left hate you more.

The problem comes in subjecting himself to the sham process of justice in Manhattan where common criminals are treated better than a former president. Trump shouldn’t pretend that there is any legitimacy to Alvin Bragg or Letitia James and their bastardization of the judicial system in New York.

It’s a mistake to surrender. It’s a shame his lawyers say he’ll do it.