The G.O.P. is just where Trump wants it

The Return of the President: Donald Trump’s Show in New York During a 4-Year Unruly Presidency at the White House

The former president is facing serious problems in a potentially more dangerous case concerning his alleged mishandling of secret documents being investigated by special counsel Jack Smith. The Justice Department is searching for evidence aboutTrump’s handling of classified documents after leaving the White House.

The president is expected to surrender in New York, where he built his reputation and made his name, but which could now be used to cause his downfall as the result of a protest by the people of New York.

Trump returned to New York on Monday, and he made a big show of it. The snaking motorcade of black Secret Service SUVs to and from his private Boeing 757 in its sparkling new livery carried overtones of a presidential movement in a power play meant to send a message of strength.

The case could be a sign that Trump is finally being called to account for his rule-crushing behavior, which many Americans detest, as well as the fact that all former presidents are equal under the law. But Trump, using his bond with his most loyal supporters, is claiming the prosecution is a case of naked political persecution from District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, that’s designed to thwart the possibility of a presidential comeback. The Trump campaign is claiming that the attention he’s getting is giving him a political boost.

Trump has a criminal indictment that puts him in political territory. His return to the spotlight in these situations is a further twist in an exhausting saga that featured double impeachment, false claims of a stolen election and a mob attack on the US Congress during an unruly four-year presidency that pushed the nation to the point of exhaustion.

Some legal experts, without having seen the still-sealed indictment, have questioned whether a case that appears to revolve around infringements of accounting practices and possible campaign finance violations is sufficiently serious to merit the historical step of indicting an ex-president who is already running again.

Trump denies any wrongdoing in all of these investigations. He described his behavior in Georgia as perfect. And he has lambasted the sealed indictment in New York, where he faces more than 30 counts related to business fraud, as an example of politicized justice.

He would have been indicted if he hadn’t run for office, the polls show that he’s doing better in the polls now he’s running for president. Bragg has made no public comment on the case since the indictment came down last Thursday.

Tacopina also telegraphed an effort to target the credibility of Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, who made a $130,000 payment to Daniels and went to prison on charges including lying to Congress, but who may be a central witness in any trial of Trump.

The political sensitivities of the New York case and Trump’s past threats of death and destruction made for a heightened level of security. Many of his supporters haven’t taken to the streets because of Trump’s calls for protests.

The indictment returned last week by a grand jury against Trump is also expected to be unsealed Tuesday, providing the public – and Trump’s legal team – with the first details about the specific charges he will face. The investigation stemmed from a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.

DeSantis, who has yet to declare a run, is running a shadow campaign rooted in the premise that he could offer Trump-style policies without the chaos or distractions of the ex-president. And many Republicans are already concerned that an indicted GOP nominee could be a liability in a general election in November 2024. Another Republican, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who has called on Trump to step aside because of the indictment, announced his own run for president on Sunday.

In the same way that he has reacted to previous threats in his business and political career with fury, Trump showed that he will respond to this brush with political fate by using his power to cause huge disruption and partisan anger.

“I believe this Witch-Hunt will backfire massively on Joe Biden,” he said. “The American people realize exactly what the Radical Left Democrats are doing here. Everyone can see it. When we defeat Joe Biden, we will eliminate every last one of the democrats in office so that we can make America great again.

His approach means that this Tuesday is likely to be just the start of a new, dramatic and divisive chapter in Trump’s political career and another extreme test for America.

The moment will present a number of coverage conundrums and test how well news organizations have adapted to reporting on Trump since he left the presidency in disgrace.

A version of this piece was published in the newsletter. Sign up for the daily digest chronicling the evolving media landscape here.

The Truth is Not Just A Sandwich: Investigating Donald Trump’s Indictment for the 2016 U.S. Capitol Insurrection

► Molly Jong-Fast: “He needs to be covered as a truth sandwich. Tell the truth before you repeat one of his lies. If you can not tell the lies again. If you must repeat the lie be sure to say it’s a LIE. His campaign shouldn’t use their framing. Don’t let him be your assignment editor. Donald Trump is a candidate so treat him like any other candidate or defendant. Don’t allow him to benefit from the doubt.

Bill says to ignore the courthouse circus and pay attention to the merits of the case. Is there new evidence? Are there new witnesses? What does the indictment tell us that we didn’t already know about Trump’s payment to Stormy Daniels? What about it is provably illegal?

Editors should stop looking over their shoulders because they can trust their own journalistic instincts and training and not worry about what ox peckers will say about their camera angles. It’s a story, follow it. Inform your readers and viewers.”

And there are increasing signs that this new reality – which will come with hefty financial commitments in legal fees and locks on Trump’s calendar – could be multiplied at a time when he’s already facing the intense demands of another White House bid.

The documents case may not be the end of it. Smith is investigating Trump’s conduct in the weeks leading up to the US Capitol insurrection. The district attorney in Georgia will be examining the ex-president’s attempt to change the result of the 2020 election.

While Trump’s comments will signal how he intends to fight the charges against him in the political arena, the former president is also preparing for the fight in court: He added another attorney to his team, Todd Blanche, as lead counsel on Monday.

The first photos of Trump in the courtroom underscore that message: he was seated at a courtroom table, flanked by lawyers and four uniformed police officers, contained and constrained in ways he seldom has been since entering electoral politics eight years ago.

