FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
NEW YORK – Donald Trump wants to turn his impeachment into a global live show. He reportedly told his advisers that he would like to be handcuffed if he voluntarily appeared at the Manhattan courthouse. And he added that even if he were shot in front of the building, he would be “a martyr” and his victory in the 2024 presidential election would be assured.
The grand jury, the jury of 23 people that must decide whether there are grounds for impeaching the first former president in the history of the United States, has not yet spoken: It did not meet yesterday for unknown reasons at the request of the prosecutor; the vote could take place today. Trump, who last Saturday predicted the indictment for Tuesday, published an article on Truth Social on the night of right-wing Fox News that prosecutor Alvin Bragg may have changed his mind and no longer wants to indict him. In short, the show is already in full swing.
On Sunday, Maggie Haberman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times, told CNN that Trump was “very concerned” about the likely charges related to making payments to Stormy Daniels in 2016 with false bills and alleged campaign funds before her ten years to be silenced for having a sexual relationship. “Both may be true,” says Haberman. “On the one hand, Trump thinks that the indictment could help him politically … on the other hand, he doesn’t want to be arrested: He should imagine that his fingerprints would be taken, he should ask for bail. None of that excites him.” But in recent days, Haberman himself writes, Trump has come to the conclusion that if he has to submit to an arrest (which will consist of a mug shot and fingerprints before being immediately released), Might as well turn the event into a show of appearing as a “loser” by logging in remotely or sneaking into court, which has been suggested to him by lawyers and the Secret Service His attorneys are unsure whether Trump is taking the risks of the prosecution fully understands: An indictment could encourage others to commit more “dangerous” cases, such as trying to undermine the result of the 2020 Atlanta election or refusing to release classified documents at the end of the mandate (there would be new evidence that he purposely hidden it).
The ex-president now plays golf on his Florida estate. One night he was DJing at a party, selecting songs from The Rolling Stones and The Phantom of the Opera on Spotify. They say he believes he can bend events to his will: he has done so in the past and has survived scandals that would drown any politician (like in 2016, when a ten-year-old video surfaced of him engaging in sexual… assaults on women). . Trump wants to be the star of the primaries again like he was in 2016. He doesn’t need an indictment or the beginning of the trial (which would take months if not over a year) to turn the allegations into an election weapon. He has already raised $1.5 million in donations since Saturday, and Republicans have sided with him. But the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, is not there and presented himself in an interview on Fox as an alternative to the tycoon.