About opening night of the Republican National Convention in 2016, donald trump took the stage like a professional wrestler, amid clouds of a smoke machine and dramatic shadows.
It was the kind of image he likes to project of himself: grand and imposing, like the floating head of the Great and Powerful Oz ordering Dorothy to bring him the Wicked Witch’s broomstick.
But eight years later, the real Trump was revealed to the world in a lower Manhattan courtroom. Whether he was sitting in the courtroom or outside in the poor fluorescent lighting, he looked small, diminished, and the exact opposite of presidential.
And just as the Wizard of Oz desperately tried to distract Dorothy and her friends when it was revealed, Trump and his lawyers are trying hard to keep the public from looking at the man behind the curtain.
“We will call him ‘President Trump’ out of respect for the office he held from 2017 to 2021,” said his lawyer Todd Blanche. said during opening statements this week. “And as everyone knows, that’s the position he’s running for now.”
Trump’s lawyers can use whatever title they want, but there is nothing presidential about what unfolds in that courtroom. Make no mistake, Trump’s current circumstances define him. The fact that he spent every day in court is a physical representation that Trump is not special. He is not above reproach and he is not above the law. His fate, like the fate of any other defendant in a jury trial, is in the hands of his fellow citizens.
The case also diminished Trump. Focusing on his actions during the 2016 election, prosecutors portrayed him as a small man desperate to protect his reputation, colluding with tabloid editors to spread smears about his opponents and bribing anyone who might share the truth about him.
The former president’s longtime friend, David Pecker, former editor of the National Enquirer, has already proven to be an important witness in this trial. In court testimony, Pecker detailed the steps he took to fabricate real fake news against Trump’s political opponents and “catch and kill” damaging allegations against Trump during the 2016 election.
The details were truly impressive. I lived and worked through the 2016 presidential election and even learned new things when I read Pecker’s testimony.
I had to read it because – to the detriment of American voters, there are no cameras or microphones that allow them to see and hear testimony from inside the courtroom. This left the public trusting the exceptional journalists sitting inside to paint a picture of the unfolding revelations. This image is much more damning than allegations that Trump cheated on his wife by having a one-night stand with an adult film star. (Trump has denied the affair and pleaded not guilty in the case.)
During opening statements, the Manhattan district attorney’s office argued that the case was actually about “voter fraud, pure and simple.” The prosecution then described the case to the jury as an orchestrated criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election by paying people to remain silent about stories that could damage the reputation of one of the two leading candidates.
It’s also not the only case revolving around Trump’s shameful approach to democratic elections.
In the federal election interference case against Trump, special prosecutor Jack Smith also accused Trump of defrauding the country he once led. And in the Fulton County, Georgia, election interference case against Trump and his co-defendants, District Attorney Fani Willis described the sprawling RICO case as a conspiracy to steal the 2020 election. (Trump has pleaded not guilty in both cases) cases.)
The allegations in these cases reveal the brazen ways Trump planned to secure and maintain power. They’re not a coincidence, they’re a pattern he will continue to try in his third run for the White House this year.
Trump may try, like the Wizard of Oz desperately pushing buttons and pulling levers, to maintain his failed facade before finally admitting that he was nothing more than a faker.
For more thought-provoking insights from Symone Sanders-Townsend, Alicia Menendez, and Michael Steele, watch “The weekend” every Saturday and Sunday at 8am ET on MSNBC.
This article was originally published in MSNBC.com
