Donald Trump has been convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. But this is unlikely to make much difference to the Republican Party. Not only is he still the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee; Republicans have repeatedly proved perfectly willing to forgive his indiscretions, however serious.
To be sure, Trump’s position is not nearly as strong as the headlines suggest. In fact, his lead in the polls remains within the margin of error and in the ongoing Republican primaries, he continues to lose 10-20% of the vote to Nikki Haley, who dropped out of the race more than two months ago. Were it not for the assistance of right-wing media like Fox News, third-party and independent candidates, dark-money groups and Russian influence operations, Trump’s numbers would be far worse than they appear today.
Nonetheless, high-profile Republicans — including those who have criticized Trump sharply in the past — have been scrambling to get on the former president’s good side before November. We know their motivation is not to “Make America Great Again” (MAGA), as Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan promised. So, what is going on?