Trump’s Alternate-Reality Criminal Trial

Like everything else in MAGA world, Donald Trump's description of his ongoing criminal trial bears no relation to reality.  This is after all the man whose regime coined the phrase "alternative facts" and who is whining that he is being persecuted and treated unfairly.  In reality, as laid out in a long piece in Politico, Trump has received deference and special treatment that no other criminal defendant would be likely to ever receive.  Indeed, for his attacks on judges, their families, the courts, potential witnesses and jurors, any other defendant would likely be chilling behind bars for contempt of court or worse.  Sadly, Trump's sheep-like followers who live in a bubble of lies and disinformation disseminated by Fox News, a/k/a Faux News, and its imitators will likely never grasp the reality that they are being played for fools - just as they will never grasp the fact that Trump actually cares nothing about them save for the monetary contributions he asks them to make and their willingness to be manipulated by lies.  A piece in The Atlantic looks at  the alternate reality being spun for MAGA world versus objective reality.  Here are highlights:

“I JUST STORMED OUT OF BIDEN’S KANGAROO COURT!” Donald Trump wrote in an email to supporters late yesterday afternoon, shortly after the end of the first day of his trial on charges of hiding hush-money payments during the 2016 campaign.

The statement led off a fundraising appeal, and it was, somewhat predictably, a lie. Trump had walked out of the courtroom when the proceeding ended, made a few comments to reporters, and left.

In historical terms, what happened in the Manhattan courtroom was momentous: the start of the first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president. But in particulars, it was as dull as any other typical day in court. Judge Juan Merchan heard a series of motions from lawyers, ruling more often in favor of the prosecution but occasionally in favor of the defense, and punting other motions to later.

It was, in other words, a snooze fest—perhaps literally in Trump’s case. As reporters watching the proceeding in the courtroom and in an overflow room said, he appeared to nod off at one point early on.

The usual cliché for such widely divergent accounts is to call this a “split-screen moment.” But the trial is not televised, so the only screen is the one outside the court. That’s lucky for Trump, and not only because his impromptu nap wasn’t captured on tape for the nation to watch. The absence of any video evidence allows Trump to project the story he wants onto the trial.

So, inside Merchan’s courtroom, things went by in normal fashion. Neither Trump nor his lawyers said anything about it being a kangaroo court or election interference, as he has alleged elsewhere. . . . . Trump didn’t deliver any of the outbursts that got him scolded by Justice Arthur Engoron, in his civil-fraud trial, or Judge Lewis Kaplan, in the defamation suits against him, though it’s probably just a matter of time. . . . he can talk a good game without doing things that might risk judicial sanctions.

Later yesterday, Trump logged on to Truth Social and delivered something in the form of anguished plea. “Who will explain for me, to my wonderful son, Barron, who is a GREAT Student at a fantastic School, that his Dad will likely not be allowed to attend his Graduation Ceremony, something that we have been talking about for years, because a seriously Conflicted and Corrupt New York State Judge wants me in Criminal Court on a bogus ‘Biden Case’ which, according to virtually all Legal Scholars and Pundits, has no merit, and should NEVER have been brought,” Trump wrote.

This was not, in fact, what Merchan said. . . . . if reality doesn’t make for a good story—or a useful political bludgeon—then it’s easy for Trump to make up a better one.

I continue to be confounded by the willingness of MAGA cultist to embrace lies and untruths.  Seemingly, their hatreds and bigotry and false sense of grievance blinds them to everything else.