Once again, Donald Trump is defying political gravity. After a New York City jury found the former president and presumptive GOP presidential nominee guilty of 34 felony charges, the Trump campaign hauled in a record-breaking $53 million in campaign contributions in just 24 hours.  Even Never Trumpers rallied to the MAGA leader’s defense. Maine moderate, Senator Susan Collins, who voted to impeach Trump and refuses to endorse his presidential bid, denounced the trial’s “political underpinnings.”

Instead of dividing Republicans, Trump’s guilty verdict is dividing Democrats. On one side, hyper-partisans are salivating at the prospect of Trump in a prison jumpsuit, with one Democratic National Committee member telling the New York Times, “He’d be doing jail time if I was the judge.” Democrats in purple states, however, are taking a more cautious approach. On Monday, when asked if Trump should go to jail, Wisconsin senator Tammy Baldwin parried, “That’s for somebody else to decide.”

Minnesota congressman Dean Phillips believes New York Governor Kathy Hochul should pardon the party’s nemesis. The three-term congressman posted on X: “You think pardoning is stupid? Making [Trump] a martyr over a payment to a porn star is stupid ...  It’s energizing his base, generating record sums of campaign cash, and will likely result in an electoral boost.” Democratic pollster Doug Schoen advises his party to steer clear of the Trump conviction trap. As he puts it, “It’s the issues, stupid.”