hot-take reactions to the Trump verdict

If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
—Obi-wan Kenobi

Please keep in mind that Trump has the right to appeal the verdict. That said, here are some hot-take reactions to what we knew was coming:

Styx admits he'd predicted a hung jury but also says this has "opened a can of worms":

Sky News Australia: more Americans will vote Trump because "miscarriage of justice":

Patrick Bet-David for Valuetainment—more businesses will leave NY:

Trump's website went down as donations to his campaign came pouring in. GWU law professor Jonathan Turley thinks the conviction will be overturned (I say that's not likely), and he's also sad for what he sees as the once-great New York legal system:

Canuck lawyer David Freiheit (Viva Frei) rants:

Tim Pool hasn't published his opinion yet, but I imagine something'll be up in a few hours. When it's up, I'll relay it to you.

ADDENDUM: Headline:

Alan Dershowitz Doubts Conviction Will Be Overturned Because Judges Are ‘Terrified’ To Help Trump

Noted attorney Alan Dershowitz said on Thursday that he doubts a New York appellate court will overturn former President Donald Trump’s conviction in his Manhattan trial.

A Manhattan jury of five women and seven men convicted Trump on 34 counts of falsification of business records Thursday after nearly 12 hours of deliberations. Dershowitz said he predicted the conviction multiple times, including in his book, “Get Trump,” before saying that he believes appellate judges will be reluctant to overturn the jury’s decision because they might be biased against the former president.

“This is a very sad day for American justice. I have now added one banana to my usual banana republic: A grouping, umm, we’re up to seven or eight at this point- and it’s a worse day for America than it actually is for Donald Trump,” Dershowitz said. “Don’t know what the impact will be on Trump. Don’t know what it’ll be on his electoral prospects, he’s probably not going to get jail time, and if he does, it would be stayed pending appeal.”

“I don’t know whether the case will be reversed on appeal. I don’t think it would be reversed by the appellate division,” Dershowitz continued. “These are judges who are terrified of being perceived of as helping Trump in any way. Don’t know whether or not the New York Court of Appeals in Albany will have the ability to not consider the impact it will have on individuals as judges. Surely the Supreme Court wouldn’t, but that’s a way off and there wouldn’t be a decision by the Supreme Court, probably before the election.”

New York Judge Juan Merchan was accused of having a bias against Trump during his handling of the case. Merchan donated $15 to Biden’s presidential campaign in 2020 and made two $10 donations to Democratic groups via ActBlue, one to a “Stop Republicans” group and another to a “Progressive Turnout Project,” according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records.

Merchan’s daughter, Loren, worked for a firm that helped Democrats raise $93 million off the former president’s indictment in the business records case, the New York Post reported in March. Dershowitz compared the jury’s verdict to those made in the deep South before the Civil Rights movement.

“This is still the weakest case I’ve ever seen in 60 years. The fact that the jury convicted based on false instructions, wrong instructions, based on the jurors having been between 85 and 90 percent picked from a veneer that hates Trump and doesn’t want him to be president, the fact that the jury convicted doesn’t make this case any stronger or any better,” Dershowitz said. “I was recently just 15 minutes ago on with The Times of London and they were saying, ‘Well, doesn’t the fact that the jury convicted prove it was a strong case?’ No, no! It proves that it was of a case that was brought in a jurisdiction where a conviction was almost assuredly guaranteed.”

“In the South, when they convicted black people improperly with an all-white jury or acquitted white people improperly with an all-white jury, that didn’t mean that those convictions were correct. It just meant that the jury didn’t reflect the values of our, of our country, it reflected the values of a particular region of the country, in this case the region is a liberal region, New York, in the Southern cases, the region was the conservative region of the South,” Dershowitz continued.

“Juries are imperfect and juries represent the biases of individuals,” Dershowitz added. “We do live in the age of Trump syndrome, people can’t talk rationally about Donald Trump any more than they can talk rationally about Israel or about some other subjects.”

I think Dershowitz has a point.

ADDENDUM 2: Headline (an example of white-pilling):

Fear Not, Patriots[:] Trump Just Won the Election

[ ... ] One thing I adore about communists is that they never learn from their mistakes.

I knew the fix was in for Trump when the White House revealed Biden would pull up his Depends adult diapers and give a talk after the verdict was released.

I also knew the guilty verdict would, like every other accusation they've thrown against Trump, make him stronger. To quote my Motor City hometown hero Bob Seger, "Every time they were sure they had you caught, you were quicker than they thought. You just turned your head and walked."

Non-Americans will celebrate this flapdoodle, much like Nancy Pelosi, who went on Bill Maher's show to cheer after a Trump impeachment. [ ... ]

As our own Victoria Taft wrote, the Communist News Network (CNN) reported that a guilty verdict won't hurt Trump at all. What the CNN stooge-fest failed to address is how much this courtroom codswallop will help push Trump over the winner's line in November. I have the answer: It will help him immeasurably. 

As I am writing this, I am listening to a 77-year-old woman who called WMAL to say she has never donated to a political candidate but is planning to do so now that Trump has been convicted. 

Another caller said he never voted for Trump but certainly will now. Caller after caller expressed their anger, sadness, and—most importantly—their dedication to right the wrongs in the nation and their refusal to surrender our republic to enemies, sometimes foreign and today domestic.

Now What?

I suspect several things will happen next.

I believe Biden, who has taken millions of dollars from Chinese commies, will pretend to take the "high road" and refuse to debate Trump because he is now a "convicted felon," which was always the plan.  

You don't need me to say this, but the donations will continue to go through the roof.

I'm not quite this optimistic, but we'll see.

ADDENDUM 3: Headline:

Donald Trump Receives $300,000 Donation From Silicon Valley Investor After Guilty Verdict

Shaun Maguire, a general partner at Sequoia Capital, said he donated $300,000 to Donald Trump following Thursday’s guilty verdict in the “hush money” witch hunt.

“I just donated $300k to President Trump. The timing isn’t a coincidence,” Maguire said.

“Back in 2016 I had drunk the media Kool-Aid and was scared out of my mind about Trump. As such I donated to Hilary Clinton’s campaign and voted for her. By 2020 I was disillusioned and didn’t vote – I didn’t like either option. Now, in 2024, I believe this is one of the most important elections of my lifetime, and I’m supporting Trump,” Maguire wrote on X.

“I know that I’ll lose friends for this. Some will refuse to do business with me. The media will probably demonize me, as they have so many others before me. But despite this, I still believe it’s the right thing to do. I refuse to live in a society where people are afraid to speak,” he continued.

Good for you, Shaun. I'd like to see Musk donate a cool billion.