Trump Claims Victory as Hush-Money Case Ends With a Whimper

Trump is claiming victory after becoming the first convicted felon who will enter the White House.

Judge Juan Merchan on Friday sentenced Trump to unconditional discharge, or a sentence without imprisonment, fines, or probation, saying that this was the “only lawful sentence” he could deliver.

Merchan was careful to note that it was the office Trump was about to take, and not his own crimes, that led to this wrist-slap of a sentencing for falsifying business records to cover up his hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels. But Trump viewed it as a win nonetheless.

He wrote on Truth Social shortly after the sentencing:

The Radical Democrats have lost another pathetic, unAmerican Witch Hunt. After spending tens of millions of dollars, wasting over 6 years of obsessive work that should have been spent on protecting New Yorkers from violent, rampant crime that is destroying the City and State, coordinating with the Biden/Harris Department of Injustice in lawless Weaponization, and bringing completely baseless, illegal, and fake charges against your 45th and 47th President, ME, I was given an UNCONDITIONAL DISCHARGE. That result alone proves that, as all Legal Scholars and Experts have said, THERE IS NO CASE, THERE WAS NEVER A CASE, and this whole Scam fully deserves to be DISMISSED. The real Jury, the American People, have spoken, by Re-Electing me with an overwhelming MANDATE in one of the most consequential Elections in History. As the American People have seen, this “case” had no crime, no damages, no proof, no facts, no Law, only a highly conflicted Judge, a star witness who is a disbarred, disgraced, serial perjurer, and criminal Election Interference. Today’s event was a despicable charade, and now that it is over, we will appeal this Hoax, which has no merit, and restore the trust of Americans in our once great System of Justice. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

But as Merchan stressed, there was a case and the president-elect is guilty. And even though Trump will walk free and take his oath of office on January 20, he still is and will always be a convicted felon.

Donald Trump gloated that the Americans “don’t need anything” from Canada, even as the Canadian government sent firefighters and supplies in response to the devastating wildfires in California.  

“Canada is mobilizing to help fight the wildfires in southern California. Canadian water bombers are already in action. 250 firefighters are ready to deploy,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote in a post on X Thursday. 

“To our American neighbours: Canada’s here to help.”

But that same day, Trump had a very different perspective on the relationship between neighbors: “We don’t need anything,” he said during a press conference in Palm Beach, Florida, not speaking about the wildfires specifically but just generally complaining because that’s what he does.

“We don’t need their fuel, we don’t need their energy, we don’t need their oil and gas. We don’t need anything that they have,” Trump continued. 

“And I said to Trudeau, I said, ‘Why are, why are we subsidizing you 200 a—250 billion dollars a year? And he said, ‘I really don’t know.’ And I said, ‘Well, I don’t know either.’ I said, ‘What would happen to Canada if we didn’t?’ He said, ‘Canada would be obliterated.’ I said, ‘Well, then Canada should be a fifty-first state.’”

Canada has actually been helping fight the fires all week through the use of water bombers operating around Los Angeles. One Canadian “Super Scooper” aircraft, two of which are loaned annually to the U.S., was grounded Thursday after colliding with a civilian drone—resulting in a loss of more than 1,500 gallons of ocean water per flight that could have been dropped on active fires.

But Trump doesn’t think we need any help at all. Take lumber, for example, an industry of which Trump clearly has a highly technical understanding: “We don’t need Canada for lumber ’cause we have big forests, that we have, you know, not utilized. In some cases they’re protected, which I can take that protection off. And you can take down that tree and grow a better tree. And you know that’s pretty common.”

Elon Musk is already sparking chaos in the federal government, sending representatives from his Department of Government Efficiency to agencies across the federal bureaucracy.

The Washington Post reports that employees from DOGE, which will be headed by Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, are already beginning to interview federal employees as part of their plan to decrease the size of the federal government. DOGE has interviewed workers at the Treasury Department, the Internal Revenue Service, and the departments of Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, and Health and Human Services.

Musk and Ramaswamy already have 50 employees working out of the Washington, D.C., offices of Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, according to the Post, with plans to have 100 people in place by January 20, when Trump is sworn in as president. But their plans are already meeting skepticism from civil servants and members of Congress, including Republicans.

According to two government employees who spoke to the Post, Musk’s and Ramaswamy’s comments about the federal workforce have made them “wary” of the DOGE effort. The pair have cited a controversial Supreme Court ruling, Loper Bright v. Raimondo, that they say will help them enact sweeping budget cuts across the federal government—but the federal bureaucracy seems all but destined for a clash with the fast-moving, “disruptive” culture of Silicon Valley.

