Donald Trump: A Presidential Candidate With 34 Felony Convictions

We're living in a time where the politically unthinkable has become real, and it's hard to wrap your head around it. In a scenario worthy of "The Twilight Zone," in less than 40 days, Americans will vote in a presidential election where the standard bearer for one party is a man who has been convicted of 34 felonies. Not only is former President Donald Trump running for president again, but many political analysts—me included—see him on a reasonably clear trajectory towards victory. This isn't just a little strange—it's a bizarre moment in history. There has never been a time when a convicted felon was this close to the Oval Office, let alone a person found guilty of dozens of serious crimes. And what's even more unsettling is that remarkably few people seem to be calling him what he is: a felon.

It's time to change that. Right now. From every corner of society—from private citizens to the media, from political analysts to the people on social media—we need to be blunt and consistent: Donald Trump is a felon, and we need to say it clearly and repeatedly until Election Day and beyond. The term "felon" matters because it cuts through the incessant, deafening noise. In this era of political spin, euphemisms, and conspiracy theories, clarity is more important than ever. Trump's strategy has always been to blur the lines between fact and fiction, right and wrong.

He excels at playing the victim, claiming he's being persecuted, and unfortunately, it works on a huge segment of the population. But there's a simple truth here that's getting lost: Donald Trump repeatedly and knowingly broke the law, and he's been convicted of it. That's a fact, and the only word that properly captures the seriousness of that is felon.

If we don't use that word—and if we don't keep using it—we're letting Trump off the hook. We're allowing him to once again reshape the narrative into one where rules don't apply to him, where his criminal behavior is something to be brushed aside or even admired. The man has been convicted of felonies. Serious, significant crimes. This isn't a minor misstep or a political witch hunt—it's reality. Calling him anything less is doing a disservice to the truth.

If we stay silent on this, we are complicit in Trump's setting a precedent that will surely change the future of American politics. If we let a convicted felon run for president without this collective reminder of his crimes, what does that say about our standards for leadership? It says that being president is just about power, not about responsibility or moral integrity. And if we, as individuals and members of the media, don't call out the fact that Trump is a felon, we remain complicit in normalizing that dangerous idea.