'Ringmaster' Trump will make hush money trial 'a circus' — and it’s 'humiliating for Melania': advisers

27 March 2024

Jury selection in former President Donald Trump's first criminal trial is set for Monday, April 15, on orders from Judge Juan M. Merchan. April 15, barring any complications, will mark a first in United States history: Never before has an ex-U.S. president gone to trial on criminal charges while being his party's presidential nominee and, according to polls, having a good chance of returning to the White House.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr. and his team will try to convince New York City jurors that Trump, during his 2016 campaign, falsified business records when making hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels — who Trump, according to Daniels and Michael Cohen (his former personal attorney and fixer), had an extramarital affair with.

In an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark on March 27, journalist Marc A. Caputo lays out some ways in which Trump is getting ready to turn the trial into a "media circus."

"For the first time ever," Caputo explains, "the road to the White House will run through a criminal courtroom…. Naturally, Trump plans to treat the case as a campaign event. As with his other legal troubles, Trump wants to transform the Manhattan courthouse into a partisan crucible."

Caputo continues, "He'll try to fashion Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg into Joe Biden's de facto running mate. And Trump's legal team hopes to define his former fixer-turned-state's-witness, Michael Cohen, as a perjurer in service of what Trump has taken to misleadingly calling 'The Biden Trials.'"

The journalist notes, however, that Merchan has issued a gag order "limiting Trump from attacking witnesses such as Daniels and Cohen or the assistant prosecutors in the case" — although Trump, Caputo adds, "is free to still criticize DA Bragg and Judge Merchan."

Nonetheless, a Trump adviser, presumably interviewed on condition of anonymity, predicts over-the-top antics from the former president.

That GOP source told The Bulwark, "It's a circus. It's going to be the ultimate media circus. And Donald Trump knows how to be a ringmaster."

Caputo points out that although Trump denies having an extramarital affair with Daniels, "few" people "believe him, even in Trump's orbit." And the trial will be stressful for former First Lady Melania Trump, who will become first lady again if Trump defeats President Joe Biden in November. Polls released in March are showing a very close race, with Donald Trump slightly ahead in many of them.

A source described by Caputo as a "confidant of the former president" told The Bulwark, "It's humiliating for Melania (Trump). Even Donald Trump spends time in the doghouse, and this is a doozy. There's no way this won't make him miserable to be around. Staff will need to tiptoe around him."

Marc A. Caputo's full article for The Bulwark is available at this link.

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