The Incredible Shrinking Donald (cont)

Trump finally forced to be like the rest of us

Photo by Pau Casals on Unsplash

With opening arguments about to be made, the People v. Donald Trump has already reached an important milestone: forcing Trump to shut up and listen. Indeed, last week Justice Juan Marchan commanded him to “have a seat” as the defendant prematurely rose to exit. Trump did as instructed. It was a moment to savor.

Charged with committing fraud as he sought to cover up “hush money” payments to porn star Stormy Danials and Playboy model Karen McDougal, Trump is getting his days in court. And so are we. Through real-time reports, we will have access to all the details of a consummate schemer’s effort to influence the election by purchasing the silence of two women with whom he had affairs.  

Daniels is certain to appear as a witness. So too are McDougal, Trump’s former “fixer” attorney Michael Cohen, his longtime assistant Rhona Graff, National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, former Trump campaign and White House official Hope Hicks, and a host of others with direct knowledge of the alleged crimes.   The problem for Trump and his team is that while they know who will testify, they don’t know when they will appear.

The well-timed threat has always been part of Trump’s efforts to intimidate critics and opponents and he keeps himself surrounded by people who will try to dig dirt, or twist facts to suit his method. His lawyers in this case have surely earned their multi-million-dollar keep by collecting files full of information to discredit witnesses. But thanks to Trump’s record of attempted witness and juror intimidation, Marchan has allowed the prosecutors to keep secret the order of their appearance. This means Trump can’t know who to smear as he talks to the press or goes on his nightly social media rants.

With his big mouth silenced and his quiet presence assured by the judge, Trump has been shrinking in size. Yes, the Secret Service is evident and the press has turned out en masse to cover the first-ever criminal trial of a (current or former) president, but none of this matters inside the drab room on the 15^th floor of the hulking Manhattan courthouse where criminal trials are held.     

If the ordinariness of the setting and Justice Marchan’s firm handling of the proceeding make Trump look smaller, so does the massive case assembled by Manhattan’s chief prosecutor Alvin Bragg. The witnesses range from the women who took the money to shut up, to the Trump aides who facilitated the scheme to disguise the payments as ordinary business expenses.

Unfortunately for Bragg, the lynchpin in the scheme is the former Trump lawyer, Michael Cohen, who paid the money to McDougal and Daniels and then accepted reimbursement (plus a six-figure tip) from his boss. Having already admitted to committing perjury in other proceedings, Cohen is vulnerable to impeachment, but the documents that will be submitted along with his testimony will not be.

More important witnesses will include Trump’s former buddy, Pecker, who arranged for the seamy tabloid to “catch” the stories that could have sunk Trump’s 2016 campaign and “kill” them just as long as the women remained silent. (If you’ve never heard of it before, the “catch and kill” technique is a way for slimy publishers to wield power and influence celebrities who are essentially blackmailed into providing future exclusives.) Pecker knows all about how catch-and-kill was used in the hush money case and will, under oath, tell all.

Let’s stop and ponder Trump squirming in his seat as one by one the witnesses swear to tell the truth. Throughout his life Trump has used his aides and allies to concoct schemes to advantage himself in the press and in politics. This has even included posing as his own publicist, a figment named John Barron, to promote himself. In business, the truth about profit and loss in the Trump Organization has been obscured by the fact that it’s privately held and not subject to public disclosures. In society, Trump has exploited others’ discretion to present himself as an irresistible man about town.

In one of the many ironies in this case, prosecutors will mimic Trump as they rely on the sensational aspects of their evidence – sex, money, glamor, and betrayal – to keep the jury, press, and public engaged.  As Bragg’s team spends day after day laying out the evidence, Trump the master manipulator will experience the same powerlessness ordinary defendants feel as they wait to tell their version.  

In the meantime, in the other contest Trump wants to control, his presidential campaign is sputtering along without the candidate and without adequate funding. Trump fundraising outfits have spent more than $70 million on legal fees. As of the most recent public filings, Trump’s opponent, President Biden, has $85 million in campaign cash on hand compared with Trump’s $43 million. As someone who has said that money is the measure of a man, The Donald must surely feel the pain of coming up short.

For those of us who recognize him as a dangerous con artist with a drive to destroy democracy, the shrinking of Donald Trump brings real satisfaction. It’s possible, that after an expected six weeks of sitting still, he won’t be able to recapture his Wizard of Oz mystique. The curtain has been pulled back. The man has been revealed.