The civil trial to determine how much Donald Trump will be punished for decades of fraud in New York kicked off this week, and one thing became immediately clear: The former reality TV host really thought heād be able to turn this into a campaign spectacle.
Even though he had no obligation to show up in court, Trump appeared with great fanfare Monday morning, luring a bevy of cameras to the hallway outside of the courtroom. Every chance he got, he held forth at length into the microphones, clearly expecting rapt audiences to hang onto his every word, swooning at the great injustice of watching a lifelong con artist finally face the music. After three days, however, even Trump quietly concluded that this was less āApprentice: Season Oneā and more the season where Leeza Gibbons beat Ian Ziering for the prize of never having to talk to Donald Trump again. (Iām assuming. Like nearly every American, I didnāt watch it.) Unable to generate interest in his incoherent ravings outside the courtroom doors, Trump turned tail and fled back to Florida. Hopefully, his body being ejected from New York is a precursor to the end of all his commercial business in the state.
āThe Donald Trump show is over,ā New York Attorney General Letitia James told reporters Wednesday. āThis was nothing more than a political stunt.ā
Trumpās already severe narcissism has been intensified through years of cheering MAGA crowds and powerful people kissing his ass. The result was that he actually seemed to believe he would look tough and cool for the cameras. Instead, America was treated to a series of photos of him looking like a sulky child in court, accompanied by reports that he acted like a fidgeting, impatient toddler throughout the proceedings. During recess, he ranted at cameras, ping-ponging between racist and sexist vitriol towards James and endless whining about in-the-weeds details that even the biggest legal junkies donāt care about.
Unable to generate interest in his incoherent ravings outside the courtroom doors, Trump turned tail and fled back to Florida.
James, meanwhile, has been winning the media war by projecting the effortless confidence that Trump imagines he brings. Though it does help that, unlike Trump, she can speak in complete sentences and also get to the point, instead of rambling on about boring minutia. Trump seems to understand that the impression left, at the end of the week, is that she ran his sorry ass out of town. We know this because heās unleashing protest-too-much posts on Truth Social, claiming that heās the one who rejected New York, not the other way around.
āCompanies are Fleeing! Itā he wrote of New York City, calling it a āratās nestā and screeching āMURDERS & VIOLENT CRIME HIT UNIMAGINABLE RECORDS.ā
Obviously, heās setting himself up to pretend that, when his businesses are shuttered, that it was a voluntary action on his part, as opposed to a court-ordered liquidation. But it is worth taking a moment to note that crime in Manhattan was exponentially worse in the 1980s when Trump first started using fraud and shell games to build up his real estate empire on the island. In the era when Trump was riding high in Manhattan, the murder rate was over five times what it is now. So no, heās not āFleeing!ā a crime-ridden city. Heās getting the boot.
No doubt, the argument will be that Trumpās failure to get the attention he desired is due to the circus in the House of Representatives. Itās unquestionable that the historic ouster of Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., did pull mainstream media attention, and it certainly was more of a riveting drama than witness testimony about bookkeeping games Trump used to bamboozle tax assessors and bankers. I wouldnāt be surprised if Trump is lashing out right now at Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., for stealing Trumpās thunder by filing the motion to vacate McCarthy from his seat.
Itās a testament to how his narcissism has swollen like a tick full of blood that he hung in for three whole days, even though it was clear in the first few hours that this wasnāt going to be the theatrical experience he was imagining.
But the truth is that Trumpās efforts to hijack the court proceedings were failing even before Gaetz made his move. I watched the cable news coverage Monday morning, as Trump made his way to court. Initially, the networks were game to turn this into a 3-ring circus. CNN even had the drone camera following Trumpās motorcade to court. There was breathless commentary as various players walked by the camera banks into the courtroom, with Trumpās people clearly under instructions to grin for the cameras if this were a red carpet at an awards show.
