Donald Trump found guilty: Could court loss be the electoral push Joe Biden’s campaign needs?

Former President Donald Trump has been convicted of felony crimes for falsifying business records in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election. Photo / AP

Whichever way Donald Trump attempts to spin this, becoming the first US President to be convicted in a criminal trial is not a distinction he wanted.

This was the weakest of the four criminal cases Trump could possibly have faced before November’s election. But seeking the White House as a convicted felon – over a hush money payment to a porn star no less – is still an embarrassing outcome his team had desperately tried to avoid.

The power of the presumptive Republican presidential candidate’s appeal has always been his strongman persona. In Manhattan’s criminal court, Trump, 77, was more like a caged bear glimpsed behind security barricades – and at the mercy of 12 men and women of his native New York.

Under the unflattering glare of the industrial lighting, Trump had been forced to sit silently at the defence table, as lurid claims about his personal life were combed through.

The former President, of course, argues the Manhattan case was a politically-motivated “witch hunt”.

“Mother Teresa could not beat the charges,” he said, after the jury was given its instructions.

That a jury of Trump’s peers, and not a cabal of Democrats, have found him guilty is an uncomfortable fact. Yet Trump’s argument is still a potent one, which holds sway with many Republicans.

Trump’s advisers say that his conviction will only fire up his “MAGA” base and turbocharge their fundraising potential. That may well be true, but it is undecided voters who will make or break November’s White House race – and polls suggest a conviction may damage his standing.

Nevertheless, if Joe Biden’s campaign believes this will secure a victory, the team may be left disappointed.

Few Americans have punctiliously followed the trial day-by-day. For many, the possibility of a Trump conviction has already been priced into their decision. For those still making up their minds, the evidence so far suggests a conviction would only shift the race by a mere few points.

That could prove decisive in a close race, but it is not the electoral albatross for Trump that the Biden campaign had hoped it would be – nor may it be enough to salvage the 81-year-old President’s own faltering re-election bid.

A prison sentence, which would further tilt the scales, is unlikely and Biden now faces a dilemma in how to respond to the trial’s outcome.

His senior aides have been carefully debating whether the President should refer to his opponent as a convicted felon, aware that explicitly seeking political opportunity from the case could backfire.

On Wednesday night, senior campaign sources suggested Biden may let other Democrats attack Trump over the case, while he focuses on bread-and-butter issues.

Despite its outcome, the end of the trial brings one major benefit for Trump. After losing invaluable time bound to the courtroom, he is now free to return to the campaign trail.