Twisted truths and a fundraising boost: How Trump tried to control his first week in court
On the first day of the trial, Trump's campaign raised $1.6 million in small-dollar donations, a campaign official told NBC News.
Donald Trump emerged from a Manhattan courtroom Monday ready for a fight.
After day one of a trial that has Trump facing 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments to a porn star, the former president stood in front of reporters ready to unleash a grievance-laced tirade that, at times, did not totally reflect reality but guaranteed he would continue to dominate the headlines even from court.
His immediate focus was Judge Juan Merchan’s decision to not yet rule on whether Trump can attend his son Barron’s May 17 high school graduation. Merchan did not say Trump could not go, but rather he was not yet ready to rule on the matter. Specifics aside, however, it gave Trump just enough to paint the picture for his supporters of a biased judge blocking a loving father from seeing his son’s graduation.
“My son is graduating high school, and it looks like the judge will not let me go to the graduation,” Trump told the assembled group of reporters.
It’s emblematic of how Trump has tried to control the narrative — an instinct that has defined his political career — even while stuck in a camera-less Manhattan courtroom. The judge has ordered Trump to attend court hearings in person, so it’s a predicament he will find himself in at least four days a week for the foreseeable future as President Joe Biden continues to run a more traditional presidential campaign.
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