THIS begins a series of columns that will attempt to examine this felon who may be gifted by the American people a second chance at governance. Trump's reincarnation is an international concern as the world's hegemon. The impact of American leadership and their policies on the global political dynamics is incalculable and will alter our lives in so many ways as yet unforeseen.

This column will not pass judgment on America's choices, but with millions of our compatriots now living in that land, we reserve the right to help our kin see their way clear through on our best lights. It is not interference, as we in the Philippines do not vote for America's leadership. But we claim familial moral ascendancy — in consonance with the best dictates of our culture. Like this columnist, we have siblings, relatives, children and grandchildren in America. We are family!

Billionaire and business genius

We start with his character and business acumen. Long before Trump became a convict, he had already shown hints of mental and moral qualities distinctive to his type of leadership — possessed of a criminal mind disposed to diabolical schemes. To the manor born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth, he is indeed charismatic but flawed, accumulating a business track record that is less than stellar. In the book "The Making of Donald Trump" (Amazon.com 2016), author David Johnson wrote: "Trump has a long history of illegal practices ... [and] profited, thanks to help from known criminals and mob associate... he positioned himself as a savior, a sort of modern Midas with the ability to step in and turn any project into gold."

He was, in fact, building up a reputation as a con man. He projected his brand narcissistically, attaching his name to his assets and business ventures: Trump hotels, entertainment and casino resorts, four separate enterprises that filed for bankruptcy in 1991, 1992, 2004, 2009 and again in 2014. Trump Steaks launched a line of steaks in 2007 and Trump Vodka in 2006, but all failed. Trump Airlines, which he purchased in 1989, ultimately ceased operations in 1992.

Trump Mortgage, launched in 2006, closed its doors in 2007; Trump Magazine, launched in 2007, closed in 2009; and his Trump University, a for-profit-education scam, faced lawsuits and shut down in 2010.

He was fueled by debt and leveraged the same by bloating his assets for maximum bank collateral but falsifying and minimizing the same to the IRS to avoid taxes. He was adept at manipulating the instruments of capitalism to his ends. After all these bankruptcies and business failures, it was easy to transition from a top-tier businessman to a top-rank politician. America gathered him to its bosom as der Fuhrer.

The presidency

Trump's sudden appearance on the political scene was timely. In his book "American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump" (2019, New York Times Bestseller), Tim Alberta wrote: "The 2008 financial crisis brought about an ideological conflict within the Republican Party and the beginnings of a populist mood in the country... During the primary debates for the 2016 election, Trump shattered Republican Party orthodoxy. In response to Barack Obama's presidency, the political right was consumed with racism and ideological zealotry."

In the wake of the total annihilation of his GOP primary rivals and the capture of the Republican Party by his MAGA movement, in his presidency, good but naïve Americans with patriotic intentions were drawn into his circle; thrown in the mix were all sorts of seedy characters — from the disreputable to the criminal-prone, lugging along with them their personal agenda. His successful reality TV show, "The Apprentice," propelled Trump to the consciousness of the TV-hungry American audience, propagating his image as a no-nonsense executive, which was carried over to his "pretend presidency." In the book "Fire and Fury"(Henry Holt & Co., 2018), Michael Wolff wrote: "His (Trump's) was a campaign built to fail, with no intention of actually winning. It only existed as a way to promote his brand on one of the world's biggest stages."

And like his TV show participants, he bullied them all. For those who couldn't take it, he disparaged and insulted publicly like Rex Tillerson, his Secretary of State recruited from the NYC financial sector, who once called him a "f*****g moron." The others either resigned, asked to leave, or were fired ignominiously: Jeff Sessions, attorney general; John Kelly, secretary of homeland security and later White House chief of staff, dragging with them whatever shred of self-respect they could gather. James Mattis, defense secretary, a much decorated American war veteran, was sacked, and his replacement, Mark Esper, was later fired after Trump lost the 2020 election. Kirstjen Nielsen, secretary of homeland security; Ryan Zinke, secretary of the interior; and Wilbur Ross, secretary of commerce, all got the boot. His government was littered with the carcasses of men and women occupying a spectrum from the decent to the inadequate to the criminal.

