The Raid of Donald Trump
What are the reactions to it, and my thoughts
If you haven’t heard by now, last night the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided former President Donald Trumps Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. This was the reason for the raid according to the Associated Press:
[It is] part of an investigation into whether he took classified records from the White House to his Florida residence, people familiar with the matter said, a dramatic and unprecedented escalation of law enforcement scrutiny of the former president.1
The raid was conducted Monday morning, and President Trump announced it in this statement:
These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents. Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before. After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate. It is prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024, especially based on recent polls, and who will likewise do anything to stop Republicans and Conservatives in the upcoming Midterm Elections. Such an assault could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries. Sadly, America has now become one of those Countries, corrupt at a level not seen before. They even broke into my safe! What is the difference between this and Watergate, where operatives broke into the Democrat National Committee? Here, in reverse, Democrats broke into the home of the 45th President of the United States.2
You can read the full statement here.
Reaction to the raid came swiftly, with several high profile Republicans making statements on the raid. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) issued this statement:
McCarthy and some other House Republicans have hinted that if they retake the House in November (a likely possibility looking at current polling) an investigation into the raid will be launched. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) had this to say in a lengthy Twitter thread:
The FBI raiding Donald Trump is unprecedented. It is corrupt & an abuse of power. What Nixon tried to do, Biden has now implemented: The Biden Admin has fully weaponized DOJ & FBI to target their political enemies.3
Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) tweeted this about the raid as well:
Other Conservative political pundits had their own takes as well on the raid, with Mark Levin saying this last night on the Fox News Show Hannity:
“This is the worst attack on this republic in modern history. Period,” he declared. “And it’s not just an attack on Donald Trump. It’s an attack on everybody who supports him. It’s an attack on anybody who dares to raise serious questions about Washington, D.C., and the establishment in both parties. I haven’t heard a damn thing from the Republican leadership in the Senate! Have you? Not one of those guys has put out a statement. Because they’re weak. That’s why.”4
Levin then declared that “The FBI is corrupt.”5. Popular political pundit Ben Shapiro remarked “We won’t know how fully insane the FBI raid on Trump is until we see the warrant and warrant application,”6. A summary of the Tweets on Shapiros news company The Daily Wire went on to say this:
“But after Russiagate – years of investigation predicated largely on Clinton campaign misinformation — if the basis for this isn’t bedrock-solid, there should be hell to pay.”
“This sort of move requires serious levels of trust by the American public in its institutions,” Shapiro continued. “That trust no longer exists. If those institutions fail yet again, and target the leader of Joe Biden’s political opposition in doing so, this looks like banana republic stuff.”7
You can read the full summary of Shapiros tweets here.
Finally, Alan Dershowitz had this to say about the raids legality:
he law is clear: You don’t engage in a raid unless you’ve exhausted all of the other remedies, unless you believe that the person you raided will destroy the evidence. Raids are not a first recourse in America; they’re a last recourse.”
“And so the government will have to show a court eventually that they exhausted all other possibilities or they had a reasonable basis for believing that the evidence would be destroyed if it was sought in the normal legal course of events through a subpoena,”8
Liberals also expressed some outrage over the raid. Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo (D) had this to say in a tweet:
DOJ must immediately explain the reason for its raid & it must be more than a search for inconsequential archives or it will be viewed as a political tactic and undermine any future credible investigation & legitimacy of January 6 investigations.9
Former Democratic Presidential candidate and founder of the Forward Party Andrew Yang had this to say in his own tweet:
I’m no Trump fan. I want him as far away from the White House as possible. But a fundamental part of his appeal has been that it’s him against a corrupt government establishment. This raid strengthens that case for millions of Americans who will see this as unjust persecution.10
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had this to say about the raid:
"All I know about that is what is in the public domain. I was surprised that it flashed on my phone last evening, so I don't really have too much to say except that to have a visit like that, you need a warrant. To have a warrant, you need justification. And that says that no one is above the law, not even a president or a former president of the United States, [b]ut all of this should be made known to us over time. But I have no knowledge of it. I do know that there has been chatter. More than chatter about the presidential documents and how they must be preserved for history. And let's see what the justification was for the raid. I just don't know,"11
News about the raid is still breaking, and I encourage you to follow that yourself.
