It was late in the afternoon when the armed mob came for the leader of the persecuted movement. The leader was already in jail, having turned himself in earlier, and he was awaiting trial on dubious charges. The guards, who were supposed to protect him, instead beat an unseemly retreat. The mob eventually shot and killed the man, as well as his brother, and wounded one of their companions before escaping.

But if the mob had hoped to kill the movement along with its leader, they failed miserably. The movement grew to the point where it is today recognized as a mainstream religion within the United States, its members respected in their communities. Americans today who know the story of the group’s long-ago persecution are embarrassed by it, even ashamed of it.

Should President Donald Trump’s legal efforts fail, and should he end up having to depart the Oval Office on January 20, 2021, there may be many within the Republican Party and conservative circles who think his movement will begin to fade away soon thereafter. They’d be mistaken in that assumption, though, just as that mob was mistaken all those years ago.

President Trump’s tenure was anything but pleasant for many within conservatism and the GOP. Then again, chemotherapy isn’t supposed to be pleasant. But like chemotherapy, President Trump was administered by rank-and-file Republicans and conservatives to cure a cancerous lack of fighting spirit, among other issues. It was a necessary course of treatment, made so by a leadership that had forgotten how to fight.

The issues Trump brought to the forefront included confronting the Chinese communists, securing the border, addressing the current stalemate that the Global War on Terror had become, destroying ISIS, and fighting the deep state. These will likely be hot topics in the 2022 midterms and the 2024 GOP primary, regardless of whether Trump serves a second term in the Oval Office.

In the same vein, rank-and-file Republicans and conservatives have learned over the years who they can trust and, conversely, who will sell them down the river. As we noted after the 2018 midterms, the dividing line is not as neat as one would imagine. Rudy Giuliani, long seen as a RINO, has been a fierce defender of rank-and-file Republicans, conservatives, and grassroots Patriots. The likes of George Will, Amanda Carpenter, and others, all of whom proclaimed their conservatism, proved to be false friends.

Even if President Trump leaves office in January, the actions of the establishment, Big Tech, the “mainstream” media, and a host of others will have long since turned him into a political martyr. Should a Joe Biden administration or the Cuomo-James regime decide to pursue investigations and criminal cases, they will only heighten Trump’s martyrdom, making him even more powerful. This is mostly due to the double standards regarding coronavirus lockdowns and a clear pattern of conduct revealing an inability to win a fair fight.

The establishment may well think that January 20 is the beginning of the end of the MAGA movement. If anything, history suggests that even if the establishment triumphs over Trump electorally or by way of a political vendetta disguised as a criminal case, it’ll still lose in the end.

After all, the mob that stormed the jail of Carthage, Illinois, on June 27, 1844, may have killed Joseph Smith, but his vision lived on. And the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proved to be far more resilient than its persecutors could’ve possibly imagined.