Former President Donald Trump recently attacked Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith on his Truth Social platform after a pre-trial ruling in one of his cases didn't go his way. But in that same post, he also heaped praise on the judge overseeing his case. One expert on far-right regimes believes that's a telling sign.
In his latest essay for the New Republic, columnist Greg Sargent laid out what he suggested was Trump's signaling of how he would approach law enforcement and the federal judiciary if elected to a second term in the White House. He wrote that Trump's description of US District Judge Aileen Cannon — whom he appointed to her position in May of 2020 — as "highly respected" raised red flags for Ruth Ben-Ghiat, who is a scholar of right-wing autocratic "strongman" governments around the world.
"The reason he tells his supporters all this explicitly is he’s conditioning them to turn away from democracy," Ben-Ghiat told Sargent. "He’s conditioning them to accept authoritarian modes of governance and the idea of the leader as unbound and unaccountable."
READ MORE: Legal experts: 'Compromised' Judge Cannon is 'slow-walking' trial of 'benefactor' Trump
Sargent elaborated on his argument, pointing to a recent photo op Trump had with law enforcement officers in Michigan to suggest he would be a more reliable supporter of law enforcement than President Joe Biden. According to Sargent, this was an empty gesture given that Trump has repeatedly pledged to pardon his supporters who attacked law enforcement officers during the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
"Trump sees no need to account for this absurdity. He hails the heroism and bravery of cops, as long as they support him; he hails the heroism and bravery of people who viciously attack cops, as long as those people also support him," Sargent wrote. "All this is a feature of autocratic politics, which turns on the idea that the system is hopelessly corrupted and perpetually out to drag the strongman down, and the only political arrangement that’s unsullied and virtuous is the bond between him and his followers."
The former president has benefited from Cannon's rulings on more than one occasion, and despite rulings like her decision to side with Smith in his latest motion disputing Trump's interpretation of the Presidential Records Act, she has acted with noticeable slowness in the pre-trial process. This has worked out in Trump's favor, who is hoping to delay his federal criminal trials until after election day, when — should he win – he can appoint an attorney general who will dismiss the prosecutions against him.
"Just as Trump openly characterized the attorney general he appointed as his personal attorney, he sees Cannon as his judge, and cops who support him as his cops," Sargent wrote.
READ MORE: Nearly all J6 defendants Trump wants to pardon assaulted police officers: security experts
The classified documents case is seen as perhaps the strongest case against the ex-president, given the mountain of evidence the DOJ has obtained. Last year, Smith indicted Trump on 37 felony counts relating to the alleged mishandling of classified documents, obstruction of justice and making false statements to federal authorities.
Previously, Cannon scheduled a date of May 20 for the classified documents trial, though that date has since been scuttled since both sides are still mired in the -pre-trial process. She has yet to schedule a new date, and with Trump facing three other trials — including one in Manhattan in less than two weeks — it remains unclear whether he will stand trial in the Mar-a-Lago case prior to Election Day.
READ MORE: Experts: Judge Cannon 'running out the clock' for Trump after denying Jack Smith motion
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