Then the supposedly big moment of Trumpās arrival came, and the whole pageant fell apart. Trump only got a minute or two into his diatribe, when both MSNBC and CNN realized it was brutally boring TV. So they cut his sound and talked over him. Fox kept the audio feed live, but almost certainly to avoid future Trump tantrums. Listening to Trump prattle on about himself is tough on a good day, even for his own followers. But itās impossible to pay him any mind when heās whining about how his net worth is [fill in lie] and not [what it actually is] and how he wants a jury (even though he waived the right) and how everyone is out to get him. He didnāt even really bother, at least in the brief parts that went live on-air, to pretend his supposed victimhood is about his supporters. It was just an extended, hard-to-follow crybaby sesh.
Itās a testament to how his narcissism has swollen like a tick full of blood that he hung in for three whole days, even though it was clear in the first few hours that this wasnāt going to be the theatrical experience he was imagining. But a good sign Trump knew, on some level, that this wasnāt going well was in his pathetic effort to start a conspiracy theory about Justice Arthur Engoronās law clerk having an affair with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Itās not especially mysterious what happened here. The law clerk, Allison Greenfield, has been sitting next to Engoron on the bench as he presides over the case. Trump, who has been squirming and glowering, almost certainly fixated on this pretty young woman and seethed that anyone of the female persuasion has any power over him. Since he canāt corner her in a Bergdorf dressing room, Trump found another way to give in to his urge to attack any woman who makes him feel small: lying about her sex life. Whether he or some shameless staffer nabbed the photo of her with Schumer at some meet-and-greet, itās obvious that he was being impulsive, in sharing the picture with the accompanying lie pulled directly out of his rear.
No doubt it was a mixture of boredom and misogyny that drove this ādecision.ā It also suggests Trump was getting anxious about his inability to turn this trial into a freakshow. Even by his low standards, attempting to titillate his elderly fanbase with clearly false gossip about a woman theyāve never heard of was a stretch. Fox News, deferential to Trumpās every dumb whim, tried to make something out of the spontaneously generated Trumpian sexual fantasy. But the main result was the judge putting a gag order on Trump and making him take down the post. The news cycle became less ālook at this crazy thing Trump did!ā and more āturns out it isnāt impossible to tell Trump to STFU.ā
In the end, Trump tried to pivot to more familiar bait for his small-dollar suckers, er, donors: anti-semitic conspiracy theories.
The pivot suggests Trumpās team just wasnāt getting very far with the ālook at Trump in court!ā gambit. Even his supporters are bored and just want to hear more about how George Soros is out to get them.
It is, of course, a great relief that Trump decided it wasnāt worth sitting for hours in hair and makeup every day to rant at cameras while no one is listening. It certainly doesnāt mean Trump is over. His base continues to be endlessly gullible, forking over cash to the alleged ābillionaireā so he can pay his legal bills, and they really loved giving him money because he got a mugshot in Georgia. But this week was a welcome reminder that Trumpās tactics of lying, threatening, and creating a spectacle have limited value in the courtroom setting. Courts require sitting still and being quiet, two skills that any 2-year-old can easily best Trump at. Thereās a good chance this is the first sign that Trump will find rapidly diminishing returns in trying to turn the various trials that await him into political opportunities.
Yes, the problem is that he wasnāt held accountable. He now is starting to be. The media and people were fascinated. They no longer are. Boring is as good as dead in show business.
If it were anyone else, Iād agree, but this is Trump. Itās not over till Darth Hater singsā from behind bars.
Yes, itās been a slow build, with lots of false starts. I donāt think heās yet facing the repercussions anyone else would have, but itās impinging on his life nonetheless. The boredom with him though, is probably what he hates most, so there is some schadenfreude to it.
Itās still very precarious. Itās patently clear that the reason for running is to escape repercussions. The only way to do that is complete subversion of rule of law. So, if people still vote for him, and it works, it will be even more disastrous for democracy as a concept in the USA. Itās concerning that 4 years after his term, very little will have changed to fix the glaring errors and weaknesses in the system.