However, in recent days, Musk has been tempering his statements on DOGE, conceding that his goal of cutting the federal budget by “at least $2 trillion” probably won’t happen. Plus, since DOGE isn’t an official government agency and Musk and Ramaswamy aren’t actually federal employees, they can’t make any changes themselves. The most they can do is recommend changes and budget cuts to Congress and the president.

Still, Musk and Ramaswamy will at least attempt to make a big show of appearing to be slashing the size of government, and regardless of how it goes, will attempt to claim victory. If there are negative consequences, rest assured that they will find some way to blame somebody else—likely their critics.

President-elect Donald Trump was sentenced Friday morning in his hush-money case, after becoming the first president to be convicted of multiple felonies.

Judge Juan Merchan sentenced Trump to unconditional discharge, or a sentence without imprisonment, fines, or probation, saying that this was the “only lawful sentence” he could pass down.

Merchan made clear that Trump was receiving this sentence only because he is returning to the White House in a few days. It is the legal protection of the office that determined the sentence, not the occupant of the office, Merchan stressed in delivering the sentence.

It’s a whimper of an end for the historic case, in which Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up his payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, with whom he had an affair. Still, it’s a national embarrassment. Trump is now the first convicted felon to be sworn in as president.

Appearing virtually in the courtroom Friday, Trump complained that he did nothing wrong.

“I was the first president in history to be under a gag order. I’m totally innocent. I did nothing wrong,” Trump claimed. “They talk about business records, but they were extremely accurate and I had nothing to do with them.”

Undeterred, Merchan accused Trump’s lawyers of trying to create a “chilling effect” on the Supreme Court in pressing for the sentencing to be waived.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass also warned that Trump’s actions during the case were an attack on the rule of law. “Such threats are designed to have a chilling effect, intimidate those who have the responsibility to enforce our laws in the hopes that they will ignore the defendant’s transgressions because they fear [Trump] is too powerful to be subjected to rule of law like the rest of us,” Steinglass argued, according to Lawfare reporter Tyler McBrien.

Trump tried very hard to stop this moment from happening, leaning on his presidential immunity, but to no avail.

“Sir, I wish you godspeed as you pursue your second term in office. Thank you,” Merchan said as the sentencing concluded.

The Supreme Court shockingly slapped down Donald Trump’s request to block the sentencing for his sole criminal conviction, leaving him with few other options than to finally face the music at the finale of his hush-money trial Friday morning. But Trump’s interpretation of the rejection—which attempted to frame the forthcoming legal comeuppance as something of a fight song—wouldn’t have you think so.

“I appreciate the time and effort of the United States Supreme Court in trying to remedy the great injustice done to me by the highly conflicted ‘Acting Justice,’ who should not have been allowed to try this case,” Trump wrote Thursday night on Truth Social. “Every Legal Scholar stated, unequivocally, that this is a case that should never have been brought. There was no case against me. In other words, I am innocent of all of the Judge’s made up, fake charges.

“This was nothing other than Weaponization of our Justice System against a Political Opponent,” he continued. “It’s called Lawfare, and nothing like this has ever happened in the United States of America, and it should never be allowed to happen again.”

Trump then went on to lament the details of the gag order placed upon him in the case, claiming that preventing him from bashing the characters of witnesses and court staff in the hush-money trial was a violation of his First Amendment rights.

“For the sake and sanctity of the Presidency, I will be appealing this case, and am confident that JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL,” Trump wrote. “The pathetic, dying remnants of the Witch Hunts against me will not distract us as we unite and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

The Supreme Court ruled 5–4 on Thursday against Trump, determining that there would be no further delays in processing the president-elect’s criminal conviction. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump nominee, sided with the court’s three liberal justices in the majority decision. The court issued a brief, one-paragraph statement explaining its two-pronged rationale for rejecting Trump’s request.

“First, the alleged evidentiary violations at President-Elect Trump’s state-court trial can be addressed in the ordinary course on appeal,” the court wrote. “Second, the burden that sentencing will impose on the President-Elect’s responsibilities is relatively insubstantial in light of the trial court’s stated intent to impose a sentence of ‘unconditional discharge’ after a brief virtual hearing.”

Last week, Judge Juan Merchan dealt the final blow to any suggestions of serious consequences for the president-elect. Merchan wrote in his order that “unconditional discharge” had become the “the most viable solution” for Trump, indicating that the incoming president would not be hampered down with fines, court-appointed supervision, or incarceration.

Trump is scheduled to be sentenced at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, with the MAGA leader appearing virtually.