There is a lot of enthusiasm among my friends to lock up President Trump and throw away the key. Many people can’t wait to see the worst president in modern history wearing striped pajamas behind metal bars.

But while I also hate Trump, I have to admit I worry about what comes next. How strong will the recoil be? Will the charges filed by Manhattan Dist. attentive Alvin Bragg stand up in court? Will the country disintegrate completely into partisan division and civil strife?

For me, the scariest indicator yet has been the immediate reaction of the putative presidential candidate and Florida governor. Ron DeSantis.

Expressing support for Trump in his hour of need is one thing. Criticizing the legal arguments underlying the case is within the bounds of political debate.

But to pledge, as DeSantis did, to refuse to follow the Constitution in cooperating with New York authorities to extradite Trump from Florida is a threat to the rule of law that we have not yet seen in this Trump-driven national crisis. As with Trump, in making that pledge, DeSantis demonstrates a boundless willingness to undermine America’s democratic institutions for personal political gain.

Trump appears to be negotiating his surrender with authorities in New York, which he clearly sees as a time to win sympathy, pity and more votes. He is expected to be arranged in Manhattan on Tuesday. DeSantis will most likely never get a chance to make up for his non-extradition stance, not that he could really prevent it anyway.

But that doesn’t make his abhorrent statement of giving in to the voices of insurgents with antlers and flags any less reprehensible. He called the indictment, which he presumably did not read because it is under seal, un-American and accused Bragg of weaponizing the law to advance a political agenda.

But it is DeSantis who is pushing a purely political agenda and targeting Bragg as a political adversary. The road to civil war is surely paved with refusals to obey the laws that hold the country together.

If we don’t play by the rules, if we don’t stop when the police tell us to or pay our taxes or hand over criminal suspects to stand trial when charged, society will cease to function.

In addition, one state cannot simply refuse to extradite a suspect to another, both under the Constitution (Article IV, Section 2) and under federal law. (Any deviation from this established principle would be very difficult to argue with.)

Years ago when I was

i

a young reporter, I covered Gov. Mario Cuomo from New York. If his friends, allies, opponents or acquaintances were occasionally arrested and convicted, Cuomo always said the same thing: the law is the law.

I took it this way: I can sympathize with my friend or disagree with the accusers or wish this had never happened, but my overwhelming allegiance is to the law itself. the

institution

is more important than the

result

. No one is above the law. True, justice is elusive and mistakes are made, but we must trust our institutions to do their best.

Many Republicans believe that suing Trump for falsifying corporate records and violating campaign finance laws is politically motivated and petty. I’m not surprised they feel that way.

I would much rather have seen Trump indicted in connection with his heinous attempts to undermine and subvert legitimate elections, rather than how he characterized his hush money payments to a porn actress.

But the law is the law.

There will be a chance for a jury to weigh the charges. There are professions and more professions. In the end, we should all hope that a fair and just result will be achieved in substance.

Meanwhile, at such a fraught moment in American history, the last thing we need is a governor on the verge of seeking senior office and threatening to obstruct the judicial process.

DeSanti’s comments were cynical, reckless and un-American.

@Nick_Goldberg