By María Josefina Arce
The last days of last month and the beginning of this month have been quite busy in the United States. The attention of Americans was focused at the end of September on the possibility of a federal government shutdown due to the lack of consensus on the budget for the new fiscal year that began on October 1, a situation that was avoided for the moment.
Now the eyes are on Donald Trump. The former president is back in court in New York, accused of fraud after misrepresenting the value of his properties to obtain bank loans and other benefits for years.
Trump faces a $250 million penalty and the inability to do business in the state of New York permanently.
The current process, one more in the list of pending cases that the former president, who has made of political persecution a broken argument, may be extended until next December.
He repeats again and again that there are intentions to influence the elections of 2024, in which he is the favorite to be the candidate for the Republican Party.
Curious argument, when one of the two federal processes he faces is for conspiracy to reverse the results of the 2020 elections, in which he lost to the current president, Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump was indicted for his role in the Assault on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters in January 2021, which occurred when Congress was meeting to confirm Biden's victory.
Trump, moreover, has become the first former president to be indicted on criminal charges, after being investigated for paying some 130 thousand dollars during his 2016 election campaign to an adult film actress in order to hide a relationship between the two.
But the issue does not stop there. He has also been charged with other federal criminal charges for unauthorized retention of national defense information, false statements and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Let's remember that boxes with classified documents, considered highly sensitive, were found in his private residence in Florida.
So far and despite the scandals, his image has not been affected among his followers in the Republican Party, the most radical wing, where he has a 53% approval rating.
However, there are already some voices within his own party in favor of disqualifying him from being the Republican candidate aspiring to occupy the White House because of his inciting role in the Assault on the Capitol.
We will have to wait and see what happens in the next months, in which he will have to deal with the electoral campaign and the judicial processes against him.
