Trump heading to court rather than GOP debate

Former US President Donald Trump will not take part in the first televised debate of the Republican primaries on Wednesday night. Instead, he will be handing himself to the authorities in Virginia over charges of election interference on Thursday.

Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social, that there is no need for him to participate in the debate as: “The public knows who I am & what a successful Presidency I had”. 

Separately, he also said: “Can you believe it? I’ll be going to Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday to be ARRESTED by a Radical Left District Attorney, Fani Willis.”

“She campaigned, and is continuing to campaign, and raise money on, this WITCH HUNT. This is in strict coordination with crooked Joe Biden’s DOJ [Department of Justice].”

Trump is being charged on 13 counts of election subversion after a phone call provided evidence of him urging Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes.” Charges also include giving false statements and racketeering. 

Despite being the first serving or former President to be indicted, and even though he has three other criminal cases against his name, Trump is still in a strong position in the polls. Most recently, an Emerson College poll put him at 56 per cent, whereas his closest rival until now Ron DeSantis is languishing at a measly 10 per cent. 

As DeSantis’s campaign looks shaky ahead of tomorrow’s debate (he was recently caught grinding his teeth during a fairly informal interview), a breakout star is rising. Vivek Ramaswamy, in a dramatic about turn, is now level with DeSantis on 10 per cent.

In marked contrast to DeSantis’s dental distress, the Hindu conservative Ramaswamy has been enthusiastically rapping Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” at the Iowa State Fair.  

Although the newcomer came from wealth and did not quite share the Detroit rapper’s gritty trailer park upbringing, the author of the anti-woke screed, Woke, Inc., said: “I did not grow up in the circumstances he did. But the idea of being an underdog, people having low expectations of you, that part speaks to me.”

The low expectations might soon be a thing of the past. While Ramaswamy still has a mountain to climb, the jostling has begun. He has even suggested that should he become president, he would consider pardoning Trump. For his part, Trump says he might even fancy him as his running mate in next year’s election. 

However, the Harvard Business School graduate was eager to remind everyone that he is not happy playing second fiddle, telling Fox News: “Frankly, I’d drive change through the private sector sooner than becoming number two or three in the federal government.”

Tomorrow’s influential GOP debate which sets the stage for choosing the Republican presidential candidate by next summer’s Convention will go ahead in the shadow of Trump. But maybe he does not need to worry too much as the former president’s legal troubles appear to be making him even more popular. Trump fans will hope DeSantis and Ramaswamy’s tussle appears as two kids sparring in a sandbox while their Dad’s back is turned. Yet nature abhors a vacuum, and Ramaswamy looks as though he is the one with the energy to fill it. 

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