'Martyr for deplorables': Former White House adviser says Trump sees trials as a test of faith for supporters

The 2024 presidential election has already become dominated by Donald Trump's criminal convictions – and the former president is likely to make the trials central to his re-election campaign, according to a former White House adviser.

Trump faces 91 charges that potentially carry hundreds of years in prison, but all of that could possibly go away if he returns to the White House, where he could pardon himself in two federal cases and potentially block prosecution on state charges, the former adviser to Bill Clinton, Sidney Blumenthal, wrote in a new column for The Guardian examining the trials' impact on the election.

"The trials are a continuous spectacle, featuring an all-star cast in far-flung locations," Blumenthal wrote. "Political reporters are barely heard from, while legal analysts fill the airwaves. Every twist and turn, every motion, every argument is the breathless lead story. Everyone, from prosecutors to co-conspirators, named and unnamed, indicted and unindicted, are characters in Trump’s new reality show – part violent action movie (the insurrection), part sleazy porn flick (Stormy Daniels), part conspiracy thriller (Mar-a-Lago), and part mafia drama (the fake elector racket).

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The criminal prosecutions have become Trump's essential fundraising tool and a rallying cry for his supporters, and the trials will make him the center of attention until the votes are cast in November 2024.

"The trials are the message," Blumenthal wrote "They are the drama around which Trump plays his role as the unjustly accused victim, whose rights are trampled and who is the martyr for his oppressed 'deplorables.' He is taking the slings and arrows for them. The narcissist is the self-sacrificing saint. The criminal is the angel. The liar is the truth-teller. If any Republican lapses in faithfulness, they are more than a mere doubter or skeptic, but a betrayer and traitor."

"Trump’s trials are the rigorous trial of his followers’ faith," he added. "Rejection of temptation in an encounter with an impertinent fact that might raise a qualm shows purity of heart. Seduction by fact must be resisted. The siren song of critical thinking must be cast out as sin. Trump’s convictions are the supreme test of his followers’ strength of conviction."

Republicans have learned to mirror Trump’s "narcissistic rage," Blumenthal wrote, and they have lashed out violently against his tormentors. believing he is the victim of a vast conspiracy and not a lifelong criminal finally facing consequences.

"The trials have become Trump’s engine for capturing his third Republican nomination," Blumenthal wrote. "His celebrity has been transformed into a passion play of victimization. His problem is that the trials are not shows."