Barack Obama made a grand tour of Europe, meeting with lots of prime ministers before he was the official nominee, in 2008.He got a particularly enthusiastic reception in Berlin.
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(by the way, on an off-topic but humorous note: That visit prompted my favorite political cartoon of all time.
The cartoonist drew Obama speaking at the Berlin Wall, in the same spot that JFK had made his most famous speech in 1963. And the caption was Obama saying “ich bin ein Beginner.” 
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I’d forgotten about that, thanks for the reminder!
There was an identical cartoon of Bill Clinton a few months into his first term (so, mid-1993), but it was more a mild critique of his niavete in trying to push through progressive policies in his first 100 days, like (oh, the horrors!) gays in the military.
But those visits were on the other leaders’ turfs. Have heads of state ever before met with a nominee in the U.S., skipping the actual President? That’s a pretty brazen act. I guess with the rising authoritarianism across the globe, those fuckers want to show solidarity.
Interestingly, if (when, I hope) Biden is re-elected, and the president of Poland needs help from the USA…
Biden will give it gladly because he’s a statesman and an adult and not a petulant toddler.
I don’t doubt he’ll be the nominee, but what will they do about his convention speech? Schedule it at 2 a.m. so nobody hears his incoherent ramblings? And that’s even if they make him use a teleprompter.
Most of it will be speaking at length about how “they” won’t let him speak.
I can imagine him wandering around on stage trying to randomly intimidate people. While spouting incoherent gibberish about how everything is unfair. Kind of like a roomba with tourette’s.
Okay, that was lol good.
This is good:
Yeah, Trump looks like fucking dogmeat in this trial. He is their bitch, he is guilty as fuck, and he is being flayed and grilled in real time. The MAGA Party has no Plan B–no plan at fucking all! “Trump’s our candidate um yeah, herpa derpa!.”
Not good enough, dickheads! The whole GOP is going all the way fucking DOWN, sayō-fuckin’-NARA, baby!
That Salon article is strange.
Maybe Trump will start with verbal outbursts in the courtroom — Judge Merchan has surely seen them before — but the stories of Donald napping suggest otherwise.
As to him wanting to be convicted, that’s silly — but there’s a sure fire way — plead guilty on all counts. Trump will not do it.
As for a plexiglass cage for the defendant, that’s never used in the United States, as the author knows, so why mention it?
Being indicted four times did not hurt Trump in the polls. Having a jury determine he did you know what in a Fifth Avenue department store didn’t hurt him in the polls. This trial is getting more publicity, so it might bump him down a few points, for a few weeks, if convicted. But it’s a fantasy to think anything other than actual extended imprisonment would knock him out of the game — in which case the Republican National Committee has rules allowing them to come up with a replacement player.
Indeed — accordingly, the Salon article makes no mention of this.
Quickly, the person interviewed does think Trump would like to be jailed for contempt so that he’s more readily perceived as a martyr.
EDIT: The person interviewed brings up the plexiglass cage thing in much the same way - as something Trump would relish to amplify his martyr status. The speaker then makes essentially the same point you do about courtroom cages — we don’t do that here.
See, people keep saying that. From the article:
It reminds me of a basketball coach who gets himself thrown out of the game to inspire the players. If Trump was put in prison for contempt that would make his followers even more enthusiastic and loyal.
Would Trump actually think like this? This sort of thing requires leadership. It requires sacrifice. It requires you to be willing to leave center stage, and inspire your people from the sidelines, where they can’t even see you.
Does any of that sound like Donald Trump? Has he ever made a sacrifice for anything in his life? Hell, this whole mess started because he couldn’t stand not getting laid while his wife was pregnant!
Excellent point. Any feelings of martyrdom in Trump’s mind (or ascribed to him by others) are unearned – they have nothing to do with any true martyr, who gives something up for a cause.
He would love it if he could be perceived as a martyr without, y’know, doing any of the work of being a martyr.
Sure, it takes someone like a Nelson Mandela or an Alexei Nalvany to do the right thing in a repressive regime and go to prison for an extended period of time. As you say, Trump would never do that.
But one of Trump’s actual talents is showmanship, so I think it’s entirely plausible that Trump would willingly be put in jail for a few days for contempt and play the martyr for his base and the general populace.
I don’t know whether that’s the case, however. He could also just be unable to control himself in a situation in which he doesn’t have control.
He may figure that, since he’s in the situation he’s in anyway, he might as well make the most of it. Going to jail for a few days wouldn’t be too taxing…
Yes, precisely. Hence all his whining on the courthouse steps. He wants you to think he’s up there with Nelson Mandela after just one week of having to sit still and be quiet. There’s no way he’s actively scheming to end up in real jail.
Maybe, but I think it’s more likely he’d cry like a little boy, or like a 20-something Mick Jagger.
(BTW, I love the name of that London jail: “Wormwood Scrubs.” Sounds like a Dickens villain.)
It could be something more along the lines of, “I’m going to play the belligerent dick in court and push things to the limit, and if I get a bit of time in the hoosegow for contempt, no big loss.”
And he may not even be thinking that. Trump is a master of feeling out such situations and running on instinct.