The Latest Trump Indictment May Be Biden’s ‘Win-Lose’

Democrats seem intent not just on defeating Donald Trump in 2024 but also on destroying any remnants of his “Make America Great Again” movement. But it may be a win-lose situation, because the reverse appears to be happening so far.

In this fight, Trump may be, for many, the embodiment of Sylvester Stallone’s working-class hero, Rocky Balboa. He’s taking punches but still standing — and the crowd is cheering. Despite all his legal woes, which have cost his political action committee Save America more than $40 million, Trump’s support with some GOP voters has not wavered.

With special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment against Trump related to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, the political divide in America may have hit its crescendo. On the first page of the indictment, Smith states that beginning in November 2020, Trump knowingly spread lies about winning the election. Some former prosecutors and constitutional scholars believe this is a free-speech issue. The stakes are high not just for Trump but also for America, if this sets a precedent to criminalize unpopular beliefs.

What appears to many to be prosecutorial overreach in order to “get Trump” has crystallized our political divide. Smith inadvertently may have framed the choice for the American people in 2024, and certainly changed the dynamics of the Republican primary election. Is the election still about Trump, or has it morphed into a referendum on what kind of America you want to live in?  

With their eagerness to batter Trump with legal cases, President Biden and other Democrats risk making him the personification of the fight to “restore freedom” in America, following the pandemic that greatly expanded some government powers. Some Trump supporters likely want to defend our nation’s history against the progressive left’s attempts to erase or alter that history; others may want to restore confidence in our institutions. And for many, undoubtedly, this is a fight to rebuild the public square, where people can freely share ideas without fear of reprisal. 

No other Republican can carry this message to the masses quite as effectively because none of them has endured what Trump has over the past eight years. Trump is a deeply flawed man but his nonstop prosecution may be opening some Americans’ eyes to a bigger issue: restriction of freedoms.

In May 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported on Biden’s new “Ministry of Truth”: the Disinformation Governance Board. And early this year, we learned from the Twitter Files of an apparent concerted effort by some in the government to stifle speech. And let’s not forget that the Trump-Russia collusion narrative from 2016 was based on a phony document backed by Democrats and investigators who did not want Trump to win the White House. Then, in 2020, in what appeared to be a political stunt, 51 signers of a letter from former intelligence community officials argued that Hunter Biden’s laptop was likely Russian disinformation. But this pattern cannot be dismissed as simply politics — it has the potential of eroding trust in our republic.

As PBS reported in June, “A judge on Tuesday prohibited several federal agencies and officials of the Biden administration from working with social media companies about ‘protected speech,’ a decision called ‘a blow to censorship’ by one of the Republican officials whose lawsuit prompted the ruling.” Are we heading into Orwellian territory one step at a time?

The McCourtney Institute for Democracy’s most recent Mood of the Nation Poll, conducted from May 12-18, found that “Americans are most inclined to self-censor at work and around family. About half indicate self-censoring their political speech around close friends.” The exchange of ideas is the fuel that runs our democracy and some argue that it is systematically being shut down.

Another poll, conducted in July 2022 by Trafalgar Group, found that 79% of Americans believe there are two tiers of justice — one set of laws for politicians and D.C. insiders, and one for “everyday Americans.” Along party lines, the breakdown was 66.7% of Democrats and 87.8% of Republicans who believe this. 

More and more Americans appear to be waking up to the idea that “freedom” will be on the ballot in 2024 — everything from the freedom to hold unpopular beliefs to the freedom to object to government indoctrination and protection against overreach. Consider the recent box office success of the Sound of Freedom movie. The freedom movement appears to be growing and Trump appears, for now, to be its champion, warts and all. 

Yes, Trump is no saint, but for some voters perhaps it is no longer just about what he has done — it’s also about how he was hounded that is coming into play.

A recent New York Times poll found the 2024 race for the White House between Trump and President Biden is a statistical tie at this point. Like Rocky Balboa, Trump is still standing, and Biden should beware of creating a martyr out of his political opponent. The toxic environment his Democratic Party has created is hemorrhaging key support for Democrats. In the end, that could make Trump the personification of another fictional character — Biden’s “Moby-Dick” — the whale who, as everyone knows, ultimately won the fight against the vengeful whaling captain.

Dennis M. Powell, the founder and president of Massey Powell, is an issues and crisis management consultant and the author of the upcoming book, “Leading from the Top: Presidential Lessons in Issues Management.”