Talk show host Bill Maher expressed his concern that following former President Donald Trump’s conviction, his supporters would “go nuts” should he end up in jail.
Maher spent multiple segments discussing Trump’s guilty verdict on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. While Maher has openly criticized the former president, he admitted he was not necessarily in favor of seeing Trump in jail.
“I mean, I’ve heard some people say if his name wasn’t Donald Trump, he would definitely get jail time. But sending a former American president to jail, I don’t know if that’s something I’m asking,” Maher said. “I mean, MAGA nation will go nuts. I don’t know if that’s a reason to or not to do something, but they will.”
Judge Juan Merchan will sentence Trump on July 11, right before the Republican National Convention, in which Trump is presumed to be named the party’s nominee. Maher pointed out that Merchan is Latino, and the prosecutor in this case, Alvin Bragg, is black, which could infuriate Trump supporters even more.
“A civil war in this country, I’m sorry to say, becomes a race war. That’s the sad truth about this country,” Maher went on. “And if they put [Trump] in jail, I mean, the first thing his supporters are gonna say is, ‘Oh, that’s what it is.’ A Black district attorney. You know, all these people who are the district attorneys, they’re black. The judge was not White. This is what it is.”
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This trial has been correlated with an increase in financial support for the Republican presidential candidate. The Trump campaign raised $1.5 million after the first day in court and then doubled that amount three days later, and more donations added up to $76 million raised in April alone. Within the first 24 hours following the verdict, Trump’s campaign raised $52.8 million.
Trump has not shown any signs of stopping his 2024 campaign. Instead, he promised supporters outside of the courthouse that he is still “fighting for our country.”