Trump shatters laws of political physics with third indictment

The former president's support base holds firm as each negative in a court of law translates to a positive in the court of public opinion

It was hardly the triumphant return to Washington that he and his campaign imagined. Donald Trump was back in America's capital this week, not as president but an accused criminal. Not guilty," he pleaded in a hushed courtroom to four charges stemming from the effort to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election.

But even as observers savored a sombre yet reaffirming moment for the rule of law, a follower of the former US president could be seen outside court waving a giant flag. Trump or death," it declared, not far from the halls of Congress where lethal violence erupted on January 6,2021.