Trump’s Alternate-Reality Criminal Trial

“I JUST STORMED OUT OF BIDEN’S KANGAROO COURT!” Donald Trump wrote in an email to supporters late yesterday afternoon, shortly after the end of the first day of his trial on charges of hiding hush-money payments during the 2016 campaign.

The statement led off a fundraising appeal, and it was, somewhat predictably, a lie. Trump had walked out of the courtroom when the proceeding ended, made a few comments to reporters, and left.

In historical terms, what happened in the Manhattan courtroom was momentous: the start of the first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president. But in particulars, it was as dull as any other typical day in court. Judge Juan Merchan heard a series of motions from lawyers, ruling more often in favor of the prosecution but occasionally in favor of the defense, and punting other motions to later. Dozens of potential jurors filed through the court and answered a lengthy questionnaire, part of a selection process that could take weeks.

[David A. Graham: The cases against Donald Trump—a guide]

It was, in other words, a snooze fest—perhaps literally in Trump’s case. As reporters watching the proceeding in the courtroom and in an overflow room said, he appeared to nod off at one point early on.

The usual cliché for such widely divergent accounts is to call this a “split-screen moment.” But the trial is not televised, so the only screen is the one outside the court. That’s lucky for Trump, and not only because his impromptu nap wasn’t captured on tape for the nation to watch. The absence of any video evidence allows Trump to project the story he wants onto the trial.

So, inside Merchan’s courtroom, things went by in normal fashion. Neither Trump nor his lawyers said anything about it being a kangaroo court or election interference, as he has alleged elsewhere. (Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche did complain about his client being required to be present. “You don’t think you should be here at all right now?” Merchan asked; Blanche affirmed.) Trump didn’t deliver any of the outbursts that got him scolded by Justice Arthur Engoron, in his civil-fraud trial, or Judge Lewis Kaplan, in the defamation suits against him, though it’s probably just a matter of time.

[David A. Graham: ‘Control your client’]

But his supporters won’t know any of that, because they won’t be reading the live updates on The New York Times or CNN or The Washington Post. They’ll be getting their news from Truth Social or Trump campaign emails or the MAGA media machine. Even if Trump isn’t righteously jousting with the judge and being persecuted by the Soros machine, he can tell his base that he is. Even better, he can talk a good game without doing things that might risk judicial sanctions.

Later yesterday, Trump logged on to Truth Social and delivered something in the form of anguished plea. “Who will explain for me, to my wonderful son, Barron, who is a GREAT Student at a fantastic School, that his Dad will likely not be allowed to attend his Graduation Ceremony, something that we have been talking about for years, because a seriously Conflicted and Corrupt New York State Judge wants me in Criminal Court on a bogus ‘Biden Case’ which, according to virtually all Legal Scholars and Pundits, has no merit, and should NEVER have been brought,” Trump wrote.

[Read: Trump’s shoot-the-moon legal strategy]

This was not, in fact, what Merchan said. The judge had simply deferred ruling on whether Trump could be absent until later in the trial. But if reality doesn’t make for a good story—or a useful political bludgeon—then it’s easy for Trump to make up a better one.