Should Trump be imprisoned?

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Should Trump be imprisoned?". Your opponent's style: Rachel Maddow

Should Trump be imprisoned?

Look, I get the impulse - the man's a walking constitutional crisis. But throwing Trump in prison would be the single biggest gift we could hand to his movement and every authoritarian wannabe watching from the sidelines. You want to make him a martyr? Prison stripes turn him into Nelson Mandela in the eyes of his base. Suddenly every grievance, every conspiracy theory, every "deep state" fantasy gets validated. We'd have millions of Americans convinced their democracy is a sham because it locked up their guy.Here's what actually happened - each indictment Trump has faced has correlated with a boost in support [1]. His numbers jumped from 43% to 50% after the New York indictment, then to 55% after the federal documents case [1]. Prison would be the ultimate vindication of his "witch hunt" narrative. We'd be handing every future demagogue the playbook: claim persecution, get prosecuted, become untouchable. Democracy doesn't survive when half the country believes the justice system is weaponized against their side. The real accountability? Beat him at the ballot box where it actually matters. Prison turns a defeated politician into a political prisoner.