I was thinking today that the tone, atmosphere, buzz, etc., around the prosecution of Donald Trump feels somehow familiar, and of a sudden it came to me. Trump is the O.J. Simpson of the 2020s.

Everybody knows that he is guilty. He has a dream-team team of lawyers to assert his innocent victimhood. The public is divided, along race and class lines, into those who wonder why he is not yet in jail, and those who feel that he must be innocent. The struggle is renewed unremittingly in the media for whom Trump has been a gold mine of meaningless tabloid news. And there’s even talk of putting Trump’s trial(s) on television. There’s a big difference, however, in how the cases will play out. O.J. was tried for murder and was later imprisoned for stealing sports memorabilia. Trump stole classified memorabilia, and he will later be imprisoned for a list of crimes.