On Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023 former President Donald Trump was indicted for racketeering and conspiracy to defraud the United States. He was taken to Fulton County jail in Atlanta, Ga., where a booking photo was taken of him; and he was soon released by paying a bond of $200,000. Now people speculate about the possible outcomes if Trump is included on the ballot.
Seniors could vote in the next presidential election in 2024 and already have their eyes on potential candidates.
“Personally, I feel like the convictions are well overdue. I feel like he should be charged with what he’s done and with evidence put against him,” said senior Chasity Droze.
Every person should face the consequences regardless of their social status.
“The court right now isn’t really showing like actual evidence. They’re really trying to defend him and help him out,” said Droze.
Because of ex-president Trump’s position, the court is being very lenient toward his case. According to Droze, she doesn’t think people will want to re-elect him.
“I personally don’t think he’s gonna end up in prison because our criminal institution can’t afford to put Trump in prison,” Droze said.
Due to how quickly he got out of jail, it would be difficult imprisoning him.
“I wouldn’t say he’s ignorant, but I think he’s slightly arrogant. I think a lot of his views don’t really make sense,” said senior Synai Clifton.
She said she feels Trump’s claims aren’t backed up with realistic ideas.
“I do not think he’d be in prison just because he’s been impeached more than once,” Clifton said.
In 2019, he was impeached for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Later he was impeached in 2021 for incitement of insurrection.
“I don’t really side with him or mess with him because I don’t know enough about the situation,” student body president and senior Caden Willmann said.
It’s hard to put for many people to put a finger on something if they don’t know the full story.
“Him going to jail, it honestly supports his campaign for the people that do vote for him,” Willmann said.
It’s less likely the Republican party would stop voting for Trump even after the incident.
“If they found that he’s done something truly wrong, I do believe he should go to jail, but I also think it needs to be a very careful process since it is politically based,” Willmann said.
Cases that involve political figures can often be tricky because of all of the opinions that spiral from it.
“I don’t really think it’s impacted his campaign at all because last I checked he’s still at the top of Republican polls,” Willmann said.
Trump’s popularity from his presidential election made him a well-liked person amongst the Republicans.
At the end of the day, we don’t know how the elections will turn out. Some theories include Trump being on the ballot, and some don’t. We truly can’t decide right away whether or not these theories are even factual.
Sources:
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-37952249
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/16/politics/donald-trump-financial-disclosure/index.html
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/01/trump-twitter-2019-1077364
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_Donald_Trump
https://www.npr.org/2022/08/24/1118946905/trump-pac-money-fec
https://www.politico.com/interactives/2023/trump-criminal-investigations-cases-tracker-list/
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/02/1197336629/donald-trump-criminal-civil-trials-primary-calendar
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/22/us/politics/trump-2018.html
