Donald Trump will likely be found guilty in the legal cases against him. This is not because of what he did or did not do, but because the ruling politicians, courts, judges, juries, prosecutors, media, and the entire state apparatus are against him. The opposition party is working hard to make sure he gets convicted, similar to how show trials have been used in the past to control public opinion and eliminate opponents.
In a dark jail cell in British-ruled India, Gandhi sits quietly. He is in jail because he led peaceful protests against the British rulers. Nearby, another young freedom fighter named Bhagat Singh and his friends are facing a much worse fate. They are seeking their country’s independence. They adopted measures to warn the British that they must leave India. The British soldiers arrest them, the British prosecutors charge them with any number of crimes and the British judge would sign on the death sentence.
Instead of killing these freedom fighters on the streets, which they could, the British Empire used its flexible laws to reach their pre-determined outcomes: the execution of Indians who demanded freedom. British chose the legal route to scare others from standing up against the British. These kinds of trials are called show trials. They have happened in history to get rid of political threats and control what people think.
In the United States, there is a long history of injustices where black men have faced biased legal systems. During the Jim Crow era, all-white judges, juries, prosecutors, sheriffs, and police often worked together to convict black men, no matter if they were innocent or guilty. These trials were set up to maintain white dominance and keep black people in fear.
A black man could be accused of a crime with little or no evidence. The accusation itself was often enough to lead to arrest, trial, and conviction. Judges, who were often elected officials, felt pressure to maintain the racist status quo. Jurors, who were also white and often held prejudiced views, were quick to convict. Prosecutors would aggressively pursue charges against black men, knowing that they had the support of the entire legal system.
One infamous example is the case of the Scottsboro Boys in 1931. Nine black teenagers were falsely accused of raping two white women in Alabama. Despite clear evidence of their innocence, they were quickly tried by all-white juries and sentenced to death. It took decades of legal battles and public outcry to eventually overturn their convictions, but the damage to their lives was irreparable.
Another example is Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy brutally murdered in Mississippi in 1955 for allegedly whistling at a white woman. His killers were acquitted by an all-white jury despite overwhelming evidence of their guilt. This case highlighted the deep-seated racism in the American judicial system and sparked the Civil Rights Movement.
These historical injustices show how the legal system is used as a tool of oppression.
Show trials are fairly common though and full of examples in many countries in the world. The Moscow Trials were a series of show trials in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin. High-ranking members of the Communist Party were accused of conspiracy and treason, often based on forced confessions. The trials were intended to eliminate Stalin’s rivals and consolidate his power. In the trials of nearly all former Prime Ministers or Presidents of Pakistan, the ruling party used the legal system to sentence its political rivals, often to death.
Donald Trump’s Show Trials
Trump’s trials today have many of the same features as these historical show trials. Led by the opposition democrat Party’s president, democrat judge, democrat prosecutor, and nearly all democrat jury pool, it is easy to assume what the verdict would be. In all likelihood, that’s the reason the case against Trump was filed in the first place.
Just like any show trial, convicting Trump serves multiple purposes for his political rivals: it discredits him, dissuades his supporters, and removes him as a political threat. The very reason for a show trial. Will the democrat show trial succeed in defeating Donald Trump though?
Just as the British used show trials to control India and Jim Crow courts maintained racial dominance, Donald Trump’s show trials by the Democratic Party are seen as a tool to hold onto political power. Trump’s expected conviction, whether he is truly guilty or not, proves that show trials are still a tool for those in power to maintain control and demonstrates how dangerous this tool can be.
Amid these unfolding injustices, Donald Trump may soon find himself in prison, emerging as a modern-day Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., or Mahatma Gandhi—a symbol of resistance against a tyrannical system and a rallying point for those who oppose political persecution and seek freedom for their nation.