His entourage was a veritable rogue's gallery. Persons who existed in the fringes of the law acted as his "soldatos and consiglieres," with the Donald acting in his role as the "capo di tutti capi." Steve Bannon, his ideological soulmate; Michael Flynn, his national security adviser, he pardoned after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI. Roger Stone, his longtime associate, was convicted of lying to Congress and witness tampering and later pardoned by Trump. Michael Cohen, his former personal lawyer, pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations and other charges. Cohen was a main witness to Trump's recent criminal conviction on 34 counts. Campaign chairman Paul Manafort, convicted on multiple counts of financial fraud and conspiracy, was later pardoned and is now reportedly back in Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.

Chances of regaining presidency

He will win again because of two things: Trump poisoned the minds not only of his base but many Americans that the system of justice is impaired. Trust in the blindfolded lady justice has waned as she has taken a peek and pronounced that this was a witch hunt all along and Trump is being persecuted — the mantra of MAGA. Accordingly, from the very beginning, the American elite and the "deep state" have decided to go after the Donald, the leader of America's great unwashed — the basket of deplorables — who for so long have been shortchanged by the American system. Trump burst into the scene upending the Republican Party, whipping up the right-wing base, offering them "red meat" by successfully demonizing the Democrats, led by Hillary, who personified the liberal sectors, women's rights groups, immigrants who cost them jobs, Blacks, and even policies of globalization, deregulation and military intervention abroad, and focusing on regaining a "lost America."

Tim Alberta may be correct that "...Trump evoked a lost America, an America of steady jobs, white picket fences and 1950's social attitudes. Crucially, it hinted at a much whiter America."

If Trump succeeds in feeding into this bizarre nostalgia and dredging up the simmering and dormant racism of white America, he will assume the 47th presidency in 2025.

To be continued

GUILTY on all 34 counts! I had not expected this verdict. From an outsider looking in, I expected a judgment similar to O.J. Simpson's, found innocent on reasonable doubt of killing his wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman. Nevertheless, OJ was found liable for "wrongful death" and ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages to Nicole's and Goldman's families. I never could figure out American jurisprudence, declaring one "not guilty" of parricide and murder yet being made to pay for those same killings in a civil case.

In the current trial, I thought that embedded among 12 jurors, a MAGA adherent would succumb to a lame defense injecting "reasonable doubt" against the prosecution's star witness, Cohen, a convicted felon himself — producing a "hung jury." It turned out they were unanimous in finding ex-president Donald Trump a criminal. Apparently, the US justice system works.

But MAGA now avers that the trial was a con job with the 12 tainted jurors all coming from New York "where 96 percent of the electorate vote Democratic, and all suffering from Trump Deranged Syndrome (TDS), thanks to the liberal media" (social media post of a MAGA, Esther Barton). The argument advanced by the MAGA crowd is that "...this was rigged from the very beginning. A biased judge with a case tried in a predominantly Democratic state." Wow, how stupid!

Back in 1995, the public broke down along racial lines where mostly whites were angered by the acquittal while the majority of Black Americans favored OJ's exoneration. In America today, the people are likewise polarized badly. This verdict could affect the November 5 US presidential elections either way.

I watched with fascination this six-week trial, misnomered as simply "US$130,000 hush money" paid to a porn star meant to conceal sexual shenanigans to protect Melania, the wife — a lamely mounted defense strategy. But the American jurors were unanimous in finding Trump guilty of falsifying business records to cover up this extra-marital affair in advance of the 2016 presidential election, which, ironically, he won. Poor Melania, used as an alibi. That is probably the reason why she was never seen inside the New York courtroom supporting a philanderer of a husband.

