When Donald Trump was caught laundering money through his casino, he made a deal to pay $10 million and the problem went away. When Trump was caught defrauding people with his fake university, he paid $20 million and the problem went away. When Trump was caught stealing money from his own charity, he paid a fine of $2 million and the problem went away.
All his life, Trump has been convinced that so long as he was able to pull a few more million out of the family vaults, there was nothing he couldn’t get away with. And he’s been right. His deep pockets have allowed him to dodge and delay every legal issue he’s faced, and each time agencies charged with enforcing the law decided they’d rather have Trump’s money than justice.
In the last five years, Trump has only gained an extra layer of protection. Impeached for attempting to blackmail Ukrainian leaders into making false statements against Joe Biden, then impeached again for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Trump was never in serious danger so long as Republicans had more than a third of the Senate. Republicans have made protecting Trump not just a cause, but the cause. To a very large extent, the modern Republican Party exists to create a protective screen for Trump.
Except this time, all the money, all the lies, all the threats, and every chyron on Fox News is not going to be enough. This time, Trump is in trouble.