We are seeing an Easter Week drama, playing out.
Trump re-posted:
"Jesus is the Greatest. President Trump is the second greatest."
Trump needed to manage a scene. No courtroom video.
Trump's lawyers argued:
We submit that the media request should be denied because it will create a circus-like atmosphere at the arraignment, raise unique security concerns, and is inconsistent with President Trump's presumption of innocence.
Until yesterday, Trump was playing today's New York arraignment for maximum spectacle value. He said he welcomed the "perp walk" and he was rehearsing how he wanted to look. His merchandise people were talking about mug-shot tee shirts. Trump's story was "bring it on." The image to project was the Trump-the-good-guy-victim, suffering on behalf of humanity. What better time for it than Easter Week?
Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey. Trump flew in on his jet. Jesus carried his cross, wearing a crown of thorns. Trump enters the courthouse in handcuffs. Alvin Bragg is a modern Pontius Pilate, the venal legal authority. Biden is Herod, the remote king, in whose ultimate interest all this was being done. George Soros is the puppeteer for the Jewish crowd choosing Barabbas over Jesus. Trump is Jesus Christ, courageous, selfless, and ultimately to be victorious in 2024, the Second Coming.
That had to sound pretty good to Trump and ready-made for an evangelical base. The timing is great.
Yet today, in the courtroom, there would be a different view on television. There would be decorum and order in the court. The judge would sit high at the big desk. Trump would be below, saying "Your honor" to someone else. That visual image would acknowledge the authority of the court and its right to judge Trump. Jesus finessed that point. When challenged about Caesar's authority, Jesus said the court was irrelevant to his real mission. The court's authority was mere Caesar rendering onto Caesar, but Jesus' mission was spiritual, in service to God. But in this temporal world of Trump, today's court is all-too relevant. Video images of Trump, submissive and obedient to the higher authority of a court, would break the spell of the Trump character, the great leader, indomitable, subordinate to no one.
Trump's threat to make the courtroom a televised circus was a way to assure that no judge would allow it. It would be January 6 all over again, with Trump leading an insurrection. That, too, would be bad optics for Trump. It would show Trump in-character --the charismatic rule-breaker -- but would confound his criminal cases involving Georgia, the purloined documents, and January 6. Two bad choices: Bad optics or bad legal strategy.
Branding and television image is an area where Trump clearly thinks strategically. He bluffed, assuring he would not get what he supposedly sought. It means that the moment when the court's authority over Trump would be most apparent would also be a moment that would be obscene, in the original Greek tragedy meaning of the word, off scene. Trump would enter the courtroom, defiant and indomitable. That's good. He would exit defiant and indomitable. Also good. No one need see that ugly little period when Trump was submitting to some higher authority, a mere state court judge.
Trump isn't just the actor in this drama. He is the director.
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14 comments:
What an interesting comparison! I can see the similarity, if Jesus was an adulterous pathological liar who liked to incite violence and cared about no-one but Himself. That may be how Trump evangelicals view Him, but not my Sunday school teachers.
It's interesting that Jesus was invoked. If you remember that didn't end well.
One way or another this event was destined to be a spectacle, and I'm somewhat surprised it's as big as it is. Then I realize that all that press, and various onlookers have something to gain, financially and otherwise, by blowing it up to, forgive me, biblical proportions.
I'm all for it. Let's make sure everyone knows the full extent of the defilement of our Republic, and everything it stands for, enabled by the Republicans. As for the defendant, there's no escaping that he has crossed a line where there will be consequences, as I hope for everyone associated with him.
I'm left with a sense of inevitability. Given all that's transpired this now seems, again with regret, pre-ordained.
Is that an intentional typo in the sentence about the media?
Sweaty, pumpkin face is being very dramatic, as usual. He has been a corrupt criminal his entire adult life. He also was a problem teenager.
Corrupt, criminal types should stay out of politics. It is too risky. Better to hide behind corrupt lawyers and employees inside corporate headquarters and to appear in reality TV shows.
The former Occupant has his own business empire. But because of his power- and attention-hungry malignant narcissism, he exposed himself to additional lawsuits and criminal charges. He alone is responsible for his legal problems.
Unknowingly, his parents created a monster. We are lucky that he is not a serial killer or a mass shooter. At least he has that going for him.
Trump is focused on managing his image. That’s his one and only job
His opponents are trying to do too many things at once:
* prosecute him, with the goal of making it impossible for him to run for president
* make a moral statement through their actions about things Trump has done that they find unacceptable
* use the legal system to damage Trump politically
* manage their own images
Unfortunately for Trump’s opponents, these goals do not always align well. Actions that serve one goal can easily damage one or more of the other goals.
Pursuing Trump for paying off a porn star may work for the legal goal, but it makes the prosecutor and his supporters look like prudes. Indicting Trump for anything may fire his base up more to his advantage than his disadvantage.
Trump’s opponents would be more effective pursuing their most important goal and dropping the other, incompatible ones. As it stands, they are hurting their effectiveness by working at cross purposes.
Rick- re”If you remember that didn't end well” Quite the opposite. It ended precisely as planned. For followers of Jesus, what he pulled off, and the follow up 3 days later changed not only the course of human history, but eternity. There’s no comparison.
I have to laugh at warnings that indicting Trump just fires up his base. They’re already fired up over the prospect of whites becoming just another minority. They might lose their white privilege! That’s why guns are more important to them than children.
District attorneys are using the legal system to hold a criminal accountable. Yes, the current indictment is just about how sleazy we all know he is, but don't worry - we'll eventually get to the coup attempt and stolen top secret documents.
Setting aside the legal problems of his three oldest children, the former Occupant has three Kushner-Trump grandchildren by Jared and Ivanka.
The other grandfather, Charles Kushner (real estate developer and disbarred former attorney),
was convicted of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering. The former Occupant pardoned Grandpa Kushner before he departed the White House in 2021.
It says a lot about a family (very wealthy, New York, in real estate) when both grandfathers have been indicted on criminal charges. Maybe someday the cult people will wake up and smell the corruption. Especially the ones sitting in jail for following and defending him.
But what is his real mission? Better to go out as the Messiah rather than just as one of 46 mortals. And MTG auditioning as the Apostle Paul…
If Trump runs as Jesus, this could be his theme song, except I wouldn't give my permission.
Like you, Peter, I think it's always a mistake to underestimate Trump. But in this case I think you're giving him more credit for being in control of the optics than I think is warranted. I think it was a very bad day for him. True, the base will react as if he is Jesus persecuted, but as I observed him, he looked like a worried man.
I suspect trumpie's legal team warned him to TRY to act like a normal person, so as not to bias the judge against him. Yeah, I know judges are supposed to remain unbiased, but but…
Herbert, Trump did look worried, or at least pensive. I’m interested in seeing what he does at Mara largo tonight.
That we know of.
If his attorneys convinced him to try to not piss off the Judge, it didn't stick. He was barely off the plane before attacking viciously the Judge, the Judges wife and DA Barr, leaving it to his spawn Fredo and Dumber Fredo to attack the Judges daughter.
True, Ed, so I hope the judge throws the book at him. But I was actually referring to his demeanor in the courthouse and courtroom. But you’re right. He’s too stupid to learn the nuances of human relationships and responses to attacks.
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