The one thing you could always say about Donald Trump was that he was “big.” He commanded the stage. His vigor — or the appearance of vigor — made him appear younger than Joe Biden, even though they are only a few years apart. He was able to roll over scandals that would have derailed a smaller candidate.
The civil trials didn’t stop him. Indeed, the media consistently celebrated his ability to turn the proceedings against him into political events, to profit from the court appearances, to raise money off them and score political points on the courthouse steps.
All of that is changing now. Maybe it’s because this is a criminal trial, where he can’t decide when he wants to show up. Maybe it’s because he’s faced with a judge who is very clearly setting the rules and not buying into the Big Man’s act.
The Donald Trump who is sitting in a “freezing” courtroom every day does not look like the once and future most powerful man in the world. He’s shrinking. He can barely stay awake. The press keeps catching him nodding off. The judge keeps catching him smirking and whispering under his breath.
When Trump stood up to leave as the judge was finishing his sentence at the end of a long court day, the judge admonished him to sit down. He very clearly cannot abide by the gag order; when his lawyer argued that he was trying to, the judge admonished him, saying that he was “losing all credibility.”
Trump sounds not like a commander in chief but like the Chief Whiner. “The Boss,” as Michael Cohen reportedly called him, is used to being in charge. But criminal defendants are not in charge of anything. Trump had to ask for permission to attend the Supreme Court argument in the immunity case — and he didn’t get it. A Supreme Court argument, the judge acknowledged, is a big deal, but so is a criminal trial in the Supreme Court of New York. Permission denied.
It’s only going to get worse. Daily descriptions of Trump’s facial expressions as he listens to damaging testimony are not going to be pretty. Listening to the former publisher of the National Enquirer recounting how Trump asked him to help his campaign by manufacturing false stories about his opponents, how he promised to catch and kill stories about Trump’s sex life, cannot be easy for a man who is used to controlling the narrative and prone to sounding off.
But Trump is on notice about sounding off. Contempt is hanging over him. He has to be careful going forward, or his lawyers really will lose all credibility, which is a dangerous thing in a criminal trial. And if the publisher of the Enquirer was a challenge, imagine how tough it will be for him to listen to a Playmate and a porn star recount their sexual escapades with the possibility of contempt hanging over his head.
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