In his Maga heartlands, Trump is a victim not a defendant
In one US, he cuts a diminished, humbled figure. “He seems considerably older and he seems annoyed, resigned, maybe angry,” said broadcaster Rachel Maddow of MSNBC after seeing Donald Trump up close in court. “He seems like a man who is miserable to be here.”
But in the other US – that of Fox News, far-right podcasts and the Maga (Make America Great Again) base – the trial of the former president over a case involving a hush money payment to an adult film performer is playing out very differently.
Here, anger at what is seen as political persecution meets another emotion: sublime indifference. Barely a handful of Trump supporters bother to protest ro each day outside the court in Ne New York, a Democratic stronghold.
T The divergence ensures that, with TV cameras not permitted in court,
two rival narratives are forming around the first criminal trial of a former US president.
In one, Trump is a philanderer who falsified business records to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election. In the other, he is victim of a conspiracy designed to rob the Republican nominee of victory in 2024.
This trial would already be devastating for any conventional politician.
Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker testified about his tabloid’s efforts to protect Trump from stories that could hurt his electoral chances. The capricious defendant is also awaiting a ruling on whether he will be held in contempt for violating a gag order, an offence he has been accused of 14 times.
The trial has dominated cable news networks such as CNN and MSNBC to the extent that they have faced criticism for obsessing over details including Trump’s daily commute to court and his demeanour once inside.
But in the Maga universe, there is a collective shrug.
Matt Gertz, a senior fellow at the watchdog Media Matters for America, said: “The rightwing media very much does not want to be talking about last week. On Fox, it’s one of many stories that they’re covering and not a particularly prominent one at that.”
When Trump-friendly networks do turn to the trial, they give viewers an alternative narrative. After the hearing has wrapped up for the day, Fox News regularly carries live coverage of Trump’s diatribes against the judge, Joe Biden and the cold temperature in the courtroom. They have even defended Trump – who regularly mocks Biden as “Sleepy Joe” – for falling asleep in court. Sean Hannity, a Fox News host, said on his radio show: “By the way, I think I’d fall asleep if I was there.”
But there is no sign that the airing of the charges that Trump falsified business records to cover up a hush money payment is shifting opinions.
Steve Robinson, 75, an engineer and contractor from Leesburg, Virginia, is following the trial via rightwing channels. “No CNN,” he said. “The charges are made up and it’s a travesty of justice. It’s embarrassing for us as a country … It’s obviously a political witch-hunt. The leftists are enjoying it.”
Lynette Kennedy McQuain, 63, an insurance salesperson from Lost Creek, West Virginia, said: “New York should spend their tax dollars on criminal behaviour, rather than trying to take down a former president. It’s not illegal to pay money to quiet something if you want to.”
This trial is seen as potentially the least serious of the four criminal cases against Trump, but it is likely to be the only one completed before the election. Opinion polls have tightened in recent weeks, with Biden closing the gap on Trump.
The former president is thought unlikely to testify, but the court will probably hear lurid, sordid details that even Trump’s allies in the media may find hard to resist. He is not out of danger yet.
Charlie Sykes, a political columnist and author of How the Right Lost Its Mind, said: “The danger of this trial for Trump and for the rightwing media is that many of the details are going to be quite salacious, quite dramatic and easily understood. Fox News is going to be torn between ‘this is pretty compelling material’ versus ‘it’s also pretty damaging’.”
But the experience of the past eight years suggests that Trump’s base understands who he is and is willing to accept it, sexual peccadilloes and all.