Personally, this raid is quite appalling. While there is an investigation into whether President Trump had classified documents in Mar-a-Lago, there is a legal process that should be followed. Like Alan Dershowitz said, raids should be the last resort. The FBI and the DOJ should immediately release the reason and warrant for the raid to the public to see for themselves whether the raid was justified or not. However, justification will be hard to prove as the usual case for a raid as opposed to a subpoena is a fear that the person under investigation (in this case Trump) will destroy documents. The problem with this justification is however, that Trump was not at Mar-a-Lago at the time.
This raid could end up being a political stunt by the Biden Administration, or if some early reports about Biden not knowing of the raid are true, a stunt by the FBI. Legally speaking this raid will be hard to justify, and overall it puts the FBI in a bad spot. Even if the raid was not politically motivated, it is a bad look. This could potentially be used by Republicans as a rallying cry to unite the Conservative part of the country and sway independents during midterms, similar to how Democrats used the January 6th riots as a rallying cry last year. Remember, it is still early, and new information should be coming out throughout the day. This raid could have massive implications on the Midterms, but we will just have to wait and see.
Thank you for reading! If you like my work and would like to see more please subscribe, it helps me out alot. If you have your own thoughts, please leave a comment, I am interested in what my readers think of the raid. If you would like to read some of my other work, check out this article about the fall of civil protests. Or this article about the Inflation Reduction Act. Thank you for reading and have a great rest of your day!
“FBI Searches Trump’s Florida Estate for Classified Records.” 2022. AP NEWS. August 9, 2022. https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-mar-a-lago-fbi-search-99097089194e736315c366a0e8fbafee.
Trump, Donald. “Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America.” n.d. Www.donaldjtrump.com. Accessed August 9, 2022. https://www.donaldjtrump.com/news/news-twvnkh8p990.
“Https://Twitter.com/Tedcruz/Status/1556840953511550976.” n.d. Twitter. Accessed August 9, 2022.
“Mark Levin Declares FBI Raid on Mar-a-Lago ‘the Worst Attack on This Republic in Modern History.’” 2022. Mediaite. August 9, 2022. https://www.mediaite.com/tv/mark-levin-declares-fbi-raid-on-mar-a-lago-the-worst-attack-on-this-republic-in-modern-history/.
Ibid.
“‘Hell to Pay’: Ben Shapiro Issues Warning on Mar a Lago Raid; Addresses Claims Trump Could Be Barred from Office.” n.d. The Daily Wire. Accessed August 9, 2022. https://www.dailywire.com/news/ben-shapiro-responds-to-fbi-raiding-mar-a-lago-addresses-claims-trump-could-be-barred-from-office.
Ibid.
“Dershowitz Reacts to FBI Raid at Mar-A-Lago: Biden Administration Has Weaponized Justice System.” n.d. The Daily Wire. Accessed August 9, 2022. https://www.dailywire.com/news/dershowitz-reacts-to-fbi-raid-at-mar-a-lago-biden-administration-has-weaponized-justice-system.
“Https://Twitter.com/Andrewcuomo/Status/1556990308424028163.” n.d. Twitter. Accessed August 9, 2022.
“Https://Twitter.com/Andrewyang/Status/1556987104219090945.” n.d. Twitter. Accessed August 9, 2022.
Hagstrom, Anders. 2022. “Nancy Pelosi Reacts to FBI Raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Resort, Says Authorities Had ‘Justification.’” Fox News. August 9, 2022. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/nancy-pelosi-reacts-fbi-raid-trumps-mar-a-lago-resort-says-authorities-justification.