From the time he first entered politics in a serious way, we’ve been warned that Donald Trump represented a unique threat that would destroy our country.  This has provided an important lens for evaluating the events that have followed.

For instance, during and after the 2020 election, many of us have questioned the narrative that, “Donald Trump will impose (or would have imposed) dark fascism to our country… but we’re totally not doing anything beyond the usual fair-is-fair rules of elections to elect a visibly deteriorating career politician who was notably corrupt and dishonest even when he was healthy.”

Now, it’s “We will never have a real election or any freedom again if Donald Trump is reelected… but all of these many prosecutions of him (consisting of novel theories and charges that typically don’t result in legal action) are totally not political persecutions, but the straightforward application of the law by the books.”

His detractors seem to think the prosecutions are landing as if they were evidence of the claim of Trump’s unique threat, but I don’t think that’s the picture most Americans think they’re seeing.