One week into Donald Trump's Manhattan hush money trial, aides to the former president are growing both worried and anxious about how he will deal with being stuck in court for a possible six weeks and if he can endure it.
According to a report from the New York Times' Maggie Haberman, the former president started off the week looking like his confident old self but after four days of jury selection, "Mr. Trump appeared haggard and rumpled, his gait off-center, his eyes blank."
That has led to growing concerns about how he will deal with the monotony of court proceedings, with testimony interspersed throughout, as well as hearing attacks on his character without the ability to push back immediately as is his habit.
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According to the report, "It is hard to recall any other time when Mr. Trump has had to sit and listen to insults without turning to social media or a news conference to punch back. And it is just as hard to recall any other time he has been forced to be bored for so long."
That has Trump's people more than a little concerned.
"People close to him are anxious about how he will handle having so little to do as he sits there for weeks on end, with only a handful of days of testimony expected to be significant. It has been decades since he has had to spend so much time in the immediate vicinity of anyone who is not part of his family, his staff or his throng of admirers," Haberman explained before adding that his advisers are brainstorming getting him out and around more.
"Some advisers are conscious of Mr. Trump appearing diminished, and they are pressing for more — and larger — events around the New York area," she wrote before explaining, "The highly telegraphed plan was for Mr. Trump to behave as a candidate in spite of the trial, using the entire event as a set piece in his claims of a weaponized judicial system."
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