Donald Trump has been leading the United States for almost two years, even though nobody expected him to win at the US elections. Some are happy to have Trump as the president, but many are “stuck” with him, and they cannot wait to see his back. So far, his presidency has been tumultuous, but the next week or two are going to be the turning point. After the upcoming weeks, we are going to know the course for the remaining months with Trump as the leader.
First of all, on Monday, the jury in former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s trial will enter the third day of deliberation. This case is about Manafort’s relationship with the Ukrainian government before he became the head of Trump’s campaign on the presidential election. We also have to point out that former FBI chief Robert Mueller led the investigation about the special counsel probe and Russian interference in the 2016 elections and Manafort’s trial grew out of it. If Manafort were to be convicted, it would provide momentum for the special counsel’s office in advance of the release of Muelle’s report on his investigation. In case that he walks free, he is going to be tried in Washington on similar charges and POTUS will have more reasons to push his “witch hunt” story as true.
Secondly, according to various reports, federal prosecutors are prepping charges against former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen who has been connected to several suspicious bank loans and who potentially violated campaign finance rules. Cohen has also been involved with the payoffs he made to women that accused Trump of having an affair with them.
“My wife, my daughter, and my son have my first loyalty and always will,” Cohen told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in early July. “I put family and country first.” Earlier this month, sources close to Cohen told CNN that Cohen wanted to testify to Mueller that Donald Trump knew about the meeting that took place in June 2016 between Donald Trump Jr. and the other Trump campaign leaders and several Russians. However, the current president has negated such claims.
Thirdly, we are entering the final stages of protected negotiations between Trump’s legal team and special counsel’s office about whether Trump and Mueller should meet, with the president being the one answering questions. Trump’s lawyer Rudi Giuliani said that Mueller’s investigators “have taken 2-3 weeks to get back to us, so what I have to tell you is, look, I am not going to be rushed into having him testify so that he gets trapped into perjury.” So far it is unknown whether Trump will meet with Mueller, but soon we will learn what the decision is.
All of these events are interwoven, and one could alter the others. For instance, if Manafort is found not guilty, it will only strengthen Trump’s position, and he will find no reason to sit down with Mueller and accidentally disclose something that shouldn’t be out in the open. Even with Cohen’s plea, the president wouldn’t have reasons to talk to Mueller. On the other hand, if Manafort is found guilty, then Cohen is charged and cuts a plea agreement with the special counsel’s office. In this case, POTUS would be under pressure to talk to Mueller because otherwise, people would think that he is hiding something even if he doesn’t.
And throughout all this, Trump kept tweeting. There were some usual tweets, one of which was: “Disgraced and discredited Bob Mueller and his whole group of Angry Democrat Thugs spent over 30 hours with the White House Counsel, only with my approval, for purposes of transparency.” So far we had words and assumptions. In the upcoming weeks, we will see action and those actions could have major or minor consequences on Trump’s presidency and policy.
