There is a solemn obligation that these jurors and prospective jurors are being asked to perform. And this includes importantly people who disdain the idea of Donald Trump returning to political power. But the criminal trial is not a proxy for an election. It is not a substitute for the will of the American people. A criminal trial is exactly that,
a criminal trial. This is a moment where Donald Trump's fiercest critics must be his most vociferous defenders for a fair trial, because the system that he attacked cannot be denigrated. It is Monday, April fifteenth, twenty twenty four. This is the warning. There are two hundred and four days remaining until the American people will decide who is in command. During the most dangerous hours the world has seen, perhaps since the Cuban missile crisis, or perhaps nineteen seventy three.
In the Middle East, what happened this past weekend was unprecedented. Iran made a declaration that it's prepared to wage war against Israel and the United States in the clear light of day. The war that has gone on between Israel and Iran has escaped from the shadows and now a great question hangs over the Israeli war Cabinet, the situation room, in the White House, all of the world capitals, of
all of the democratic powers. There is a coalition of chaos and men that is merging, coming together, that is prodding, poking, testing the resolve of the free world. Eighty years on from the day that will soon be recognized and honored, the invasion of Europe d Day, June sixth, nineteen forty four. This access of Iran, of North Korea, of Russia and China is menacing. It's probing, it's probing, prodding in the Philippines,
in Taiwan. Russia is fueling instability all over the world, while every night It's missiles and drones assault the sovereignty and the peace of Ukraine. Vladimir Putin and his propagandists promised the use of nuclear weapons on a weekly basis. Vladimir Putin has made a declaration that wherever Russia is spoken, is Russia, and that there are no permanent international boundaries so far as it is concerning where Russian is spoken.
Iran is the world's pre eminent force of chaos. Its proxies are firing missiles into international shipping lanes, targeting the ships of dozens of countries, delaying the transfer of goods throughout the world. They are the full manners of terror and chaos, the principal backers of Hamas and Hezbolah. They are the world's leading exporterers of terror, and they have a close relationship and close with North Korea. This access is powerful. It is formidable Iranian drones or used by
Russians to attack Ukrainian cities. There is communication, there is coordination. There is a commitment amongst these countries to bring down the world order that has existed since the world was rebuilt. After it was brought to the brink of ruin, Europe was shattered and much of Asia. Upwards of eighty five million people were killed all over the world just eighty
years ago. And all of this, the great escalation that took coincides with the criminal trial of Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, the MAGA nominee, the former president of the United States hush money trial for paying off a porn star Stormy Daniels many years ago. The trial will play out in the Manhattan District Court. The prosecution is led by the District Attorney mister Alvin Bragg, and jury selection
has begun. A great test is underway that in the end, when the jury is seated, they will have to swear an oath, and Donald Trump's freedom is utterly dependent on the fidelity of those American citizens to that oath. When that jury is seated, the twelve people will share one thing in common, not their se exergender or their political views. It is their citizenship. Everybody who sits on the jury will be an American citizen. Donald Trump took an oath,
he desecrated it. His oath was thirty five words. It's the only oath of office that's actually prescribed in the
American Constitution. Trump promised to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, which calls for the assignment of political power through the outcome of elections, which Donald Trump lost, but refused to concede and triggered an insurrection and assault, a criminal act, violence, mayhem, and chaos, bloodying the peaceful transition of power, humiliating the United States on
the world stage. Now, the jurors in the Trump trial will not be asked a question about whether they think Donald Trump is a good president or a bad president or even a good person or a bad person. The jurors will be asked a question in the end, and it is whether they can be faithful, have integrity towards an idea of impartiality. Are they able to put their prejudices aside we all have them, and be fair and
do their duty, duty, obligation, responsibility. Freedom is a non sense word without these concepts, and the American criminal justice system relies not on politics but on justice, on the notion that justice is blind. And so a jury of Donald Trump's peers will be seated and let us understand something immediately. Manhattan is where Donald Trump's peers are. He is,
if anything, a New Yorker. He is known there and famous there for a generation before anybody had seen their first Apprentice episode, an eon, before his political aspirations were clear, or even before he made his first appearance on The Howard Stern Show. New Yorkers will be asked a question, and it has to do with the functioning of the American justice system. Can a jury be assembled of citizens that can be impartial towards the most famous man of
the age, the dominant figure in the culture. Can they understand intellectually, morally that Donald Trump is presumed innocent. This is not an occasion for anybody to be rooting for
political outcomes. This is not a baseball game, This is not the masters, and it's not a certain It's a criminal trial, and it's a serious matter for any citizen who sits there accused by the state, with a risk of losing their freedom, of being incarcerated by the state threw an assault on him where the ends are justified by the means. No justice requires justice, and the American system is not a kangaroo court. Donald Trump attacks our system of justice every day. He promises chaos and mayhem
and violence in the streets. He promises retribution and revenge and imprisonment for his political foes who exercise their God given constitutional rights to speech, to conscience, to political as activity, including denunciations of his misconduct, his aberrant behavior, his insanity, and his manifest on fitness for authority, power and control
of anything anyone at any time ever. But the trial ahead is just that, a trial, and everybody who looks at Donald Trump and worries about his return to power should understand that these trials have not hurt Donald Trump politically. The jury proverbially speaking, is out on that question. We'll see in the end, but for now, if anything they've cut in Trump benefit towards his direction. Now here's the thing. Nobody's above the law in America, but nobody's below it either,
including Donald Trump. This is an important moment for the whole country, as the whole of the world stands at the edge of an abyss. Eighty years on from the end of a global war. The world, it seems, has forgotten many of the lessons learned by the horror in
the blood of nearly one hundred million dead. So here we are, on this April fifteenth, when the American people pay a multitude of their hard earned money to the American government, watching a criminal trial of a former disgrace president, a hush money trial involving a level of clawdriness that is epic, empathetic and tragic. Then, yeah, a little funny. But in a moment when the world is at a dangerous edge, in a dangerous hour that is growing darker,
the winds are blowing, catastrophe is in the air. American people have indulged a lot of madness, a lot of frivolousness, a lot of insanity in the hour. For all the fun, it seems to me seems to be coming to a pretty decisive end. So appreciate today the split screen ahead World War III to the right and the porn star hush money trial to the left. Neither one is a joke. Both are utterly real, and both are happening. What will
you do about it? If anything? Two hundred and four days to go until the man on trial could be the most powerful man in the world. Again, that's not a criminal trial question, that's not a jury question. That's a political question, and we all get a vote on that. That is the great part about being an American. Thank you for listening to my political commentary. If you like what you heard today, please also consider subscribing to the Warning Daily newsletter on substack.