Donald Trump won 51 percent of the vote during the Iowa Republican Caucus held on Jan. 15.
Despite the criminal charges against Trump, he is still a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. Last year, Trump was charged in four different criminal cases in four different states. The penalties from all the cases add up to 91 total felony counts.
The charges against Trump include felonies related to “Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, election interference in Georgia, falsifying business records in New York, and mishandling classified records after leaving the presidency” according to a report from Citizens for Ethics.
I do not believe that Donald Trump should still be allowed to run for president with the current charges against him. Especially considering that a majority of the criminal charges against him relate to his run as president.
Trump’s ability to run for president has been challenged in 35 different states. All challenges have either been appealed, unresolved or dismissed. Most of these challenges center around Jan. 6, Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election and whether or not this disqualifies him from running for president.
The decision to disqualify Trump from running for president is hard to make due to the fact that this is a situation that has not previously occurred in United States history. The New York Times references “a largely untested clause of a constitutional amendment that disqualifies government officials who ‘engaged in insurrection or rebellion’ from holding office.”
Even if Trump is eventually proven to be innocent in all these cases, I believe that he should not be allowed to run for president while the cases are still ongoing. Although it is often stated that people are innocent until proven guilty, I think we need to be careful with who is allowed to run for president.
