Donald Trump took the stage at the Iowa Republican Dinner to a song that started out with the lyrics, “One could end up going to prison, one just might be president”.
The ironic moment came as the former president’s legal woes are mounting. Mr Trump has already been indicted twice. By the end of the summer, he may be the subject of as many as four criminal cases.
The latest episode in his legal peril appeared to be taking shape on Thursday 27 July, when the ex-president’s legal team met with the prosecution team led by Special Counsel Jack Smith in a last-ditch attempt to convince Mr Smith and his team from seeking another indictment against Mr Trump for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.
That same day, the special counsel’s team hit Mr Trump with superseding charges in federal court in Florida. Officials accused the former president and an employee at his Mar-a-Lago club of attempting to destroy security camera footage once Mr Trump learned he was under subpoena in the investigation over his handling of classified documents.
Earlier this month, Mr Trump said prosecutors notified him that he was also a target of Mr Smith’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the January 6 attack on the Capitol. The former president is understood to be facing the possibility of charges under three federal criminal statutes: Conspiracy to defraud the United States, deprivation of rights under colour of law, and witness tampering.
Natalie Allison of Politico tweeted a video of the moment on Friday night.
“As Trump took the stage in Iowa, this ironic line played: ‘One could end up going to prison, one just might be president.’ He had to walk out to Brooks & Dunn (like all candidates tonight) instead of his usual Lee Greenwood,” she wrote.
Twitter users were quick to join in the mockery of the former president.
MSNBC host Katie Phang simply wrote that it was “poetic”.
“Omg. That line hits right when he gets on stage,” State Attorney for Palm Beach County Dave Aronberg wrote.
GOP strategist Mike Murphy wrote: “Ha! Trump is finally understanding [that Iowa Governor Kim] Reynolds didn’t get her job because she just fell off a turnip truck…. #SharpOperator BTW, earlier she was at a big Tim Scott event. And treated with due respect.”
“This is gold! Proving once again that #Republicans are so clueless they don’t even listen to lyrics before greeting their standard bearer with a song. Excuse me while I ROTFLMAO,” Ann Werner said.
