Trump’s Lawyers Are Trying to Use His Trial to Generate Conspiracy Theories — But It’s Not Working

Donald Trump’s lawyers spend much of their time placating their clients’ narcissistic delusions, even at the expense of their supposed priority of keeping him out of prison. It’s not just the exaggerated belligerence that Trump demands of his lawyers that risks angering both judge and jury. Trump wants his lawyers to stick to their absurd claims that he never did anything wrong. He wants to pretend that he is the most perfect man who ever lived and that anyone who says otherwise has some secret plan to victimize him.

As this trial progresses, the defense team adopts Trump’s preferred tactic of floating conspiracy theories to explain the growing pile of evidence against him. In some cases, they may be trying to convince at least one juror that the conspiracy theory is the same as reasonable doubt. But there appears to be another audience they’re trying to reach: Trump’s MAGA fans.

MAGA has long relied on conspiracy theories to justify its hateful political beliefs. For some reason, Trump seems to believe that his followers need a story to tell to claim that he is innocent of everything that was said about him during this trial, even though he obviously is not. Therefore, he is making his lawyers waste time propagating the narrative, instead of focusing their energies solely on the goal of confusing at least one juror and creating a hung jury.

But Trump supporters don’t seem to be biting. MAGA may not love that its leader is on trial, but the conspiracy theories it is spreading are so stupid that even its most shameless men are avoiding repeating them. It turns out that there are conspiracy theories that are too stupid to be adopted even by Trump’s base. This disconnect also suggests that Trump’s self-absorption is causing him to lose sight of what, exactly, his followers want from him.

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The most obvious and frankly hilarious example: the defense team follows Trump’s story that he never had sex with Stormy Daniels. I can hear readers scoffing, but it’s true, they are really going down this path. Even in his opening statement, the defense attorney Todd Blanche argued that Daniels’ story is a “false allegation of a sexual encounter” with Trump that she concocted as part of an extortion scheme.

As a defense strategy in court, this seems unwise. As anyone who has seen Daniels in an interview can attest, she seems like a trustworthy person. Certainly much more than Trump, who lies and dissembles every moment of the day. But also, it just doesn’t make sense. Like none other than Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, told reporters recently: “You don’t pay someone $130,000 not to have sex with you.” Additionally, Trump’s then-lawyer (now state’s witness) Michael Cohen was threatening Daniels to shut up years before the payoff scheme, which wouldn’t have been true if she made it all up to extort a presidential candidate in 2016. Plus, there’s the other mistress, Karen McDougal, helping to establish that Trump wasn’t averse to adultery.

Telling such an obvious lie to a jury seems likely to backfire, making them believe that the defense attorneys are just liars. Trump’s claims of sexual virtue seem more aimed at external audiences, as if he expects his supporters to start repeating his ridiculous notions that he has never done anything wrong. There have been some half-baked efforts to do this. The far-right network OAN even tried to push the conspiracy theory that it was Cohen, not Trump, who had sex with Daniels — but they were quickly forced to retract the story and apologize to Cohen. This is highly unusual for the network, which appears to exist primarily to spread right-wing misinformation. Part of this is because Cohen threatened to sue. But OAN didn’t even bother to resist. This suggests that even the OAN people are a little embarrassed by this.

Trump’s lawyers rely on the narrative that he is a perfect angel who continues to be the target of vast conspiracies. During cross-examination by attorney Keith Davidson, who represented Daniels while Trump and Cohen silenced him, Trump lawyer Emil Bove continued pushing the “extortion” conspiracy theory. He appeared to be arguing that Daniels and Davidson had concocted an extortion scheme. But it fails the basic common sense test to argue that Trump would be so threatened by a false story that he would pay him so much money.

Things got even sillier on Thursday when Bove questioned forensic expert Douglas Daus. Daus was only there to verify that Cohen’s text messages and phone recordings were real. But Bove attacked the guy, repeatedly suggesting that the information extracted from the phone was compromised or fabricated in some way, as if the texts and recordings were the product of a “deep state” conspiracy. It’s hard to imagine this going to a jury made up of people who have been selected to make sure they aren’t QAnon-style freaks. More likely is the hope that this conspiracy theory will gain traction in the right-wing propaganda machine, feeding Trump’s followers with arguments they can use to reject it if the jury convicts.

But what’s fascinating is that the MAGA media doesn’t seem to be biting. Instead of trying to discredit the allegations against Trump, the right-wing press opted for a strategy of deflection and distraction. As Media Matters reported, Fox News is doing a lot of “look over there!” style segments, making a big deal out of Trump’s press events in bodegas rather than dealing with what’s happening inside the courtroom. The network also promotes the idea that Trump should get “immunity” for all of his crimes, which seems like a tacit admission of guilt. Even those who are trying to promote conspiracy theories, like Steve Bannon in War Room, they are focused on attacking prosecutors for having “political” motivations. Denying the veracity of the accusations is not a priority, because not even the MAGA public will believe them.

In the past, Trump has clearly understood that even his supporters do not accept the idea that he is a good person. In fact, his transgressions, both legal and criminal, are part of his appeal. He is an aspirational figure for people who also want to cheat on their wives and commit crimes, all without facing consequences. Although they have a surprising tolerance for his endless lamentations, his appeal has never been his “woe is me” victim act, but his impunity.

It also shows that he forgets what his supporters want from him: a figurehead for their fascist movement. They want a Trump who focuses on crushing the people they hate and making bold promises to restore conservative white Christians to a place of unearned privilege they feel they have lost. They don’t care about your “I never did it” conspiracy theories. Most have never cared what he does in his personal life, or even any crimes he commits. The Trumpian conspiracy theories that gain traction are those that validate their culture war complaints. The Big Lie is loved because it tells them a story in which they are not outnumbered by Americans who disagree with them. But why should they care if Trump breaks the law and cheats on his wife? That has always been part of its appeal. The fact that he denies this so late is strange and suggests that he really is detaching himself from not just reality, but his own relationship with his base.