Former US President Donald Trump has been found guilty on all 34 counts lobbied against him for falsifying records in an attempt to cover up hush money payments to porn star Stormi Daniels in the lead up to the 2016 presidential elections.
The guilty verdict now makes Trump the first-ever President of the United States to be convicted of a crime. Trump is due to return to Manhattan court on July 11 for his sentencing.
Some came to Trump’s defense, including his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., who took to social media to write: “The Democrats have succeeded in their years long attempt to turn America into a third-world shithole. November 5 is our last chance to save it.” There was also some support from broadcaster and
Piers Morgan called the verdict a “massive overreach” and “obviously politically partisan action” for “something so trivial”. He also added that Trump’s donation websites are crashing - “My guess is this verdict will propel him back into the White House.”
As you can imagine, the internet, as well as the entertainment world, did not waste any time in reacting to the historic verdict.
Here are some of our favourites.
Celebrated author Stephen King kicked things off in a sober, fact-stating manner: “The Republican candidate for President is a convicted felon.”
Worth mulling over.
Barbra Streisand wrote: “Convicted felon Donald Trump is blaming the judge, the jury and New York for being found guilty on 34 counts. He will never accept accountability for his crimes. Americans must not allow this felon anywhere near the White House again.”
Wonder Woman star Lynda Carter wrote: “34 is now my favourite number”, to which Star Trek actor George Takei added: “We should start referring to him as 34 instead of 45.”
For her part, Katy Perry shared a short but eloquent “LFG”.
The great Bette Midler quoted Robert De Niro, when he said: “Donald trump doesn’t belong in my city... We New Yorkers used to tolerate him when he was just another grubby real estate hustler masquerading as a big shot. A two-bit playboy lying his way into the tabloids... A clown. This city is pretty accommodating. We make room for clowns. But a person like Trump can’t run the country. That does not work, and we all know that.”
As for Mark Hamill, he celebrated with a “GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY...” You get the picture.
Another memorable reaction came from actress Yvette Nicole Brown: “NO ONE is above the law. Not even your CRIMINAL pappy @DonaldJTrumpJr! You daddy is a FELON thirty four times over! #LockHerUp seems silly now, doesn’t it, little buddy? It’s almost like you and your daddy brought this embarrassment on yourselves. Haman in the story of Esther comes to mind. It’s from the Bible and I know demon seed like you don’t read God’s Word. Suffice it to say, Haman was like your family line. He built gallows for another and got hung up his dang self! What a day! #LockHimUp! #LockHimUp!”
Elsewhere, it was meme madness online. Here’s a choice selection:
Feels like this should be written in ALL CAPS, but seems legit.
Fair.
A cheeky The Shawshank Redemption reference there, well done.
The Taylor Swift conspiracy continues.
Yep, there are 34 – we checked. Superb effort.
Mind blown.
Well, quite.
The verdict is just one of several legal challenges that Donald Trump faces. In August last year, he was arrested in Georgia on charges of plotting to overturn the state’s 2020 election results.
In other news, Trump’s legal team have said they will be filing a lawsuit against Ali Abbasi’s Cannes-premiering film The Apprentice, which depicts Donald Trump’s rise as a real-estate executive in New York.
The Trump campaign has vowed to sue over a scene in which Trump rapes his wife Ivana. The alleged 1989 incident of spousal rape was previously detailed in the couple’s divorce proceedings. Trump denied, and Ivana later refuted the claim ahead of his 2015 presidential campaign.
“We will be filing a lawsuit to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers,” the Trump campaign’s Steven Cheung declared.
He added: “As with the illegal Biden Trials, this is election interference by Hollywood elites, who know that President Trump will retake the White House and beat their candidate of choice because nothing they have done has worked.”
Click here for our review of the film, which has yet to secure US distribution.
