Former President Donald Trump must feel as though this is the year that just won’t end because of the way his actions are starting to cost him publicly, painfully, and financially.
Trump is notorious for avoiding responsibility, but in the second part of 2022, he came under scrutiny in a way that complicated matters for the 2024 contender.
His Florida resort was searched by the FBI, and secret documents were taken. His company was determined to have committed criminal tax fraud. House Democrats revealed information about his tax returns; they are anticipated to release his actual returns before handing over control of the committee to Republicans, who gained a smaller-than-expected majority as a result of Trump’s influence, next year. Republicans lost the majority in the Senate after a number of candidates Trump supported fell short in crucial contests.
The former president is not currently facing any criminal charges. However, the Justice Department has designated a special counsel to lead two Trump-related investigations into the storage of documents at Mar-a-Lago and the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
It’s difficult to objectively dismiss the House committee’s damning 800-page detailed report, which details Trump’s attempts to rig the 2020 presidential election and his role in instigating rioters to attack the Capitol. Trump has railed against the House committee investigating the January 6 uprising, and his most ardent supporters have tried to stonewall it.
Trump must still wait to find out the results of the Justice Department’s own dual investigations, even though the committee’s criminal referrals of the former president are primarily symbolic.
While other candidates are still considering their options during the holidays, there is no indication that the former president, who announced his third nonconsecutive presidential candidature last month, has done much to narrow the GOP field.
recurring setbacks
Trump’s façade of power is continuing to crumble as a result of both major occurrences – like the committee report on January 6 – and minor things.
The uncomfortable truth that even his strongest adherents on Fox News understood his 2020 electoral dream was fake is concealed in court records.
The Fox News opinion show Sean Hannity acknowledged that he didn’t “for one second” accept the charges of fraud that he helped promote.
Although it might be comforting for Fox viewers to hear that from Hannity, the admission was made in a deposition and not on-air as part of the $1.6 billion defamation case Dominion Voting Systems filed against the conservative network.
According to texts, Hannity maintained regular contact with Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, in the days preceding January 6.
The knowledge of the reality by the conservative elites in Trump’s inner circle gives context to the concerns over election fraud they used to persuade Republican lawmakers to approve additional election security laws in crucial states.
The reality of taxation
Trump’s financial information was disclosed by House Democrats without his permission, confirming what anyone might have predicted: that he didn’t pay federal income tax during the year that he served as president.
Even in years like 2018, when he paid over $1 million in federal taxes, the rate he paid—just a little over 4%—was comparable to that of the bottom 50% of American taxpayers.
Trump’s tax burden differs significantly from that of average wage earners in America, which can be partially attributed to the unique tax regulations for real estate moguls that Congress has been unable to fix. But in the end, the former president seemed to have avoided taxes.
In 2016, Trump broke with convention by withholding the release of all of his personal tax returns. However, his team made an immediate effort to weaponize the disclosure of his information. Trump spokeswoman Steven Cheung stated last week that “if this injustice can happen to President Trump, it may happen to all Americans without cause.”
Republicans are becoming less popular.
Trump was sure to exert his influence during the 2022 midterm elections, but some members of his party have pointed the finger at him for the GOP’s lacklustre performance after Republicans failed to gain a “red wave.”
He now has to contend with surveys like the one conducted by AWN earlier this month, which revealed that the majority of Republicans and independents who lean Republican want the party to select someone other than Trump in 2024. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is their favourite choice for a replacement. According to the AWN poll, the Republican governor, who easily won reelection last month, had considerably higher favorability ratings among Republicans than Trump.
That’s bad news for a man who, just as he started to look politically vulnerable, leaped in front of the Republican field in 2024 and announced another run for the presidency.
Even his staunchest defenders are getting sick of some of his antics. The $99 Trump-themed digital trading cards were out at the wrong time for the NFT market and were mocked even by his most ardent supporters.
Former adviser Stephen Bannon, who disregarded a subpoena from the committee on January 6, was sentenced to four months in jail for contempt of Congress and said, “I can’t do this any more.” He filed an appeal against the conviction.
Perhaps 2023 won’t be much better
Many of the problems that plagued Trump in 2022 won’t end with the new year and might even get worse.
His company will also be subject to civil lawsuits from the New York attorney general in 2023 after being found guilty of tax fraud in late 2022.
Trump needs to be concerned about more than just Special Counsel Jack Smith when it comes to electoral fraud. According to a report from AWN earlier this month, a special grand jury in the Atlanta area looking into attempts by Trump and his associates to rig the 2020 Peach State election has already started preparing its final report. The panel will use that as a means of recommending to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis whether or not to press charges.
The Electoral Count Act update, which makes it clear that attempts like Trump’s after 2020 – to exploit out-of-date language in federal election law and undermine the Electoral College – can never again occur, was one of the final bipartisan initiatives lawmakers agreed on this month. Despite the fact that Trump hopes to win the presidency again,
