Two lifetimes: That’s roughly the number of years’ worth of potential sentences that ride along with the numerous indictments now dogging Donald Trump, a calculation put together by none other than Fox News.
“Fox & Friends” host Joey Jones on Friday revealed – complete with a dramatic rolling counter – that criminal charges against Trump, if each were to end in conviction with maximum sentences, would add up to 140 years. As it is difficult to imagine Trump living to be almost 220, that would be a life sentence.
“The number of years Trump could face in jail if convicted on all counts of the classified documents case – it is still counting – it goes up to 140,” Jones said.
It’s an entirely theoretical number, with many factors working against it ever being reality: Even if Trump were to be convicted and max-sentenced in every instance, sentences are often applied concurrently at the discretion of a judge, meaning two or even three 20-year terms could net out at 20 years, total.
But the figure demonstrates the thickening tangle of legal woes the former president and current GOP front-runner is facing.
“Time is not on Trump’s side,” Jones said, walking through a timeline of trial dates and other court matters interspersed with the first Republican debates, key deadlines and the 2024 election itself. Besides current and possibly future federal indictments, they include his company’s civil lawsuit brought by the state of New York, a defamation lawsuit (on the same day as the Iowa caucuses), and a jury trial over hush-money payments allegedly paid to Stormy Daniels.
Jones brought on former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, himself a former presidential contender, who still seems to think all the legal trouble is only making Trump a stronger candidate.
“Most Americans look at this and see this is an attempt to make sure that Donald Trump is somehow chased off the ballot,” Huckabee said. “In their attempt to do it is sort of like Wile E. Coyote going after Road Runner – the more they try, the worse it gets for Wile E. Coyote, and the better for Road Runner. His numbers stay up. People look at this and say, ‘Wait a minute, let me see if I get this right – you do a raid over his home over some pieces of paper?’”
Huckabee said Thursday’s “superceding” indictment in Florida, in which a Mar-A-Lago property manager was added as a defendant, is “grasping at straws.”
“Jack Smith is one of these guys who goes after people in a way that is disgusting,” Huckabee said. “Using the full power of the federal government and its unlimited budget to go after a person so he can control and manipulate the election.”
Watch the entire exchange in the video above.
