Conservative pundit Ann Coulter thinks that former President Donald Trump should be convicted as he faces multiple criminal indictments, suggesting a unique punishment for the Republican leader on Friday.
Prior to Trump's election in 2016, Coulter published a book entitled In Trump We Trust: E Pluribus Awesome!, which touted the billionaire celebrity as the right-wing's best option to lead the country. However, the conservative commentator soured on the former president during his White House tenure as he failed to achieve his signature campaign promise of building and completing a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Coulter has since become a staunch Trump critic, taking aim at him from his right-flank and calling out what she views as his hypocrisies. In mid-July, after news broke that Melania Trump had received a $155,000 payment from a Trump-aligned super PAC, the conservative pundit sarcastically quipped on X, formerly known as Twitter, "Not a grift at all."
In a Friday night X post, Coulter voiced her support for the former president being convicted and also shared what she thought would be an appropriate sentence.
"In a perfect world, Trump would be convicted, but in Texas. Assigned to a prison work gang. Sent to the southern border. Forced to build the wall," the conservative pundit wrote.
Trump's 2016 presidential campaign was dominated by chants of "Build the Wall" as he regularly criticized the situation at the southern U.S. border and undocumented immigration. The former president promised to build a wall along the border with Mexico, saying that the U.S. ally would pay for it.
That project faced significant roadblocks and political backlash when he entered the White House. The wall was never completed, and Mexico did not provide any funding. By the time Trump left office some 458 miles of "border wall system" was finished, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that was reported by U.S. News and World Report in February 2022. The total length of the U.S border with Mexico is 1,954 miles.
In a perfect world, Trump would be convicted, but in Texas. Assigned to a prison work gang. Sent to the southern border. Forced to build the wall.
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) August 5, 2023
Meanwhile, Trump was criminally charged for the third time this past week as he faced his second federal indictment. The latest charges were brought by the Department of Justice's (DOJ) special counsel Jack Smith in connection with Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Smith previously indicted Trump in June related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents improperly taken from the White House when he left office.
At the end of March, Trump was indicted by a grand jury in Manhattan. District attorney Alvin Bragg brought the charges related to a hush money payment to adult film star Stephanie Clifford, better known by her stage name Stormy Daniels, ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
The former president has pleaded not guilty to all charges. He and his allies say that all the prosecutions are politically motivated and an effort to prevent him from becoming president again.
"Isn't is TERRIBLE that a Political Opponent can haphazardly charge you with FAKE crimes in the middle of your campaign in order to interfere with your time & message, and there is nothing you can do to stop this travesty of 'justice,'" Trump wrote Friday in a post on Truth Social, his social media platform.
Newsweek reached out to press representatives for Trump and to Coulter for comment via email.
