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US President Joe Biden Departure

Jabin Botsford

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/donald-trump/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Donald Trump</a> is shrinking. Not by choice and not without a fight, but the bombast and bluster that have kept his public persona afloat is fading — at least during these early days of the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/23/trump-hush-money-trial-live-updates-david-pecker-testimony/" target=_blank>New York criminal trial</a> in which he is accused of falsifying business records to influence the 2016 election.

Each day, Trump is forced to sit in a courtroom in Lower Manhattan where the hallways are lined with industrial fans, the lighting is best suited for autopsies, the walls are the color of dust, the wood paneling looks sticky, and the trailing wires and cables connecting speakers and monitors make everything look dismally last century. Trump’s designated place is in a burgundy padded chair in the midst of his lawyers. They <a href="https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-hush-money-trial-04-22-24/h_84ac13906d75e34a1b42b9a4002074a5" target=_blank>insist on referring to him as “President Trump” </a>— rather than simply Mr. Trump. He earned the title, said his lawyer Todd Blanche, “he was our 45th president.” They throw him this bone of authority and prestige at a time when he has been stripped of both. The man who loves buildings with sweeping views framed in shiny gold must settle into a space that exudes musty claustrophobia.

Trump’s lawyers speak for him while he sits mostly in silence — his raspy tenor of a voice reduced to the occasional whisper in the ear of his attorneys. He sits, sometimes with his eyes closed and his head drooping, sometimes at a distinct remove from whatever issue his lawyers, the prosecutors and the judge are sorting through. Mostly he nods and shakes his head, sometimes vigorously, like an agitated mime.

The first day of jury selection merged into the second and then whoosh, the jury was seated, the trial was in its second week and the first witness was called. David Pecker, the former CEO of the company that published the National Enquirer, was a longtime friend of Trump’s. The prosecution called Pecker to discuss his relationship with Trump, which allegedly evolved into a conspiracy to bury negative stories about Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign while highlighting possibly damaging stories abut his political adversaries.

Through all of this, the defendant has been little more than a blur in a red tie. Then a blue-striped tie. Then a solid blue tie. Then a red-striped tie. Then a blue tie. And so on. His French-cuffed shirt is sometimes stretched tight across his midsection. His suit jacket hangs off his shoulder. The courtroom sketch artists do not treat him kindly. He is slouching and gaunt-faced with his hair sitting atop his head like a ragged ship’s sail inflated with air.

On most days, Trump has an American flag pin affixed to his lapel, as political candidates do. But he sits and stands at New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan’s  instruction, as defendants must. Trump has been rewarded by the electorate for his unfiltered speech, for his put-upon verbiage, and for his ease with slinging insults and decrying unflattering facts as fake news. Now his ability to speak about the trial’s witnesses and jury is bound up in a gag order — one that the prosecution says he has already violated nearly a dozen times. Any caterwauling is likely to put him at odds with the judge. As a political candidate Trump popularized the phrase “fake news,” using it as a shield to protect himself from any criticism, but according to Pecker, Trump was a key instigator of the fake news stories that ran in the National Enquirer about his political rivals. Trump used them as a sword.

Brendan McDermid/POOL

Trump has been diminished. For now. The American judicial system has brought a former president down from his lofty perch. That’s a testament to a system that can be clunky, unyielding and discriminatory; but in this case, has operated with a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/04/20/trump-hush-money-increasingly-quaint-notion-embarrassment/" target=_blank>measure of elegance</a>.

Trump comes to court with his Secret Service detail, but when he settles into his place at the defense table, what the public is able to see in the images captured by photographers, is often just the sight of a defendant bookended by court officers. Instead of the men and women in dark suits with earpiece wires snaking down their collar — the telltale sign that a VIP is in the room — the former president is just another defendant under the steely gaze of law enforcement. He has assumed the position of countless other defendants who awkwardly aim to occupy their hands, settle their gaze and hope for the best. Trump is not the most important person in the room. The 12 jurors and the six alternates are. It’s their needs to which the judge rightfully has been most attuned.

When Trump steps outside of the courtroom and his tongue is somewhat unbound, he holds court in the hallway — pontificating and sometimes answering questions from the news media. He waves. Because of security, metal bicycle racks cordon off the area. The point is to keep the public away from Trump, to keep the media at bay. The result, however, is that Trump is left standing in his own little fenced-off court. He doesn’t look like the man whose coat everyone is desperately trying to touch. Instead, he’s the guy separated from polite society. He’s not in jail, but he’s nonetheless behind bars.

Each day, Trump prepares himself for the flurry of pictures when photographers are allowed into the courtroom to capture the moment for the historical record. He sticks out his jaw, furrows his brow and offers up a tough guy glare. The look isn’t quite as dramatic as the one captured in the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/mug-shot-donald-trump-indictment-839920116a244df3e55bdedf33820a80" target=_blank>Georgia mug shot</a> taken in connection with his alleged election interference. That one had the benefit — or the curse — of harsh lighting and graininess. In the New York pictures, Trump doesn’t seem to be aiming for the title of America’s Most Wanted. Instead, he gives the impression of reaching for something more elevated, something loftier. It’s similar to the expression that often punctuated his White House photographs when he was seeking to telegraph toughness or resoluteness.

Back then, he had the benefit of the Oval Office as his backdrop. With its history and symbolism, it shines a light like no other on its occupant. In Room 1530 at New York County Supreme Court, the light is not nearly as flattering.

Pulitzer Prize for criticism, 2006

Princeton University, BA in English

University of Michigan, MA in journalism

Robin Givhan is senior critic-at-large writing about politics, race and the arts. A 2006 Pulitzer Prize winner for criticism, Givhan has also worked at Newsweek/Daily Beast, Vogue magazine and the Detroit Free Press.

Robin Givhan

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Former U.S. President Trump's criminal trial on charges of falsifying business records continues in New York

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