Only a week ago, in my previous article here, I stated that the leftist Deep State would wreck America to stop Donald Trump from becoming president again — the way supervillain Khan destroys a solar system to kill Admiral James Kirk in the classic Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Last Thursday, one Swamp lowlife did precisely that. George Soros-funded Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted the former president — and current Republican White House frontrunner — on felony charges for ostensibly misdemeanor acts. That it’s the first time for such rampant political infamy in America — the criminal prosecution of the top threat to the ruling regime — and reminiscent of my native country, Cuba, has been well analyzed by experts, astutely in this magazine. I will only add my cultural reflection on it, once more comparing Trump to the titular character of another film, arguably the greatest ever made, The Godfather.

But first, a pertinent memory from distant history, a time when most Americans — to paraphrase the opening line of The Godfather — believed in America, and even Democrats were patriots. On March 30, 1981, at 2:27 PM, I sat in my little apartment off-campus from the University of Maryland, playing chess with a friend, Bruce. Bruce was engaged to a Maryland co-ed who, like thirty-million people, was hooked on the imminent wedding of an unreal couple, Luke and Laura, in the ABC soap opera, General Hospital. (Thirty million viewers for a soap opera — I repeat distant history.) To be able to converse with his fiancée every evening, Bruce insisted that I have the TV showing General Hospital, thankfully on mute, during our chess games. On that day, in that moment, the picture switched from Luke to President Ronald Reagan getting shot while leaving the Washington Hilton Hotel.

It took days for the full story to emerge. How the bullet came close to killing Reagan, stopping less than an inch from his heart. But amid the shock and sorrow, a lovely account of American honor came to light. As the new President was being operated on at George Washington University Hospital — awake the whole time and in serious pain — he still cracked jokes to the surgical staff. “I hope you’re all Republicans,” Reagan said. The lead surgeon, a Democrat, replied, “Today, Mr. President, we’re all Republicans.” Again, distant history which, despite its uplift, makes one want to weep for the nation’s long, fast fall from such nobility.

The Godfather also has an unforgettable, of course fictional, hospital scene, which marks protagonist Michael Corleone’s crucial character pivot. Michael visits the bedside of his gangster father, Don Vito Corleone, near fatally shot up by an alliance of five other Mafia families. Up to this point, Michael has wanted nothing to do with “the family business,” even fought in World War II partially to escape it. But seeing his father weak and helpless, the victim not only of a past assassination attempt but also an ongoing one, he completes his already burgeoning change of heart. “I’m here, pop,” he says. “I’ll take care of you. I’m with you now. I’m with you.”

In my last article, I suggested Trump could not win against the powerful forces of hate combined against him, and declared my preference for Florida governor Ron DeSantis as the 2024 Republican nominee. I wanted nothing more to do with Trump’s baggage and occasional pettiness, recently made evident by his pathetic attacks on DeSantis. I did lean more toward Trump after the FBI’s third world-level raid on his Mar-a-Lago home. Then DeSantis conquered the Democrats in Florida, and me along with them. But all that was before Thursday when — like the massacre attempt on his father that changed Michael’s mind about supporting him — I saw the hostile takeover of this country.

In my previous Trump as the Godfather piece, I compared DeSantis to Michael Corleone as the logical heir to Trump, à la The Godfather Part II. But I was wrong. DeSantis is not Michael Corleone. I am. You are. Everyone is who detests the endless cheap Deep State attacks on a brave conservative leader outside their orbit of influence. And to Trump I say, “I’m with you, Mr. President. I’m with you.” We’re all Michael Corleone now. And our political Baptism of blood started last week.

In Arizona, conservative leaders such as the Daily Wire host Matt Walsh got Governor Katie Hobbs’ communications director Murphy Herbert fired for her tweet picturing a gun-toting Gena Rowlands (from the awful 1980 John Cassavetes picture Gloria) with the line, Us when we see transphobes, just hours after the Nashville Christian school shootings Monday.

In Kentucky, the Republican-dominated state legislature overrode Democratic governor Andy Beshear’s veto of a bill banning child sex change surgery. Over twenty statehouse protesters were arrested — for criminal trespassing not insurrection, or transurrection.

In Ottawa, Canada, hockey star brothers Eric and Marc Staal’s refusal to wear gay Pride jerseys forced National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman to admit the NHL is reconsidering its ridiculous Pride Nights “celebrations”.

In Florida, the Hillsborough school board voted to remove “sexually explicit” books from all middle schools, including one called This Book Is Gay. The vote was a disturbingly close 4-3, so the Ron DeSantis-led “red wave” made the difference.

And in Missouri, black Republican state Rep. Justin Hicks gave a stirring reply to a black Democratic state representative incensed by his opposition to funding DEI, which the GOP-led legislature voted down. An angry Marlene Terry demanded to know how Hicks ethnically identified. “I identify as an American,” he said, to great applause.

We’re all Michael Corleone, and MAGA, now.