Trump is the inevitable result of half a century of failure to apply the rule of law to Republican presidents. I simply do not understand why so many have an expectation that Trump will go to prison just because he broke the law.
A Short History of Republican Presidents
I think people forget their history. Let me refresh your memory.
First, Ford was not immediately impeached when he pardoned Nixon. The excuses people made for not impeaching Ford were frankly ridiculous. Nixon tried to steal the debate plans from a political opponent and got caught, leading to the scandal that pushed him out of office.
Then, we found out that Nixon negotiated with the North Vietnamese to keep the war going longer so that he could get elected. He was not put in prison for this.
Also, Nixon committed war crimes in Cambodia while in office. He was not investigated, tried, nor charged for this.
Reagan consciously violated a then-recent law. He sold advanced missile systems to a hostile terrorist regime in Iran (one famous for beginning proceedings with chants of "Death to America!"), so that he could use the resulting money to fund a bunch of nun-rapers in Central America, directly violating the law mentioned above. Reagan never went to prison for this.
We later found out that Reagan stole the debate notes of Jimmy Carter, and his resulting performance in the debate probably helped him win the election. Regan faced no criminal consequences of any kind for the same crime that brought Nixon down.
Also, like Nixon, we later found out that Reagan negotiated with America's enemies to help him get elected the first time. He negotiated with the above-mentioned hostile regime in Iran to keep American hostages longer so that he could get elected. As with the stolen debate plans, this very likely helped him get elected. He did not go to prison for this either.
Not only did Reagan face zero criminal consequences for all of his law-breaking, but the mainstream media also laughed the whole thing off by calling him the "Teflon president" and acted like this was something normal that the public should just accept.
Reagan's vice president, George Bush I got elected next. Bush I made strategic pardons to avoid any criminal consequences for his role in the Iran-Contra affair. This turned out to be completely unnecessary as he was never even investigated, just like Reagan.
Then George Bush II was in office. He lied America into a disastrous war, and committed war crimes in the conduct of that unnecessary war. He confessed to war crimes in a press conference, and even with evidence like that, was never charged with said war crimes.
Then we found out that he stole debate plans just like Reagan and Nixon. He didn't go to prison for that either.
Anyone who was surprised by Trump's insurrection simply hasn't been paying attention. Trump laid the groundwork for a similar insurrection before the 2016 election even happened. He continued to spread lies intended to foment the insurrection. He telegraphed his intentions for years before the actual coup attempt happened. He was able to do this confidently because the last half-century of American history told him that Republican presidents can commit serious crimes and expect to get away with it.
A Short History of Illinois Governors
Let me try to explain exactly how screwed America is right now by discussing a string of governors in my own state, Illinois.
Governor George Ryan (R) got caught literally trading constituent lives for cash. Illinois is a corrupt state, but even by Illinois standards, this shocked people. Ryan sold truck licenses to people who weren't qualified in exchange for campaign donations. Of course, this led to the deaths of Illinois citizens. Ryan went to prison for this.
After Ryan, Rod Blagojevich (D) got elected, promising to clean up the corruption left by the disgraced former governor. Then, we found out that he shook down hospitals for campaign donations. Hospitals. There was a long string of shady things he did to get campaign donations, but threatening a hospital was arguably the worst thing he did.
National Republicans made a big deal about the fact that Blagojevich tried to sell Obama's vacated state senate seat, but he was never convicted of that. As an Illinois citizen, I was angry that national Republicans drew so much attention to the attempt to "sell" Obama's state senate seat. Blagojevich was arrested before actually selling the seat, so no crime was committed, so there was no conviction on this count. The media circus around this drew attention to the much more serious crimes Blagojevich actually committed, which led to him actually going to prison. Crimes such as shaking down a hospital. What is telling is that Blagojevich knew that his predecessor went to prison for doing awful things to get campaign donations, and went ahead and did awful things to get campaign donations, resulting in his own prison sentence.
The next two governors did not actually go to prison for anything, but they had their share of controversies that suggest they didn't really learn anything from the fact that their predecessors actually went to prison. The current governor seems to have finally learned his lesson. He is either keeping his nose clean or is doing a better job of hiding his corruption.
America is Screwed
The point I'm trying to make is that you have to put multiple political executives in prison before future political executives start to believe that the law actually applies to them. Because a long string of Republican presidents openly broke the law and got away with it, we would probably have to put more than two Republican presidents in prison before future Republican presidents actually start to believe that the law might apply to them.
First, if you think Trump is going to prison just because he tried to overthrow the government on national TV, then you simply have not paid attention to the last half-century of American history.
Second, even if by some miracle Trump is convicted for his crime of leading a coup against his own country, the next Republican president will still expect to get away with flaunting the law, because that president will rightly see Trump as an aberration in the last several Republican presidents prior to Trump.
Even if by some miracle the Democratic party and American law enforcement decided in earnest to reestablish the rule of law, doing so would take putting multiple Republican presidents in prison, and by then the republic will likely have already fallen.