Kabuki

At pto-Trump Breitbart News: Donald Trump Jr. and Others Blast DeSantis Response to Looming Donald Trump Arrest: ‘Pure Weakness’. At never-Trump Red State: Trump Keeps His Eye on the Ball, Rants About Ron DeSantis by Insinuating He's Gay.'

At least for trhe short term, the beneficiary of the arrested-on-Tuesday kerfuffle will be Trump, simply because he'll be the focus of the news cycle whether he's arrested or not. The best point I've seen has been that the arrested-on-Tuesday issue is Trump's creation, since he made the announcement, and for that matter, his gift has always been finding ways to get free coverage from the media. And if there have been complaints that the possibility of a Trump arrest or indictment stole news coverage from the latest Hunter Biden payments, that's still Trump's doing, right?

This piece at Hot Air suggests there's only upside for Trump.

Until the actual order (if it exists) is signed, Alvin Bragg still has time to walk back from the brink. And that would probably be a good idea. Virtually every legal analyst who isn’t effectively on the payroll of the Democrats has said that the hush money charge wouldn’t amount to more than a misdemeanor and even then the prosecution would have to prove there was an intent to commit fraud of some sort. Granted, Bragg could probably find a never-Trump judge who is willing to throw the book at him, but the conviction would probably crumble on appeal.

Then we have all of the people who are predicting that arresting Donald Trump in this fashion would prove to the world that the Democrats are engaged in a political witch hunt. Trump would use that moment to his advantage and, at least according to some, it might just launch him back into the White House.

I’m not at all sure that this should be seen as a foregone conclusion this early in the primary process. There is a lot of ground to cover between now and then and Trump’s support, while still significant, is far from universal in his own party. But none of that makes arresting him a good idea, even for his loudest critics.

And even if the arrest doesn't happen -- remember that Trump himself predicted it -- he can claim that Bragg backed down. and he made him do it.

But let's recall that the subtext of the coverage over the last several days is DeSantis, which again Trump has raised with his Truth Social post:

Trump took to Truth Social to say it would be unfair if DeSantis were attacked for grooming young girls or being gay. Trump's post didn't leave much to the imagination: It included a picture of a man, allegedly a younger DeSantis, standing with a group of young women, one of whom is holding a bottle.

"Ron DeSanctimonious will probably find out about FALSE ACCUSATIONS & FAKE STORIES sometime in the future, as he gets older, wiser and better known, when he's unfairly and illegally attacked by a woman, even classmates that are 'underage' (or possibly a man!)," Trump wrote. "I'm sure he will want to fight these misfits just like I do!"

The picture is from a 2021 blog post on a site called The Hill Reporter, which purportedly showed a picture of DeSantis with several young women during his brief time as a high school teacher more than 20 years ago.

As other commentators have said, people have been predicting for seven years now that Trump will be indicted; this is nothing new. It's also too early to predict what will happen in 2024, DeSantis hasn't announced, while several others are already running or are serious about it -- and Biden himself hasn't announced.

So this is all kabuki. But I like DeSantis's attitude:

“We are not involved in this [and] won’t be involved in this. I have no interest in getting involved in some type of manufactured circus by some Soros DA, ok?” DeSantis said, accusing Bragg of creating a “political spectacle” and virtue-signaling to his leftist base.

DeSantis added he has “real issues” to deal with in the Sunshine State.

We need to have someone really mean and really focused to win in 2024.