Donald Trump emerged from a Manhattan courtroom on Monday ready for a fight.
After the first day of a trial in which Trump faced 34 counts of falsifying business records related to secret payments to a porn star, the former president stood in front of reporters ready to unleash a speech full of grievances that, at times, were not totally did. reflect reality, but ensured that it would continue to dominate the headlines even in court.
His immediate focus was Judge Juan Merchan’s decision not yet to rule on whether Trump will be able to attend his son Barron’s high school graduation on May 17. Merchan did not say that Trump could not go, but rather that he was not yet ready to decide on the matter. Leaving aside the details, however, he gave Trump just enough to paint a picture for his supporters of a biased judge who prevents a loving father from seeing his son’s graduation.
“My son is graduating from high school and it looks like the judge isn’t going to let me go to his graduation,” Trump told the assembled group of reporters.
It’s emblematic of how Trump tried to control the narrative – an instinct that defined his political career – even while imprisoned in a cameraless courtroom in Manhattan. The judge ordered Trump to appear in person at court hearings, so it’s a difficult situation he will face at least four days a week for the foreseeable future as President Joe Biden continues to run a more traditional presidential campaign.
The false claim that a judge was not allowing him to attend his son’s graduation spread like wildfire through the conservative ecosystem, a conflagration helped by some of his core supporters with large followings. Lake Kari called Merchan “heartless and cruel.”Piers Morgan used a New York Post column calling the decision that wasn’t “disgusting.” Donald Trump Jr. called it “pure evil.”
For millions of Trump supporters, the half-truth has become the truth and a cause célèbre for those eagerly seeking to maintain the belief that the entire legal fight is an attempt by Democrats to imprison Trump.
These types of distortions and fights over nearly every aspect of the trial dominated the first week, which focused on jury selection.
It was often reality versus Trump’s version.
There were reports that Trump may have fallen asleep in the courtroom, where cameras are not allowed in these types of cases. He responded forcefully on Truth Social that “I was praying I wouldn’t sleep!!!”
Trump had a misunderstanding about the jury selection process. This led him to post on Truth Social that the lawsuit is another example of “ELECTORAL INTERFERENCE!”
And Trump has largely used a torrent of Truth Social posts and social media interviews to paint a picture of Merchan and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg as biased and out to get him, a sentiment that has been taken as gospel and amplified by conservative media.
In fundraising text messages, Trump also told supporters that he walked out of court, which at no point during the week did he do except during scheduled court recesses or when court was ending.
“I just got out of court!” read a fundraising text message from the Trump campaign. “They think I’m finished, but I’ll NEVER GIVE IN!”
Trump also tried to raise political money with the claim that he was prevented from attending Barron’s graduation.
“THEY ARE FORCING ME TO SKIP MY SON’S GRADUATION,” the Trump campaign wrote. “I WILL BE IN COURT.”
“Heartless bandits,” he continued.
Fundraising efforts focused on testing have cut through the noise.
On the first day of the trial, Trump’s campaign raised $1.6 million in small donations, a campaign official told NBC News. Trump raised that amount online in just three days in the first three months of 2024, according to a recent campaign finance filing from WinRed, the Trump campaign’s online donation platform. Each of these three days occurred in late March.
“Corrupt Joe Biden and the Democrat’s entire strategy to defeat President Trump is to confine him to a courtroom and unconstitutionally silence him during this sham trial of Biden,” said Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt. “Polls show that the American people see through the Stalinist tactics employed by Crooked Joe and his allies.”
“President Trump and his team will continue to fight for the truth in court as they work to win votes during the campaign,” he added.
Much of the country’s attention is focused on the historic nature of a former president on trial, a saturation that has helped Trump continue his unparalleled ability to get and retain attention regardless of the specific situation — which, in this case, is being imprisoned. in court facing unflattering revelations about his personal life and accusations of trying to hide information to get elected.
“I don’t think any of that matters. He completely rewrote the rules,” said a longtime Republican operative who was granted anonymity to speak freely about Trump’s first-week performance. “There are between 75 and 80 million people who will vote for him because he is a feisty fighter. The working class sees him as a billionaire bubba.”
The entire episode features a split-screen of a former president mired in legal fights and stuck in court and a sitting president ticking all the boxes of what would be considered a traditional presidential campaign. Biden has a significant fundraising advantage and continues to hold in-person campaign rallies, most recently a stop in Pennsylvania, including events in his hometown of Scranton, where he attacked Trump on a range of issues – but conspicuously did not mention his legal problems . Biden’s campaign had previously said it would avoid directly attacking Trump’s legal troubles to try to avoid the perception of an armed Justice Department.
In addition to fundraising text messages, Trump’s political operation continued to operate in the background. On Wednesday – the day off from the trial – Trump had dinner with Polish President Andrzej Duda at Trump Tower in New York, and on Saturday he is expected to hold a rally in North Carolina, a swing state.
Trump has also named top allies to lead the Republican National Committee, which has generally focused on the most basic types of political blocking and combat given that the presidential candidate will likely be tied up in the courts for most of the 2024 election cycle. In the current trial, Trump faces four separate criminal charges and a series of civil cases, some of which will continue until November.
“We are sharing a lot of data with us to help us register and engage voters,” said an RNC member.
Trump has also used post-trial campaign stops to attract attention, including a visit Tuesday to a New York bodega. Trump at times tried to use the shutdown to focus on the rising cost of consumer goods and crime, which have been two political themes of his presidential campaign, but the focus inevitably turned to his trial.
Trump was asked what he thought of the seven jurors selected on Wednesday — the full 12-member jury was chosen on Thursday — and he was candid that the results would guide his assessment.
“I’ll let you know in about two months,” Trump said of the trial’s likely timeline.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
