Earlier today, a Manhattan grand jury took the unprecedented step of filing an indictment against former President Donald Trump. Although the exact charges are not yet officially known, numerous media reports indicate Trump is the first U.S. president to ever be formally charged with a crime.
The reactions online were myriad, from shock on the right to joy on the left, but in the moments after, a number of Trump supporters all settled on one thought. That America crossed a “Rubicon” it would never come back from.
The indictment stems from the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation into allegations Trump authorized a hush money payment to former adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election. Trump could be charged with falsifying business records to cover up the exchange.
The crimes do not stem from his time in office, but many thought that his status as former commander-in-chief would protect him from any type of criminal prosecution.
A number of conservatives, believing this to be a politically motivated move to keep Trump down in advance of the 2024 presidential election, declared that America had crossed the Rubicon.
“The political Rubicon has been crossed. There’s no going back from this,” wrote commentator Charlie Kirk.
“We’ve crossed the rubicon America is headed to a dark place,” wrote a staffer for Tim Pool.
On Truth Social, a verified user agreed.
“The rubicon has been crossed. A threshold that has never been crossed has just been crossed,” they wrote, quoting a broadcast about the indictment by John Solomon.
The Rubicon is an infamous metaphor relating back to ancient Rome when armies led by Julius Caesar refused to disband and marched toward Rome, which led to a Civil War on the Italian peninsula and Caesar being installed as a permanent dictator of the Roman empire.
In this metaphor it appears President Joe Biden—although he had nothing to do with this—is Caesar, who will now apparently become America’s dictator for life.
But as fraught as conservatives are over the indictment, Trump is currently being investigated in three other cases, meaning that there might still be a few more Rubicons still to be crossed.
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*First Published: Mar 30, 2023, 6:02 pm CDT
David Covucci
David Covucci is the senior politics and technology editor at the Daily Dot, covering the nexus between Washington and Silicon Valley. His work has appeared in Vice, the Huffington Post, Jezebel, Gothamist, and other publications. He is particularly interested in hearing any tips you have. Reach out at [email protected]
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