“I’m not allowed to defend myself and yet other people are allowed to say whatever they want about me. It’s very, very unfair,” Trump told reporters outside of the courtroom.
Trump went on to again call Merchan a “highly conflicted judge” who should recuse himself from the case.
If he’d said anything new I’m sure they would have quoted it. Same old same old.
Relationship with Trump: Pecker said he has known Trump since the 80s and has had a “great relationship” with him over the years. He said that as a celebrity, Trump advised him on parties and events to attend and introduced him to various people in New York. The former tabloid executive said he saw Trump more frequently after he announced his 2016 presidential run.
Negative stories: Pecker said he would contact Cohen directly if he heard any negative stories about Trump or his family. He also testified that Cohen would request the Enquirer run negative stories about Trump’s political opponents. The Enquirer would also send articles to Cohen before they were published, Pecker said.
Trump’s business practices: Pecker testified that he saw Trump review and sign invoices and checks and described him as “very knowledgable” and almost “a micromanager” in business. He also described Trump as “very frugal” in his approach to money.
Pecker claims mutual benefit: Pecker testified that publishing negative stories about Trump’s opponents and alerting him about damaging information had a mutual benefit for the Enquirer and the campaign. Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass, though, pushed back and had Pecker confirm that stopping stories from being printed about Trump only benefited the campaign.
Headlines and documents enter evidence: The jury was shown a series of National Enquirer articles both praising Trump and attacking political opponents. Prosecutors also introduced AMI business records into evidence, including text messages.
Karen McDougal: Pecker said former National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard went to interview former Playboy model Karen McDougal about a story she was trying to sell alleging she had a relationship with Trump, which the former president denies. Pecker testified that Cohen called him frequently to ask about what happened at the interview and was agitated.
She also said that none of Trump’s family see any personal profit in showing up, and therefore won’t do so.
Trump’s ego is taking a huge hit every day of this trial, due to the lack of fans supporting him. As detailed in another thread, he’s now claiming that they ARE showing up but are being taken…somewhere. So that’s why the cameras show no big demonstrations in his favor.
I’m not ready to say that this trial will tank his poll numbers and ensure that we don’t have to worry, because I’m fairly confident that a lot of dirty tricks are planned (voter suppression in swing states and more) that could give him the White House again despite a historically-large loss of the popular vote.
But I do suspect his poll numbers are going to drop. Even his most ardent fans are going to get tired of six weeks of him walking out of the trial and moaning about how everyone is mean to him.
He got elected in 2016 largely because enough voters found him to be entertaining. He’s not entertaining anymore.
Agree. Diaper Don whining like a little child day after day is not entertainment. It’s boring. MAGAts do not like boring - they will wander off and find something else.
Trump is so unfathomably stupid that he’s basically doing an SNL skit or enacting an Onion article all on his own! Yes, the MAGAts are showing up in the millions to support him, but The Biden Crime Family™ is having them all removed to re-education camps!
Can anyone doubt that if Trump loses the election AND is convicted of one or more of the criminal charges against him, AND is clearly bankrupt at the end of that, they will all desert him?
An important test will be his rallies, which have apparently (and alarmingly) become something close to religious revival meetings. If those start to shrink–lookout, Donny.
With respect, I found it almost entirely devoid of anything interesting or useful. As you say, he doesn’t take a position on anything. Basically, “wonder how the jurors will view all this?”
Even Trump fans are going to have trouble swallowing that one. They, like their tarnished god, worship Winners. Donald’s excuses make him look like anything but.
I’m not seeing the Twooth online elsewhere than on his site (which I don’t want to link). But here’s some of the verbiage:
This is exactly the same shit-stirring that prompted the Jan 6 insurrection. Trump never learns, of course, but I hope that this continued malevolence figures into stronger sanctions for the gag order violations.
Yes, it seems likely that Merchan sees the connection and will act accordingly (within the bounds of precedent, to the extent that there is precedent), when it comes to the gag order.
The idea that Trump can’t be held to any account at all–which held sway for far too many years–is slowly disappearing.
