Former US President Donald Trump faced the most serious charge against him since he lost the 2020 election. He was charged with the criminal offence of inciting the mob attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. He was named the main conspirator and though there is mention of co-conspirators they have not yet been named. It is suspected that the co-conspirators are his lawyers and advisers including former New York City mayor Rudolf Giuliani.

Trump is facing two other cases, one is in New York where he faces charges of paying hush money to a porn star to remain silent in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. The other case is in Florida where he faces charges of compromising state security by taking away official documents from the White House. But of the three cases, the one about his role in the attack on the Capitol remains grave. Special Counsel Jack Smith put it succinctly: “The attack on our nation’s Capitol on January 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy. It was fuelled by lies, lies by the defendant (Trump) targeted at obstructing the bedrock function of the US government.”

Former Vice President Mike Pence, who was under tremendous pressure from Trump not to certify the election, said: “Today’s indictment serves as an important reminder: Anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be the President of the United States.” Trump reacted to the charge in the case and in the other two cases saying, “The lawlessness of these persecutions is reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, the former Soviet Union, and other authoritarian, dictatorial regimes.”

The cases against Trump, say observers, have made him quite popular among his Republican followers, and he is leading over fellow-Republican contender for nomination, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, by a huge margin. But it is being said that the popularity ratings might not assure him the Republican nomination because the non-Trump Republicans would not want to vote for a man who faces serious legal charges in the cases against him. Interestingly, Trump is trailing behind President Joe Biden by a few points. While his fanatical camp followers see nothing wrong in what Trump has done, and Trump also believes that he has done no wrong, the rest of the Americans, including the rest of the Republicans, see clearly the wrongdoing of Trump. What has become dangerous is this self-belief that he is innocent which borders on self-delusion.

But Trump remains in the lead among the contenders of the Republican presidential nomination, and the negative publicity that the cases against him have given him have overshadowed the rest of the Republican seekers of the nomination. Their arguments and their presence is lost in the noise created around Trump and the cases he faces. That would create a difficulty for the Republican convention next year. And even if he does not get the Republican nomination, Trump may even run as an independent candidate, and he might spoil the chances of a Republican nominee.

In many ways, the presence of Trump in the presidential race is a blessing in disguise for Biden, who has been facing his own unpopularity among the Democratic radical left. Biden could easily go past the divided Republicans and the radical fringe of the Democrats. There have been instances of the Trump kind of populism in American politics, and they have generally faded away after drawing much attention. But Trump has been persistent and he has remained loud in his own cause. And he has gathered round him a faithful following, which however is not the majority.