Anxiety surges as Donald Trump may be indicted soon: Why 2024 is 'the final battle' and 'the big one'

WASHINGTON – It looks like American politics is entering a new age of anxiety, triggered by an unprecedented legal development: The potential indictment of a former president and current presidential candidate.

Donald Trump's many legal problems – and calls for protests by his followers – have generated new fears of political violence and anxiety about the unknowable impact all this will have on the already-tense 2024 presidential election.

"I don’t think we’ll know how it will play until it plays," Republican strategist Liz Mair said.

During an airport rally Saturday night in Waco, Texas – his first such rally of the 2024 cycle – Trump spoke at length about the legal threats facing him and cast them in apocalyptic terms.

Telling supporters that “enemies are desperate to stop us," Trump said that "2024 is the final battle. It's going to be the big one."

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New York grand jury to meet again

A big development could happen as early as Monday, when a grand jury in New York City is expected to meet again on a Trump case that revolves around hush money paid to a former adult film actress.

Trump's possible indictment – he has said he expects to be arrested and warned that "potential death and destruction" could ensue – has created fears of violence that would make the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021 look like a warm-up act.

"The horrific activities that took place on Jan. 6 – God willing, we will not see them repeated this week, should any one of these cases move forward on Trump," said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., speaking Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."

The grand jury has taken testimony that Trump financed payments to former porn star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence just before the 2016 election. Prosecutors are looking at whether the payment constituted an illegal campaign contribution.

While Trump claims the accusations are unwarranted and politically motivated, law enforcement officials in New York City and Washington say they have beefed up security plans in  case Trump supporters decide to act on his complaints.

Trump has made his sharpest attacks on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who has now been the recipient of death threats.

In a statement over the weekend, Bragg said that "we evaluate cases in our jurisdiction based on the facts, the law, and the evidence."

Trump investigations could extend to 2024 election

The New York case may only be the tip of the political and legal iceberg; Trump is under investigation elsewhere over Jan. 6, the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents.

Any or all of these cases could play out for the next year and a half, right up to Election Day on Nov. 5, 2024.

In Atlanta, prosecutors are looking into the pressure that Trump applied to Georgia officials to overturn his loss to Biden in that state.

In Washington, a Justice Department special counsel is investigating Trump efforts nationwide to overturn the election and his actions on or before Jan. 6. Special Counsel Jack Smith is also investigating Trump's handling of classified information after he left the White House.

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Trump tends to lump these investigations together while urging his followers to object, suggestions that many fear will be taken all too literally.

Following the rally in Waco, the anti-Trump Lincoln Project criticized "his usual un-American and anti-democratic statements." The organization also pointed out that "the only times he seemed to come alive was when hinting of violence and retribution.”

How will 2024 voters react?

This is also an emerging age of political uncertainty.

No former president has ever been indicted; no major presidential candidate has sought the office while under indictment – therefore, no campaign has any idea how actual voters might react.

Trump and his allies are confident that criminal charges will wind up helping him politically, firing up fundraising and poll numbers.

Some Republican lawmakers seem willing to turn Trump's legal problems into a political issue, pledging to investigate Bragg and the Justice Department over their handling of the Trump investigations.

Democrats said Trump's rhetoric and Republican interference are leading the nation down a dark path.

"It's dangerous," said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the top House Democrat. "And if he keeps it up, he's going to get someone killed."

Trump indictment would be historic

A country that warred its way to independence from Great Britain in the late 18th Century has had many tense political times.

There have been the assassinations, Vietnam War arguments, and civil rights opposition of the 1960s; McCarthyism and the Red Scare of the 1950s; an actual Civil War during the 1860s – all long ago.

"A lot of us won’t remember a time that was this tense," Mair said.

As in previous eras, leaders do not know how the current age of anxiety will end.

Republican strategist Doug Heye said Trump may want his backers to act out the last scene of the film "The Joker," in which rioters rampage through pre-Batman Gotham City. (He also noted that scenes in "The Joker" sequel are being filmed outside the courthouse where the Trump grand jury meets.)

There's not that much GOP anxiety about Trump himself, Heye said – it's about his followers and their reaction. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has urged Trump supporters not to protest, saying "we want calmness out there.”

"There is anxiety, as evidenced by McCarthy's comments that Trump supporters should not protest, that his constantly escalating rhetoric will lead to getting people hurt," Heye said.

How would a Trump indictment move voters?

Many Republicans have sought to avoid discussing the potential campaign impact of a Trump indictment. That group includes prospective candidates such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and announced candidates such as former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and their aides.

So much depends on future developments, some said. For example: One potential 2024 candidate, former Vice President Mike Pence, may have to testify about Trump in the Jan. 6 case.

Many Democrats are also unsure how voters might react to a long, drawn-out story of investigations, indictments, and possible trials of a former president and presidential candidate – assuming they react at all.

Said Democratic strategist Lis Smith: "I don't know how much this is going to move the needle with voters."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump may be indicted soon, causing anxiety ahead of 2024