A first step towards a trial for some, "political persecution" for others: the spectacular search of Donald Trump's home by the FBI on Tuesday August 9th shed new light on the deep fractures of America.

“Nobody is above the law (…) not even a former president”, asserted on NBC the Democratic president of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi – who, like most of the other tenors of her camp, has been calling for years to hold the ex-real estate mogul to account.

>> Read also: Can the FBI's shock search at Mar-a-Lago lead to the ineligibility of Donald Trump?

The judicial escalation seems to have at the same time cemented Donald Trump's hold on the Republican Party, which has united around the former businessman - to the point of erecting him as a martyr.

As soon as the search was announced, a group of supporters of Donald Trump went to the luxurious residence of the former businessman to shout their anger.

Several of them were waving "Biden is not my president" flags, yet another reminder that more than a year and a half after Donald Trump's election defeat, tens of millions of Americans remain firmly convinced that the 2020 presidential election was "stolen" from him.

On social networks, some Trumpists purely and simply called for "divorce" on Tuesday, in this country with divisions so gaping that they may seem irreconcilable.

“These are the kinds of things that happen in countries in civil war,” said Marjorie Taylor Greene, an elected representative from Georgia known for her excesses, even calling for the dismantling of the FBI.

"Political persecution MUST STOP!!!"

Denouncing an "intolerable instrumentalization for political purposes" of the Department of Justice, the leader of the conservatives in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, promised an investigation into its functioning if the Republicans returned to power.

Scott Perry's phone seized by the FBI

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday categorically dismissed the possibility that Joe Biden had advance notice of the search of his former (and potential future) presidential rival.

"President Biden has been very clear, before he was elected and since the start of his term, that the Department of Justice conducts its investigations independently. He believes in the rule of law," said she declared.

Donald Trump, who could at any time declare himself a candidate for a new term, has in any case jumped at the chance to launch a new appeal for the generosity of his supporters.

"It wasn't just my home that was attacked - it was the home of every patriotic American I fought for," he pleaded in an email to his activists, suggesting a solution. donation of $5-5,000 to fight a "witch hunt".

The day after the federal police operation, elected Republican Scott Perry announced that FBI agents had seized his phone, without this ally of Donald Trump specifying the reason.

“This morning, while I was traveling with my family, three FBI agents visited me and seized my cell phone,” he told Fox News, denouncing “sort of tactics worthy of a republic banana".

With AFP

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