Rolling Stone Magazine has published a damning verdict of Donald Trump’s election win, arguing that it proves the most powerful people in the US are “above the law”.
Trump will be the first president to take office while several criminal cases against him are pending after he recorded a historic victory in the election this week.
He was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in May in New York and also faces criminal charges over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Special counsel Jack Smith, meanwhile, is leading a case against Trump over his alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left the White House.
Reflecting on his victory, Rolling Stone authors Asawin Suebsaeng, Tim Dickinson and Ryan Bort cautioned that the win promises to be a “more nakedly authoritarian continuation” of his first term”.
Cautioning of America’s ‘fascist future’, they write:
“Donald Trump- the twice impeached former president, Jan. 6 coup leader, convicted felon, adjudicated sexual abuser, and man who mismanaged the 2020 economic implosion and coronavirus disaster that killed more than 1 million people in this country, has convinced American voters to give him another term in the White House.
“After a campaign marked by nativism, open bigotry, and aspiring authoritarianism, Trump triumphed over Vice President Kamala Harris, despite being denounced by several of those who worked most closely with him in his first term as a ‘fascist’. The 45th president will become the 47th in late January.
“Trump’s win demonstrates that the most powerful people in the country are indeed above the law. An elderly, foul-mouthed, racist game-show host can try, in broad daylight, while the TV cameras are fixed on him, to execute a coup d’état in our nation’s capital, people can die from it, and in a few shorts years be rewarded with the full-throated support of his political party, and now the keys to the White House.
“No matter what policies Trump does or doesn’t manage to shove through when he takes office in January, there is no doubt that he and his new Justice Department are going to shut down the federal cases against him. He will get away with it all, and his enemies will have to choke on that for the rest of their careers and lives.
“And that will just be the beginning.”
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