Now MAGA pooh-poohs this verdict, declaring other politicians have done worse things. Why single out Trump alone? "Stormy Daniels" has an inconsequential impact on the vaunted American concept of democracy and the rule of law. I agree. I would rather that Trump fought first his three other cases now awaiting litigation where America's sense of justice will really be exposed as it has often been smugly portrayed — that American Western Christian values are superior to those of the rest of the world. Now after this buffoon of a felon president had to go down ignominiously on mere transgressions of personal undisciplined animal appetites, the succeeding trials could be anti-climactic. America will be unable to showcase and elevate the conversation and boasts of "their better angels — those traits and admirable aspects of temperament or aspirations toward what is good" (paraphrasing US President Lincoln at his first inaugural).

Trump's other cases

Trump was indicted in August 2023 of a racketeering case (RICO) in Georgia for an alleged scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential elections. Of his original 18 co-defendants, four have already pleaded guilty and reached plea deals with prosecutors. This should have been the first case tried were it not for Trump himself causing delays. Over 60 lawsuits were filed by his allies in an attempt to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election. These lawsuits were quashed and did not change the outcome of the election, which saw Joe Biden elected as the 46th President of the United States.

In South Florida, the Donald is charged with 40 counts from his mishandling of sensitive government records — an obstruction of justice where all his co-defendants have pleaded not guilty. There is a chance that this indictment will be tossed out by the Trump-appointed Judge Cannon who had this postponed indefinitely.

But the indictment that has greater ramifications on America involves Trump's alleged plot to negate the transfer of power in the 2020 presidential elections. The world was a witness — and entertained by the hordes of MAGA supporters who stormed the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, attempting to prevent the session in Congress from counting the Electoral College votes formalizing the victory of president-elect Biden. The attack was unsuccessful in reversing Biden's victory, but Trump's MAGA, some members of the Oath Keepers Militia, and the Proud Boys involved in this criminal act are now imprisoned, and some are awaiting prosecution.

Interestingly, all three cases may not be litigated before the November 5 US presidential elections pending the US Supreme Court ruling on US presidential immunity.

Comparative Philippine scene

And we should really not gloat too much over the Donald's predicament, although we may be forgiven for momentarily engaging in schadenfreude. Trump's travails trump (pun unintended) the equivalent or worse cases in the Philippines. We, too, have felon presidents, but egregiously a sitting senator, a felon found guilty of corruption, direct and indirect bribery and sentenced to eight to 10 to 12 years imprisonment, yet still reports for work at the Senate and sits as an 'honorable member of this august body.'

I must admit to a certain vicarious thrill binge-watching video clips of those late-night comedians, Kimmel, Colbert, Meyers, et al., giving running accounts on Trump's courtroom behavior complete with vulgar-bordering-slapstick, describing his farts and his drooling while napping; and the Keystone cops-like display of canine loyalty by the GOP leadership flying to New York led by the House Speaker all in uniform red ties and dark suits — the Donald's trademark attire.

And I'm a little jealous that a powerful man can be found guilty by his own peers in a trial of only six weeks and 10 hours of deliberations to find him accountable for his misdeeds. In the Philippines, such trials are impossible. We have more serious crimes committed that couldn't reach the trial stage, And if they did, judges, witnesses and litigants would have been long gone — dead or suborned. And the records lost. And sadly, the crimes forgotten, and their progenitors even occupying the seat of power — even becoming president.

Trump winning the presidency

Many of Trump's true believers — and they are countless here in the Philippines — still hold their faith in this felon, advancing the argument that this verdict enhances his image as the tragic figure hounded by the Democrats and the deep state on a never-ending witch-hunt. True enough, the aftermath triggered a fundraising bonanza of $34.8 million in campaign funds.

The next few months leading to the November elections will be America's circus with name-calling, de rigueur among MAGA fanatics, and 'basket of deplorables' arrayed against the TDS and the Bidenistas, champions of a doddering senile ageing president in the absence of well thought out arguments and unheated political conversation. But as in the 2020 US presidential elections, a dangerous predicate is being laid. Trump will win! If he loses, then the election was rigged! Then, the insanity runs full circle.

Or Trump could be America's 47th president!