The reaction of the partisan media to the historic conviction of former President Donald J. Trump was immediate.
Conservative websites and commentators criticized the verdict as a sham, intensifying and escalating the attacks on the prosecution and the judge they launched during the seven-week criminal trial in Manhattan. Several websites misleadingly referred to the trial as “rigged” and “corrupt.”
The liberal media, however, could not agree on what to make of the verdict, although they generally welcomed it. While some mocked Trump for potentially losing his right to vote in the November election, several outlets also called the verdict “unsatisfactory” and potentially “irrelevant.”
Here’s how a selection of media outlets covered the same verdict:
RIGHT
The daily cable
The Daily Wire, a conservative site, had no qualms in disapproving the verdict. “Trump declared guilty. Pray for the Republic,” was the headline of a story by Ben Shapiro, founder and editor emeritus of the site.
Shapiro, who livestreamed his podcast after the verdict, said it was “a terrible day for the country” and that “this was the weakest charge” against the former president. Shapiro continued to falsely claim that Trump was “convicted of crimes that do not exist.” Trump was convicted of falsifying business records related to so-called hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels.
However, Shapiro and his guest Michael Knowles said the verdict would serve Trump well in the November general election.
“I think we’re going to see a huge consolidation around Trump, certainly people who were lukewarm on Trump,” Shapiro said, including supporters of former candidates Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida.
Matt Walsh, a Daily Wire columnist who supports Trump, went further and called on him to use the presidency as a weapon for revenge should he win the 2024 election. “He should make and publish a list of 10 high-ranking Democratic criminals.” that he will have arrested when he takes office,” Walsh wrote in X.
RIGHT
The national review
A conservative outlet that has often criticized Trump, The National Review’s homepage headline Thursday night read: “Yes, It Was Rigged.” In the article, editor-in-chief Rich Lowry misleadingly claimed that all levels of the trial were biased against Trump, including the judge’s handling of the case and the prosecution’s filing of charges. He said it was all aimed at hurting Trump’s chances in the November election.
In an editorial titled “Trump’s Horrendous Verdict” published Friday morning, The National Review editors blamed Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, for “selective prosecution,” suggesting without evidence that he targeted Trump and was based on “a shamefully shameful procedure.” “judge agrees.”
Bragg, they wrote, became “the first prosecutor in the country’s history to abuse his office in hopes of harming an opposition presidential candidate before a national election.”
FROM THE LEFT
The New Republic
The liberal outlet The New Republic celebrated the verdict with stories that mocked Trump’s bad day in court. “Trump, convicted felon, forced to beg for help from most shameful ally,” was the headline of one article, which joked that Trump would need the help of Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, where Trump has his primary residence, to vote in November. . (It is not clear whether he will be able to vote; if he is in prison at the time of the election, he would not be.) Another called Trump’s discussion with reporters after the verdict a “wild rant.”
But writer Alex Shephard said the result didn’t go far enough, in an essay titled “Why Trump’s Historical Conviction Is So Unsatisfying.” Trump was not judged for his worst misdeeds, Shephard wrote, and remained the poll leader in the November election against President Biden. That’s unlikely to change, Shephard said, because many Americans supported Trump through all of his previous scandals.
“It is difficult to imagine that a conviction, even a felony conviction, for paying the silence of an adult film actress would change that,” Shephard wrote.
FROM THE LEFT
The nation
The Nation, a left-leaning website, applauded Trump’s conviction with an essay titled “Biggest Liar of All Time Gets Criminal Conviction,” which also referred to Trump as the “disgraced, twice-impeached former president.”
But in another essay on the site, titled “Why the election is Trump’s verdict that really matters,” editor and former editor Katrina vanden Heuvel wrote that the outcome of the trial would be irrelevant if President Biden lost to Trump in November.
“The verdicts of the cases will be irrelevant,” he wrote. “If defeated, that verdict will do more to inform the future behavior of presidents than any of the court cases.”