It’s been days since Donald Trump was found guilty of all those felony counts, sending the high-profile and historic New York trial to a sudden and impactful end.
With that, the soon-to-be Republican nominee for president became a convicted felon, and the country began to react to what that meant for the party and for a 2024 presidential election that feels as if it’s finally getting started.
We have some of that reaction for you through opinion columns and content posted throughout the USA TODAY Network. Below are columns from professional writers and submissions for regular people trying to make sense of it all. You’ll find liberal and conservative voices writing about the verdict.
Trump, guilty on all counts, carries a new label into 2024 election: Convicted felon
Donald Trump – a well-established liar and consistently cruel conspiracy theorist – will carry a new label into the 2024 presidential election: convicted felon.
It’s an apt development for Trump, who has spent his life evading accountability, and for Republicans who allowed a transparent con artist to walk in and run roughshod over any modicum of decency their formerly Grand Old Party may have possessed.
The presumptive GOP presidential nominee will, of course, wail endlessly about the injustice brought on him by a jury of his peers. He’ll attack the jurors, the judge, the district attorney, the entire U.S. justice system, Biden, all Democrats, the news media, any relative you have who has ever cast even the mildest aspersions at him. The blast radius for his blame-casting will be global.
And some will buy it. — Rex Huppke, USA TODAY
Read the full column: Trump must now campaign for president as a convicted felon
Trump is guilty. It won’t matter at all this election.
While Trump’s conviction is going to make for some salacious headlines and nonstop cable news fodder, don’t count on it impacting the 2024 presidential election.
Those who haven’t made up their minds yet are likely not planning to vote at all or will check the box for a third-party candidate.
When is Trump’s sentencing? How a jail sentence became a win for Trump. | USA TODAY
A PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll released just ahead of the Trump verdict found that 67% of voters said a guilty verdict wouldn’t affect whom they plan to vote for in November.
And 25% of Republicans said they would be even more likely to vote for Trump if he were found guilty.
— Ingrid Jacques, USA TODAY
Read the full column: Trump is guilty. It will change nothing.
Conservatives, would we question the Trump verdict if it were Biden?
For Republicans who knew that Trump was unethical and immoral, this verdict confirms our suspicions. The guilty verdict makes these Republicans, like me, all the more frustrated that the GOP has chosen Trump as its de facto nominee.
Regardless of whether Republicans think that Trump was guilty or that the hush money trial was an example of lawfare, it’s still sad, even maddening, that we’re choosing to nominate a person who is now a convicted felon.
It’s still frustrating that any of us have to ask these questions. Is Trump really guilty? Was the hush money trial legitimate? If it were Biden on trial, would we even be asking?
— Nicole Russell, USA TODAY
Read the column: I don’t like the questions Trump’s guilty verdict forces conservatives to ask ourselves
What have we learned from Trump’s trial? He’s counting on America to roll with him.
In the first months of Donald Trump’s presidency, long before his much-ballyhooed promises to revamp health care, fix immigration and jump-start a massive infrastructure program had fizzled, I sat down with one of his most loyal Republican supporters.
Betsy Hower of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was no fool. Yes, she was a rock-solid Republican – a former party chairwoman of Adams County, Pennsylvania. And yes, she felt Trump could transform America and even had the personal charisma to “Make America Great Again.”
But she also knew Trump’s personal flaws.
“He’s no choirboy,” she said with all the matter-of-fact assuredness that she also used to describe the rolling beauty of the countryside near her town. “I know that.”
‘The Guiltiest’: 7 editorial cartoons about Donald Trump’s conviction | Columbus Dispatch
In that simple admission by just one Trump loyalist, you can find the roots of a recurring national dilemma that America once again faces as Trump was found guilty on Thursday in New York City of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up an alleged sexual affair with a porn actress on the eve of the 2016 election.
We all know Trump’s flaws – and, now, the immensely historical fact that a former president and current presidential candidate is a convicted felon facing a possible prison term. But do those flaws – and that conviction and possible incarceration – matter anymore?
— Mike Kelly, NorthJersey.com
Read the full column: Why aren’t Americans disgusted by Trump’s hush money trial?
Trump won’t be sentenced until July. He should be locked up until then – like we would be.
What allows the former president to roam free – on bail, as news pundits stated he will be – after conviction?
Sentencing not happening until July should mean he’s wearing an orange jumpsuit in lockup somewhere enjoying all the benefits of jail food and life until then.
If he isn’t doing so, then once again we get to see that there are two levels of justice in our country – one for those that have and one for all the rest of us.
— Don Mayeski | Letters to the Editor, Arizona Republic
Read more letters about Trump’s verdict: Trump threatens our democracy. Verdict proves it.
Trump allies: Stop debasing our courts. He got a fair trial and could have testified.
What disturbs me the most about the Donald Trump phenomenon in this country is how educated representatives of United States citizens are so willing to jeopardize the very constitutional republic in which they function.
It is absolutely despicable, some would say deplorable, that individuals like Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, as well as many other Republican congressional representatives and senators deride a fundamental tenet of our republic.
— Robert Landry | Letters to the Editor, Tennessean
Read the full letter: Donald Trump got a fair trial and he’s mad a jury found him guilty
Opinions expressed by the USA TODAY and USA TODAY Network Opinion teams and contributing writers are separate from any part of the USA TODAY Network or its parent company, Gannett.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump is guilty. How conservatives, liberals reacted speaks volumes
Amanda Smith is a dedicated U.S. correspondent with a passion for uncovering the stories that shape the nation. With a background in political science, she provides in-depth analysis and insightful commentary on domestic affairs, ensuring readers are well-informed about the latest developments across the United States.
