Trump tried to turn dead-serious Miami case into a campaign sideshow. Don’t fall for it | Opinion

Donald Trump tried to turn indictment day into campaign day in Miami Tuesday — and he kind of succeeded.

The former president, well known for his embrace of circus showman P.T. Barnum’s motto that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, did his best to turn his court appearance into a spectacle — or at least a vehicle to reach voters. And what else would we expect by now from an ex-reality TV host whose loyalists delight in his political theater?

Trump wants to distract from the enormous weight of the charges against him. He wants to build the case that he’s being unfairly persecuted. And so he started his flim-flam act as soon as he got to Florida, the night before his court appearance. He took to Spanish-language radio — in English — airing grievances about the indictment by phone from Trump National Doral Miami hotel. On the call, he attacked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, calling him “DeSanctimonious” and said he was beating him in polls about the GOP presidential contest by many, many points. He also boasted of overwhelming support from the Venezuelan and Cuban communities. Doral, where Trump’s Miami golf club is located, is sometimes called by a nickname, Doral-zuela.

U.S. in ‘decline’

After court, he went to Versailles restaurant in Miami’s Little Havana, where he waded into the crowd to shake hands and pray with supporters who serenaded him with “Happy Birthday” early, by a day. He gave a brief speech about a nation in decline, one of his favorite lines. Then he was set for a flight out of town and an evening speech from his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey. A fundraiser there will likely rake in millions of dollars for his presidential campaign.

Despite the seriousness of the charges, Trump clearly viewed the court appearance as one more way to campaign. He had been encouraging supporters to show up outside the federal courthouse in downtown Miami, posting on a social-media account before the court hearing, “See you in Miami on Tuesday” and following up with a 2024 campaign email saying, “ON MY WAY TO COURTHOUSE. WITCHHUNT!!! MAGA.”

Local authorities including Miami Mayor Francis Suarez — yet another person from Florida who is apparently going to run for president, if he announces in California on Thursday as expected — had asked for peaceful demonstrations and warned of a large police presence.

As always, there were those prepared to do Trump’s bidding — though there wasn’t a particularly large crowd at the courthouse. Figures like Alex Otaola, a Cuban-American, YouTube influencer running for Miami-Dade County mayor, urged followers on Instagram to attend a peaceful demonstration against Trump’s prosecution. There were appearances by Proud Boys and Blacks for Trump and people having side conversations about what QAnon conspiracy theory really means. There was at least one Jan. 6 convict and a guy with a pig’s head, a real one, on a pike. A dump truck driver leaned on his horn as he drove by, saying “Donald Trump is king!” A man dressed as Uncle Sam sang a version of the song “I fought the law,” but with lyrics that went: “Trump fought the law and Trump won.”

Fear of communism

There were more reasonable voices, too, that helped tell the story of Trump’s unwavering support among some voters — people like uncle and nephew Phong and Hoang Nguyen of Tamarac. Both said they are from Vietnam and fear communism could come to America. They took time off from work to support the former president.

Another man, Jay Bose of Naples, said Trump’s indictment “makes me stronger to support him. When they fight this hard to get this man out of power, you know you’re on the right track.”

But the Trump fervor, no matter how entertaining or scary or patriotic — depending on your point of view — is nothing but a sideshow at a moment when the attention needs to be on the actual charges against the former president. The 37 charges in the indictment are grave. The 45th president has already become the nightmare that the founders tried so hard to guard against, a tyrant at the top. Conviction would be more terrible proof of his profound betrayal of the United States.

The charges include willfully retaining national defense secrets in violation of the Espionage Act, showing top secret documents to people who had no business seeing them and storing American secrets in ridiculously insecure places in his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach — like the shower in a bathroom and a ballroom stage where the public had access. It’s hard to imagine a more insulting or dangerous way for Trump to handle the secrets entrusted to him as president than storing them in a bathroom, chandelier or not.

There were some anti-Trump protesters at the courthouse Tuesday. One carried a sign saying: “Floriduh where democracy goes to die.” We cannot let that become true.

Trump wants us to believe that the bright light of this scrutiny is merely the spotlight trained on the ring master of the carnival. But it’s not. It’s sunshine, the best disinfectant, and it’s long overdue.

This story was originally published June 13, 2023 at 5:18 PM.