Impeachment trial: where has Donald Trump gone?
Analysis Donald Trump's impeachment trial began without the main party. Since leaving the White House and being banned from Twitter, the former president has been surprisingly quiet. Reclusive in his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, he follows his trial from afar and prepares for his return to politics.
Second day of his second impeachment trial and Donald Trump is absent. From his private residence in Mar-a-Lago (Florida), he follows on a television screen the accusations of Democratic prosecutors against him, denounced for having been the "chief instigator" of the violence that hit the Capitol. on January 6.
Express as it is - the Democrats have sixteen hours maximum in two days to make their arguments - the trial is ongoing. Normally, without the inflammatory tweets from the former White House tenant that disappeared from the media and digital landscape.
Rage and silence
Yet Donald Trump is fuming. The performance of one of his two lawyers Bruce Castor, unanimously recognized - a rare thing - as catastrophic, knocked him off the hook, according to US media. It must be said that the ill-fitting costume and the porous verb of his defender, disconcerted by a video presented at the beginning of the session, Tuesday, February 9, and retracing the course of events cast a shadow on his prestige and his ability to defend himself properly . Donald Trump is angry but Donald Trump has not yet communicated on the progress of the trial.
According to the Washington Post, the silence and absence of the accused - called as a witness - at his own trial was allegedly whispered to him by his lawyers and relatives, including his daughter Ivanka Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, " worried about his instinct of self-sabotage ”. "There is nothing to gain by going there," remarks Marie-Cécile Naves, political scientist at the Institute for International and Strategic Relations (Iris). “First of all, if he went, he would have to make affidavits. However, he lies perpetually. Besides, he is almost guaranteed to have the support of Republican senators. Unless the situation turns around, the former president is expected to be acquitted if he fails to obtain the 67 votes necessary to convict him.
Possible return to politics
While waiting for the end of his trial, Donald Trump heals his wounds on the green of his residence. "We will come back one way or another," he promised before leaving the White House for good. He has pledged to help the Republican Party in the upcoming legislative and senatorial elections in November 2022 although, for now, his friends describe him as a man "adrift" and "with no clear idea of what is going to happen. follow for the first time in his political life, ”according to the Washington Post.
But make no mistake. “He has an oversized ego and he doesn't accept defeat. In this case, either he rewrites it, or he cancels it in one way or another ", warns Alexis Pichard, researcher in American civilization at the University of Paris Nanterre (1). “For him, the way to compensate for this loss would be to come back in 2024 and beat Joe Biden. "
Stormy judicial horizon
By then the billionaire will have to deal not only with his impeachment lawsuit, but also a flurry of cases for tax evasion, conflict of interest, violations of campaign finance rules, and political pressure, among other things. On Wednesday, February 11, a new investigation was opened into Donald Trump’s attempt to bribe Georgia’s secretary of state into “finding” the 12,000 missing votes for the Republican to win the election.
Donald Trump is also threatened even in his stronghold. In response to complaints from his neighbors, the city council of Palm Beach, where Mar-a-Lago is located, is due to decide soon whether he can stay and live at his club full time.
