For months, the news coverage of Donald Trump’s legal ordeal eagerly amplified the four-times-indicted former president’s narcissistic spin: He would use his trials to his benefit, dominating the 2024 campaign.
Last August, the New York Times insisted that Trump’s trials display “an upside-down reality where criminal charges act as political assets — at least for the purpose of winning the Republican nomination.” The indictments were catnip for the media. (The Times insisted, “Mr. Trump’s indictments didn’t just occupy a 24-hour news cycle; the cases consumed whole weeks on both mainstream and conservative media, each following a pattern.”) Meanwhile, in a self-parody of the media’s frame that everything harms President Biden, Reuters announced, “Trump trials: A unique challenge for Biden’s presidential campaign.” Biden, not Trump, had the problem, you see.
