Trump trial tests his campaign strategy of embracing bad publicity
MEETINGS with foreign dignitaries at Trump Tower. A staged visit to a convenience store in the New York City Democratic stronghold of Harlem.
Daily remarks broadcast on national cable television from outside the courtroom, and a blizzard of angry posts on his Truth Social platform.
In the midst of his New York hush money trial, former Republican president Donald Trump is testing the boundaries of the saying that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Even if you are running for the highest office in the land.
Making his third White House run, Trump is using the elevated media attention to amplify his claims of judicial persecution while simultaneously trying to appear presidential by meeting leaders or envoys from US allies, who have proven willing to call on him despite his facing dozens of charges in four separate criminal cases.
Media are barred from televising Trump’s trial and he is a mute observer in the proceedings.
Before the trial started on April 15, debate centred on how Trump would balance his candidacy with his dual role as a criminal defendant trapped in court out of public view for most of four days a week.
His movements curtailed, Trump and his campaign have capitalised on the “audience of millions” afforded by cameras that follow his every move, said Republican consultant Jeanette Hoffman, including his staged visits to the convenience store, or bodega, in Harlem and with union workers at a construction site in Midtown Manhattan.
Still, Trump has not had a campaign rally since the trial started, although two are planned for this week in the battleground states of Michigan and Wisconsin.
Opinion polls suggest that however Trump tries to make the best of a bad situation, the trial carries political risks.
They show some Republican voters could turn against him if he becomes a convicted felon, costing him crucial support in a close Nov 5 election rematch with Democratic incumbent Joe Biden.
The tawdry details being aired at the trial — the case revolves around payoffs to women Trump is alleged to have slept with — could repel the women voters he needs to win in November.
Trump has also taken to Truth Social, his social media platform where he has just shy of seven million followers, to portray the trial as a “witch hunt” and election interference while accusing the judge of being conflicted.
More important than the limited readership of Truth Social, political analysts say, is the amplifying effect of TV broadcasters which report on Trump’s posts, some of which prosecutors say have violated the judge’s gag order prohibiting attacks on witnesses.
However, Trump’s repeated accusations of a witch hunt could have diminishing returns in the form of less media coverage if he persists in saying the same thing every day.
Nevertheless, “the idea that he is silenced is a joke”, said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania.
Trump’s trial has not deterred foreign dignitaries from stopping by his home at Trump Tower to see him.
Polish President Andrzej Duda and former Japanese prime minister Taro Aso have held talks with Trump there, while British Foreign Secretary David Cameron met him at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort the week before the trial started.