'Silent and tired Trump' is 'barely a witness to his own trial': reporter

28 May 2024

Over the past six weeks, former President Donald Trump has been largely away from the campaign trail, and has instead been confined to a chilly courtroom he's referred to as "the icebox." One reporter who has covered the trial from the very beginning noted that Trump has been asleep for most of it.

In a recent essay for the Independent, journalist Alex Woodward described the bizarre trial proceedings as they unfolded day-to-day. He wrote that the Manhattan courtroom where New York Supreme Court justice Juan Merchan has been presiding over the trial is constantly abuzz with a hodgepodge of both high-profile news anchors like CNN's Jake Tapper and Fox News' Jeanine Pirro, along with "veteran court reporters and exhausted print journalists operating on little sleep." Another person apparently not getting enough sleep is the 45th president of the United States, who Woodward said often has trouble keeping his eyes open for most of the day.

"After snaking through two lines for metal detectors downstairs, up the elevators back to the 15th floor, through another two rows of bag checks and another set of metal detectors, we filed back into the courtroom before the former president trudged inside and plopped himself at the defense table," Woodward wrote, describing the immediate aftermath of a man self-immolating outside of the courthouse during the last day of jury selection.

"There, we continued to bear witness to a silent and tired Trump, who slouches, stares and keeps his eyes shut for six to seven hours a day, three to four days a week — a view that’s been afforded to only his entourage and the handfuls of attorneys, court officers, journalists and members of the public allowed inside," he continued. "He lumbers in and out of the court, sits briefly by himself at the defense table before his attorneys join him, then keeps his eyes closed for most of the day."

"His mouth falls open occasionally, before he appears to snap awake and scrunch his face as if he’s listening harder," he added. "He sinks into his chair and disappears, barely a witness to his own trial."

During multiple occasions, other journalists have also noted Trump's pattern of falling asleep during the proceedings that will determine his freedom. Earlier this month, MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin said the former president's lawyers tried "a number of different devices to keep Trump awake," with mixed results.

"When there are sidebars, an attorney doesn't leave his side anymore, because leaving him alone means leaving him to potentially sleep. He has a stack of papers with him at all times now to go through. But neither of those things seem to have protected Trump from his own exhaustion," Rubin said. "More than not, when I looked up to see how Trump was receiving the testimony, Trump was not receiving it all, because his eyes were closed."

Both the prosecution and the defense are back in court after the Memorial Day weekend to make their closing arguments. Defense counsel Todd Blanche is currently presenting his closing arguments to the jury, and prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office will follow.

Jury deliberations will begin after both sides have presented their closing arguments. Last week, Politico legal correspondent Josh Gerstein said he didn't expect jurors to take more than two or three days to decide on a verdict.

Trump is facing 34 felony counts of falsification of business records. Judge Merchan has told jurors that while they must unanimously agree that Trump falsified records in each of the 34 counts to cover up a separate "predicate crime," they didn't have to all agree on what crime was allegedly being covered up.

Click here to read Woodward's full essay in the Independent.

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