(A News and Sentinel Op-Ed - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

What could ever convince Trump cultists (now synonymous with Republicans) that their Dear Leader is not worthy of their undying loyalty and fealty? The answer? Nothing. There is nothing the man could do or say to ever lose their adoration.

Trump has now been charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records under Article 175 of the New York Penal Law and 37 counts, 7 charges, in an indictment by a federal grand jury of ordinary citizens of Florida saying that he illegally kept documents concerning “United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack.” There is audio of Trump sharing secret U.S. battle plans for an unknown country with a book writer at his Bedminster, N.J. golf club and stating “See, as president I could have declassified it,” referring to the document with the battle plans. “Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret,” Trump continued.

“In another incident,” to quote from a New York Times analysis of the indictment, “in August or September 2021, he shared a top-secret military map with a staff member at his political action committee who did not have a security clearance.” The NYT also mentions “what prosecutors described as a pattern of obstruction and false statements intended to block the F.B.I. and grand jury” handling the investigation into the documents that were not turned back over to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) when requested.

This is just the beginning. More indictments are coming for Trump’s instigation of the Jan.y 6, 2021, insurrectionist mob attack on Capitol Hill and from Fulton County, Ga., for Trump’s attempts to get that state’s top elections official to “find” the votes for Trump to win a state he lost by over 11,000 votes cast. All of this follows a single term for Trump that began with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, which found Russian election interference in the 2016 elections “in sweeping and systematic fashion” to the benefit of the Trump camp and “identified myriad links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies, about which several persons connected to the campaign made false statements and obstructed investigations.” Mueller would say later that his investigation’s conclusion on Russian interference “deserves the attention of every American.”

Trump’s one term also saw two impeachments, one for soliciting foreign interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election to help his re-election bid and then obstructing the official inquiry into the matter, and one for incitement of insurrection, the same matter that is now the subject of a criminal investigation. Special Counsel Jack Smith’s latest 49-page indictment was met with immediate and repeated regurgitation of the same sycophantic talking points throughout the GOP, including in West Virginia. Claims of “political prosecution” and “prosecutorial misconduct” abound. These people cannot accept that a lifelong conman and career criminal has played them like fiddles since at least 2015.

A Washington Post analysis found 30,573 false or misleading claims made by Trump over his 4-year presidential term, a total of 21 a day. An analysis by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government (CREW) showed that Trump accumulated 3,700 conflicts of interest during his presidency. Everything in Trump’s life has been a self-serving, megalomaniacal scheme from the time he bought his way into fame and fortune with daddy’s money and favorable bankruptcy and tax laws.

We know he’s a narcissistic buffoon, but he’s also the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to be president again. What’s worse, his MAGA cult acolytes are threatening politically motivated violence because District Attorney Alvin Bragg in New York and Special Counsel Jack Smith are upholding our constitutional order and carrying out the rule of law, showing that it is as applicable to Donald Trump as to anyone. Failed gubernatorial candidate from Arizona, Kari Lake, told the Georgia Republican State Convention “If you want to get President Trump, you are going to have to go through me, and you are going to have to go through 75 million Americans just like me. And I’m going to tell you, most of us are card-carrying members of the N.R.A.” Trump’s eldest son’s fiancee, Kimberly Guilfoyle, posted a photo of Trump on Instagram with the caption, “Retribution is Coming” in all caps. Republican Arizona Representative Andy Biggs wrote “Eye for an eye” on Twitter regarding the latest Trump indictment.

Threats are not protected speech and these delusional imbeciles should be held legally accountable for their words. But Trump’s not quite the worst in the GOP presidential nominating field. While Trump is an opportunistic fascist, his runner-up, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, is the authoritarian fascist real deal. Hyperbole? Check out the pictures of literal Nazis protesting in front of Disney World in recent days with swastikas and racist, homophobic and transphobic signs using verbiage that could just as easily have come from the DeSantis campaign. It’s my fervent hope that 2024 is not the beginning of the end for our Republic.

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Eric Engle is a Parkersburg resident.