Sentencing finalizes Trump's conviction, ends embarrassing chapter in his return to the White House

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

51% : Merchan suggested that Trump would have received a stiffer sentence had he been a private citizen -- but that the "extraordinary legal protections" provided by the office of the presidency left him no other options.
46% : MORE: Trump sentencing transcript: Listen to Trump's entire hush money sentencing hearingAppearing virtually in the same courtroom where the trial took place, Trump -- now the president-elect -- used Friday's sentencing hearing to unleash a seven-minute recitation of his grievances with the criminal justice system.
46% : ""The people of our country got to see this firsthand because they watched the case in your courtroom," said Trump, who vowed to appeal the verdict.
45% : Nineteen months after Trump was indicted, Merchan ended the sentencing with a kind remark to the defendant who would in ten days become the president of the United States.
31% : The unusual sentence -- which carried no punishment for Trump's actions -- finalized the judgment against Trump, allowing him to appeal.
31% : The assistant Manhattan DA said that Trump "caused enduring damage to public perception of the criminal justice system and has placed officers of the court in harm's way.""Instead of preserving, protecting, and defending our constitutionally-established system of criminal justice, the defendant -- the once and future president of the United States -- has engaged in a coordinated campaign to undermine its legitimacy," Steinglass said.
31% : According to Steinglass, the probation officer who interviewed Trump last year found that Trump "sees himself as above the law and won't accept responsibility for his actions."
29% : While the sentencing cemented his status as a convicted criminal, Trump suggested that his electoral victory in November amounted to a political acquittal, claiming voters' support for him was a wholesale rejection of what he called the "weaponization of government.
28% : The unprecedented hearing -- which Trump attended virtually from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida -- capped off a yearslong tumultuous and, at times, embarrassing ordeal that resulted in him becoming the first former president to be criminally convicted.
24% : "With all that's happening in our country today, with a city that's burning to the ground -- one of our largest, most important cities burning to the ground -- with wars that are uncontrollably going on, with all of the problems of inflation and attacks on countries, and all of the horrible things that are going on, I got indicted over calling a legal expense a legal expense," said Trump.
21% : Steinglass highlighted that Trump threatened to retaliate against prosecutors, criticized the trial as corrupt and a sham "too many times to tabulate," and made "unrelenting" attacks on the justice system.
19% : For the six weeks Donald Trump spent in a Manhattan courtroom for his criminal hush money trial last year, the former president never spoke a word on the record.
16% : Trump originally faced up to four years in prison after being convicted of falsifying business records as part of an alleged scheme to influence the 2016 election by paying off an adult film actress who said she had a long-denied affair with Trump in 2006, three months after his wife gave birth to his youngest son.
16% : MORE: Timeline: Manhattan DA's Stormy Daniels hush money case against Donald TrumpDespite all that
15% : But the judge refrained from explicitly criticizing Trump during Friday's hearing.
4% : MORE: Trump sentencing: Judge gives Trump 'unconditional discharge' to respect presidencyMerchan had previously, in a court filing, criticized Trump for his "disdain for the Third Branch of government" and "lack of respect for judges, juries, grand juries and the justice system as a whole."

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