Action worthy of a “third world” country for one of his sons, “abuse of power” for the Republican leader: the family, allies and even opponents of Donald Trump on the American right yesterday denounced the criminal prosecution against of the former US president, in which they see nothing more than an attempt to prevent him from returning to the White House in the 2024 elections.

The sons

“Let’s be clear guys. It is something worthy of communists. It would make Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot blush,” the former president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., quipped during his streaming show.

“We are in the middle of a battle for the future of our country. For our very existence,” he continued, lashing out at the African-American Democratic attorney behind the prosecution, that “corrupt leftist.”

Through Twitter, he added that his father’s opponents are instrumentalizing, turning justice into a “weapon” “to interfere in the 2024 elections, to stop Trump”. The “only solution” is to “send him back to the White House,” he wrote, adding three exclamation marks.

This is an act worthy of a “third world” country, for “opportunistic targeting of a political opponent in the middle of an election campaign”, his brother Eric Trump bid via Twitter.

Republican opponents

Florida Gov. Ron DeSandis, for many the former president’s main opponent in the Republican internal race — although he has not yet made official his candidacy in the 2024 presidential election — condemned the criminal prosecution, which he said “contradicts the values of America”. Mr. DeSandis also emphasized via Twitter that he would not approve an “extradition request” of the former president, who resides in his state.

Mike Pompeo, Trump’s former secretary of state, also a potential rival of Mr. Trump’s in the intra-party battle, said for his part that the prosecution “undermines America’s confidence in our justice system.”

Party

Republican Party leader Rona McDaniel called it a “gross abuse of power by a prosecutor focused on getting political revenge instead of keeping people safe.”

“Meanwhile, New York, where Alvin Bragg is Manhattan’s district attorney, broke a new crime record last year,” the GOP tweeted.

The barons

The decision to prosecute former President Trump “irreparably damages” the United States, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, complained. “The American people are not going to tolerate this injustice,” he discounted and explained that the House will make sure that Attorney Bragg is “accountable” for this “unprecedented abuse of power.”

“Outrageous,” gushed Republican congressman Jim Jordan in a one-word tweet.

Senator Ted Cruz spoke of an “unprecedented” instrumentalization of justice that knows “catastrophic escalation”.

The faithful

Congressman Elise Stefanik spoke of a “black day for America”, denouncing the “socialist” prosecutor Bragg and predicting that the prosecution will push “more than ever” the American “patriots” to “organize peacefully and vote to save the great our democracy by electing

“My president is innocent,” Marjorie Taylor Green said via Twitter.

Advantage;

Analysts expect that Mr. Trump will seek to turn the criminal prosecution against him into a campaign advantage, stoking the anger of his hardline supporters, but at the same time point out that this legal drama and the series of other investigations against him are not out of the question to tire the partisan audience, to turn it to some other candidate.

To secure the Grand Old Party’s anointing, Mr. Trump will be required to increase his percentage, well above the 25-30% of the party’s supporters who generally side with him no matter what, especially as candidates will dwindle.

Earlier this month, however, Mr. Trump appeared to be the favorite in the intra-party battle, garnering 44% of Republican supporters’ vote intentions to Mr. DeSandis’ 30%, according to an Ipsos poll conducted on behalf of the Reuters news agency.