There is one criminal prosecution. Trump hasn’t been charged in any of the other cases, but a multi-front defense in multiple cases would represent an extraordinary storm. And it would further disrupt the ex-president’s capacity to dictate his political schedule and control his destiny. During the Russia investigation, or the impeachments, Trump used his popularity with Republican voters to undermine the accusations against him. He made GOP senators pay with their careers if they voted to convict him in an impeachment trial.

The 2020 election was the same as the one in 2020 because the will of voters was not swayed by Trump’s attempts to have votes thrown out.

Trump’s lawyers attempted to wrest some control of the court proceedings on Monday, arguing against a request by news organizations, including CNN, to allow television cameras into Tuesday’s arraignment. The media outlets believe that the case should be broadcast. But Trump’s lawyers told the judge that “it will create a circus-like atmosphere at the arraignment, raise unique security concerns, and is inconsistent with President Trump’s presumption of innocence.”

It is a fact that Trump thrives in a media circus. The difference, perhaps, in this case is that he fears being part of a media circus that he can no longer control.

The courthouse is in the same building as the district attorney’s office, and Trump will be taken there through back hallways and elevators. He will walk through a public hallway to the courtroom where he will be arraigned.

Donald Trump, the First Real Chance to Counterpunch a Criminal Indictment: The Partisans of Mar-a-Lago

Nicole Hemmer is an associate professor of history and director of the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers center for the study of the presidency. She is the author of Partisans: The Conservative Revolutionaries Who Re made American Politics in the 1990s, and is also a co- host of the podcast “Past Present”. Her views are expressed in this commentary. CNN has more opinion on it.

News helicopters hovered as a string of SUVs zipped down the FDR Drive in Manhattan. A crowd of journalists, supporters and onlookers waited at the Manhattan Criminal Court, surrounded by police officers. The defendants were waiting for the arrival of them.

An accused person turned himself in to the court and was arrested and taken into custody before appearing before a judge to plead his case.

As he entered the court, he delivered first a wave and then raised a fist to his supporters. But any sign of defiance had vanished by the time of his arraignment and not-guilty plea.

The time in office of Donald Trump was marked by lack of accountability. The man who once bragged he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and walk away scot-free seemed to have understood the truth of his status well before most Americans. While journalists and analysts explained how Trump flouted laws like the Emoluments Clause and the Presidential Records Act, Trump simply continued on, sensing that, as a resident of the White House, he was someone who the law could not touch. And it didn’t.

While Republicans in Congress refused to help hold Trump accountable, the processes of impeachment and hearings were used to reveal bad acts but not to correct them.

The first and second impeachments involved necessary debate and public exposure, but each started with a foregone conclusion: that the vast majority of Republicans would never turn on Trump. Republican leaders refused from the outset to engage in a process that could lead to charges being brought against the former president.

Tuesday night was Mr. Trump’s first chance to address the criminal charges against him — his first real opportunity to counterpunch — since the New York indictment came down. Safely back in the gilded cocoon of Mar-a-Lago, surrounded by American flags and supporters sporting red hats and campaign signs, he delivered a half-hour battle cry that was painfully on brand: a greatest hits of his witch-hunt grievances interwoven with his dark take on how the country is “going to hell” without him. As he tells it, “all-out nuclear World War III” is just around the corner. It can happen! We’re not very far away from it!” He also suggested that the investigation into his squirreling away sensitive documents at Mar-a-Lago could somehow lead to his being executed.

The New York Times said he has been working with his team to figure out how to present himself. Should he wave to those gathered or stay silent? Should he smile or stay solemn? Should he avoid a mugshot, or ask for one?

These were questions for both lawyers and campaign aides, since Trump clearly plans to leverage the images as part of his 2024 presidential bid. Already his campaign is promoting t-shirts with digitally-created mugshots, and his campaign emails burst with warnings that after “they” come for the president, they’re coming for his voters next.

They can try to stop me with threats and indictments, he said in an email on April 1, but they could never crush the spirits of 74 million Americans who want to make our country great again.

This uncomfortable reality is actually something for every member of the G.O.P. to think about. Again. This is going to be a central theme of Mr. Trump’s third presidential run, and if his post-arraignment remarks are any indication, it will make everyone else in the party expendable.

It was not one of Mr. Trump’s more compelling speeches. The Mar-a-Lago crowd, while friendly, wasn’t the kind of roaring mass of fans from which Mr. Trump draws energy, and the former president sounded heavily scripted. The address had a lot of offensive comments about the justice system in general and the people who were looking into Mr. Trump. (Seriously, what was with all the wife bashing?) He said the officials were out to get him. He went on a bizarre riff about how President Biden had hidden a bunch of documents in Chinatown. His repeated attacks on the Jack Smith, the special counsel overseeing the federal investigations of Mr. Trump, suggest that the former president’s backside is hurting.

Get ready for more of this magic. The investigations that are being conducted on Mr. Trump will distract him as they intensify, with possibly more indictments to come. A hefty chunk of his campaign is likely to be an extended whine about his ongoing martyrdom, constantly putting other Republicans in the awkward position of having to defend him. And they won’t really have any choice as he whips his devoted followers into a frenzy over his persecution — and, of course, by extension, theirs.

That is certainly what we have seen happening. Republicans have been lining up to trash the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg. It was in no way surprising to see Representative Lauren Boebert comparing the indictment of Mr. Trump to the actions of Mussolini and, yes, Hitler. But one might have expected slightly more from Gov. Ron DeSantis, widely regarded as the biggest threat to Mr. Trump’s 2024 ambitions, than his pathetic vow to refuse to assist any effort to extradite Mr. Trump to New York. It was weak, Ron. Very weak.