Trump yearns to govern a mafia state. Fitting that he faces racketeering charges | Jan-Werner Müller

The perfected mafia state uses ostensibly legal procedures and insider loyalty to protect corrupt autocrats from accountability

Could there be such a thing as Trump indictment fatigue? Every week seems to bring a new set of charges; one might be forgiven for losing any sense of what's what in the four major cases the former president now faces. (Of course, Trump himself has long perfected the art of sowing confusion through falsehoods in response to any criticisms, impeachments and now indictments - or, in the words of Steve Bannon, flooding the zone with shit".) What mitigates this risk, though, is that the different indictments illuminate very different aspects of Trumpism - and the way Trump operated as president, and now continues to operate in his campaign to regain the White House.

The Georgia indictment is particularly important: what many have long suspected - that Trump operates like a mafia boss - is confirmed by the ample evidence of Trump and his (increasingly bizarre and brutal) associates forming a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States. Unlike mobsters, Trump used the power of the state itself to try to get his way, even if his making offers one couldn't refuse ultimately failed. If Trump were brought back to power in 2024, there is every reason to believe that he would not only engage in all-out retribution for alleged wrongs against his political clan, but also erect what some observers describe as a mafia state.

Jan-Werner Muller is a professor of politics at Princeton University. He is also a Guardian US columnist