‘He's the object of derision. It's his nightmare. He can't control the script.'
Donald Trump being forced to sit and listen to witnesses in his hush money trial disparage him without the freedom to hit back is his ‘worst nightmare’, according to a biographer.
Trump, who will be seeking a return to the White House when he challenges Joe Biden later this year, is accustomed to spending his days in a cocoon of cheering crowds and constant adulation.
But for the next several weeks he will have no control over the narrative, with a gag order barring him from speaking publicly about many parties in the case under the threat of possible jail time.
‘He’s the object of derision. It’s his nightmare,’ said Tim O’Brien, author of ‘TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald’. ‘He can’t control the script. He can’t control the cinematography. He can’t control what’s being said about him. And the outcome could go in a direction he really doesn’t want.’
While Trump occasionally has to face protesters, his life is generally shielded from any form of criticism.
After leaving the White House, he moved to his Mar-a-Lago waterfront club in Palm Beach, Florida, where he is surrounded by doting paid staff and members who pay to be near him.
Stephanie Grisham, a longtime aide who broke with Trump after the January 6 storming of the Capitol, said he is usually ‘swarmed by people wanting to shake his hand, take pictures of him, and tell him how amazing he is’.
When he returns to Mar-a-Lago in the afternoon, members lunching on the patio often stand and applaud.
He then receives the same standing ovation at dinner, which often ends with Trump playing DJ on his iPad, blasting favourites like ‘It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World’ by James Brown.
Grisham, who spent long stretches traveling with Trump and at Mar-a-Lago during his 2016 campaign and as White House press secretary, revealed how staff constantly doubled as cheerleaders telling the then-president what he wanted to hear.
They even requested motorcades that swerved protesters and left piles of positive press stories on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office to avoid angry outbursts.
Now, Trump faces a trial that could result in felony convictions and possible prison time.
And he will have to listen to more critics, without being able to punch back verbally — something he revels in doing.
Among the expected witnesses in the trial are his former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, and the porn actor who alleged she had sex with him, Stormy Daniels.
Both have savaged him in interviews and books as well as on social media.
New Yorkers who said they couldn’t approach the case fairly were excused during jury selection.
But one of the women with the harshest assessments of him will be among those who will determine his fate on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
‘I don’t like his persona, how he presents himself in public,’ said the woman, who has lived in upper Manhattan for the last 15 years.
She also said she didn’t agree with some of Trump’s politics, which she called ‘outrageous’.
‘He just seems very selfish and self-serving, so I don’t really appreciate that in any public servant,’ the woman said, adding that while she doesn’t ‘know him as a person’, how he ‘portrays himself in public, it just seems to me it is not my cup of tea’.
Trump’s legal team took issue with her responses, but they were out of challenges by the time she was up for consideration.
Judge Juan Manuel Merchan has withheld the names of prospective jurors for safety concerns.
On Friday, one prospective juror, who said she had attended the 2017 Women’s March protesting Trump’s inauguration, complained of the influence he has over his base.
‘I think his rhetoric at times enables people to feel as if they have permission to discriminate or act on their negative impulses,’ she said, citing people she has heard make homophobic or racist comments.
Still, she said she didn’t have strong feelings about the former president and wasn’t sure of his current policy positions.
At other times, lawyers read aloud social media posts from prospective jurors mocking Trump and celebrating his defeats.
One prospective juror, an older white woman, was struck from the jury pool by the judge after Trump’s legal team uncovered years-old social media posts that described Trump as a ‘racist, sexist’ narcissist.
The posts were branded ‘vitriolic’ by one of Trump’s lawyers.
Judge Merchan also dismissed a man who in 2017 had shared a Facebook post celebrating the defeat of one of Trump’s policies in court.
‘Get him out and lock him up!’ it read in part.
Court rules require Trump to be present throughout the trial.
He can’t storm out of the courtroom like he did during a recent defamation trial. He is also barred by a gag order from attacking any of the jurors, including on his Truth Social platform.
Trump has already been admonished by Merchan for audibly uttering something and gesturing while one juror was answering questions.
Trump’s assessments in the courthouse weren’t all bad, however, with a perhaps surprising number of potential jurors saying they had no strong opinions about one of the best known and most divisive men on the planet.
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