Donald Trump has always boasted that he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and kill someone and that nobody would care, that he would not suffer consequences. The paradox is that now what happened in a fitting room of a store in that emblematic New York avenue could complicate his competition for the White House.
More than a dozen women have accused him of some other form of sexual misconduct and he has always denied it. But this is the first time the former president has been convicted of a sexual abuse charge and while he won't go to jail because it was a civil trial, the verdict puts him in a more than awkward situation in the middle of the 2024 presidential election campaign.
There is still a long time to go, but Trump is marching today in the competition with a tailwind. He is the overwhelming favorite in the polls in the Republican internal and doubles in voting intention to his immediate follower in the party, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
But, in addition, in a general election 44% of Americans say they would vote for him today, against 38% who would lean towards the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, according to a poll published Sunday by ABC-The Washington Post.
Writer and journalist E. Jean Carroll won Trump's trial. Photo EFE
Complications
However, on the issue of trials the picture begins to complicate the Republican. A majority of respondents (between 52 and 56 percent, depending on the case) said Trump should be convicted of obstructing elections, storming Congress and concealing classified documents, the top three trials that follow him.
There is a reality: Trump's staunchest supporters will believe that Tuesday's verdict is a witch hunt and a conspiracy by Democrats to stop his arrival in the White House, as the former president has said in this case and others. His most loyal – mostly white men --, believe him without fissures and will not change their view of his candidate.
However, Trump has had problems – it was seen in the last elections of 2020 and deepened in the legislative ones – with women and the more moderate and independent sectors that are key to winning any election. The advance on abortion rights and the abortion pill — fueled by Republicans — was not overwhelmingly welcomed in those groups.
The Carroll case will have an even greater impact on these sectors.
What's Next
The main strategy of the writer's defense was to show that he had sexually assaulted her with the same method that he had publicly boasted of exercising in the past for being famous: "I just start kissing them," he said. "It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait," he added. "I grab them by the vagina," Trump continued. "You can do anything."
Former U.S. President Donald Trump. AP Photo
It is exactly what he did with Carroll in a fitting room of a luxury store on Fifth Avenue, according to the jury that examined the case and convicted Trump unanimously in just 3 hours.
To prove this point, Carroll's lawyers last week called two women who claimed they were sexually abused by Donald Trump: Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff.
The first, a retired stockbroker, said Trump began kissing and groping her in first class on a plane until she changed seats. The second, a former journalist, said she was invited to Trump's Florida home to write an article and said he invited her into a room, closed the door and kissed and groped her, pressing her against a wall.
Although they did not take him to trial, in both cases the tycoon denied the facts saying that they were "not his type." Like with Carroll.
All this was reflected in the press and shows Trump in his darkest dimension. The elections are more than a year away and it is true that the economy always weighs heavily. But Trump must now invest much more time in winning back the moderate vote, especially the female one.
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