'All you need to know about Donald Trump': ex-White House communications director

06 November 2023

During a Monday interview with CNN's Caitlin Collins, ex-President Donald Trump's former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin shared thoughts on her former boss' New York civil fraud trial testimony, for which he was chided by presiding Judge Arthur Engoron over his behavior.

Collins pointed out, "We've seen Donald Trump before in taped depositions. He's typically more muted and has a bit more restraint. But it seemed very clear the minute he walked into that courtroom today, he wasn't trying to appeal to the judge today. He was trying to appeal to a larger political audience."

Griffin replied, "Very much so. The word I would use is defiant and I think that was by design to the degree that there's ever a strategy in anything Trump does. I think he's, kind of, realized in this civil case it's a foregone conclusion. There's already been the summary judgment. There's not really a case for him to win, it's, 'How do I win in the court of public opinion?' And you know this. I know this well. When he has media attention on him, he just wants to dominate that attention he has. He wants to look strong above anything else. The facts, at times, be damned. So I think that, to the degree there was a strategy, it was, 'Look tough, look defiant, use the playbook of this is rigged, this is a witch hunt.' He's not on the campaign trail. One of his chief opponents [Florida] Governor [Ron] DeSantis is being endorsed by [Governor] Kim Reynolds in Iowa. But he did have the media's attention and American eyeballs on him."

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Collins added, "And his campaign obviously, they fundraise off this, they were sending out emails against the attorney general, the moment he walked into court. But then I noticed at points later they were taking quotes — we were watching these exchanges in real time — and kind of quoting the judge out of context. Like the one where he said, 'I don't want to hear what Donald Trump has to say.' He was saying about the tangents Trump was going on. But they were quoting that and blasting it out to millions of people."

Griffin then said, "And that's why it's important to have reporters in the courtroom to actually relay those facts, because if it was purely communicated through Donald Trump and his attorneys, we wouldn't have the facts. And we also saw Alina Habba give a bizarre speech outside the courtroom when she was talking about procedures you would in the courtroom, it seemed like this was an offense against her and the Donald Trump team. They're gonna do this. This is classic Donald Trump playbook. It's us versus them. 'I'm being indicted for you' is what he tries to convey to the American public. The reality is it might be working. We saw the latest New York Times/CNN numbers. He's beating [President] Joe Biden in four of the five battleground states and outperforming significantly where he was at this time in 2020. So, I think he's relying on there's going to be courtroom and legal battle fatigue of the American public. And so as long as he looks on top of it, looks angry and looks like he's fighting for something, that might work."

Collins asked, "And what about the other 2024 candidates who are preparing to be on the debate stage, where he is not going to be. How do you think they view something like what happened today?"

The ex-Trump staffer said, "It's the myth that these candidates, many of whom are my friends, are still kind of buying into, which is he's suddenly going to be out of it and their moment's gonna happen. He is careening to the nomination. We're two months out of Iowa and I don't see something fundamentally changing unless something were to take him out of the race. Which, nothing is going to. No court date is going to. Nothing is going to make him drop 40 points in the polls. And can I say one thing Caitlin? What I couldn't help but think, obviously today he had to be there. This is a civil trial and he was on the stand. He hasn't had to be in the courtroom on these other dates he's chosen to show up. He cared more about showing up because his business interests were being challenged than when he was being accused of sexual assault. Name a person that you know who wouldn't be there to defend themselves against an allegation of sexual assault. He didn't show up in the E. Jean Carroll case. That shows you all you need to know about Donald Trump."

The CNN host followed up asking, "And given you worked with him, what did you make of him talking about his brand value, saying that's something that should be part of the financial statements, which I think is what most bankers would say is not something you can put on a loan application?"

Griffin replied, "He puts a lot of stock in the brand value. And I would argue that, I think in many ways the brand value has diminished in recent years, at least in his presidency, or at least in the main stream probably. The business is a brand. The presidency for him is a brand. It's not about the American public, it is about Donald Trump."

Watch the video below or at this link.

'All you need to know about Donald': ex-Trump White House communications directoryoutu.be

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