'Case Strong' to 'Witch-Hunt': Here's How World Media Covered Trump's Indictment

Ex-US President Donald Trump on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to 'hush money' charges brought before him.

Former US President Donald Trump being escorted to a courtroom on Tuesday, 4 April in New York.

(Photo: PTI)

As Donald Trump becomes the first US president ever to face criminal charges, the global media has been abuzz with experts opining on what next for him – and the case itself. The Quint looks at a few. An opinion piece in The New York Times, titled 'We Finally Know the Case Against Trump, and It Is Strong,' states that the decision to indict Donald Trump is anything but political and that the charges against him have a sound legal footing. 

An author writing for The Washington Post says in an article, titled 'The Trump Indictment Is a Dangerous Leap on the Highest of Wires,' that failure to secure a conviction will only inflame Trump and his supporters in their claims that the criminal justice system is being weaponised against them.

On the other hand, an opinion piece in The Guardian, titled 'Every Indictment Will Make Trump Stronger – and Republicans Wilder,' states that every charge brought against Trump will only embolden the claims endorsed by him and wholeheartedly espoused by his supporters that the Democrats and the judiciary are hand-in-glove in the ongoing alleged political witch-hunt. 

Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta stated in an article that while Democrats may believe that Trump's conviction is the end for him, the biggest "criminal-political" show of this century is just beginning. 

An article in the Los Angeles Times titled 'Why Trump’s Indictment Is filling never again Trumpers with Dread and Despair' states that while several people believe that the former US president's indictment will fuel his reelection campaign, others – including his former core support base – have been considering other options for the GOP nominee in the 2024 election. 

'Trump plays the martyr in historic indictment marked by media frenzy' read the headline in  Le Monde's piece on the developments of Tuesday. The French daily's US correspondent Piotr Smolar wrote, "For the past two weeks, Donald Trump has once again become the dark star of the American media, around whom everything seemed to revolve. On Tuesday, April 4, the law of judicial gravity brutally brought him back down to the status of an ordinary defendant."

In an article titled 'Donald Trump, Finally Indicted,' Pakistani newspaper Daily Times says that the testimony of people who were once closest to Trump, like Michael Cohen, has hurt the former president's reputation considerably. 

An opinion piece in the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post used news of the Trump arrest to take potshots at the United States. "Chinese are chuckling at the irony as they await details of a criminal investigation into hush money paid on behalf of former US president Donald Trump before election day in 2016. The former American leader should also be ashamed of his role in the January 6 insurrection," financial studies professor Wang Wen wrote.