An important factor in whether the indictment hurts Trump politically will be how the other candidates react. With the last indictment, Trump's GOP challengers avoided directly criticizing the former president -- in fact, they largely defended him, hewing to the general party line that the charges were politically motivated and unjust. This time around, we're mostly seeing more of the same, but if you squint, you can start to see some cracks in their defenses.

But the slight departures from the official party stance, and a cooler response from fellow GOP contenders compared to last time, shows the loyalty may be starting to wane. As Trump faces yet more potential charges in other open investigations, there may come a day when defending the former president becomes more politically risky than calling him out.