Multiple reports had described Trump as "glowering."
MSNBC's Joy Reid commented "how alone Donald Trump looked," with "no family there, no supporters there."
"He looked smaller," she observed.
Trump's niece, Mary Trump, had told MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell that "more than anything else," what's important is "the extent to which he's had no control over the situation." She explained, "He needs control in order to project the image that he's been able to project for so long. Without that control it all falls apart."
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"I mean, we know that Donald is a very weak person, or at least some of us know that, and that his ego is a very fragile thing that needs to be bolstered in every moment. He needs the rallies. He needs the applause in the dining room at Mar-a-Lago because he knows deep down he's nothing of what he claims to be," she added.
Trump spent days first urging his supporters to rally on the courthouse steps, then to protest at courthouses across the county and “rally behind MAGA,” he demanded.
When they didn't, he falsely claimed they were being blocked in New York by law enforcement. He described the Criminal Courts Building as locked up like "Fort Knox."
“I’m at the heavily guarded Courthouse. Security is that of Fort Knox, all so that MAGA will not be able to attend this trial, presided over by a highly conflicted pawn of the Democrat Party. It is a sight to behold! ” Trump wrote falsely, with CNN's Kaitlan Collins quickly disputing his claim.
The optics have changed.
Trump had "complained that 'no one is defending me,'" NBC News reported on May 1. "He grumbled outside the courtroom that there were no protesters supporting him outside."
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Then his son, Eric Trump, showed up, along with "his strategist and de facto campaign chief Susie Wiles and longtime adviser Dan Scavino. Trump’s legal strategist Boris Epshteyn was by his side two days last week. And Natalie Harp, a communications aide, has been present."
Now, top Republican lawmakers are taking turns showing up in court to demonstrate party loyalty, becoming de-facto surrogates.
A Fox News "BREAKING NEWS" alert late Monday morning read: "Watch Live: GOP Senators, other Trump defenders speak outside the NY v Trump trial."
Indeed, Republican Senators and Trump allies are now flocking to the Manhattan Criminal Courts Building.
Last week, U.S. Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) and Fox News host Jeanine Pirro were at the courthouse during Stormy Daniels testimony.
On Monday, U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and JD Vance (R-OH) were in the courthouse, standing next to Eric Trump behind the ex-president during his mid-day news conference.
Tuberville, a far-right conspiracy theorist and white nationalist, also held a separate press conference outside the courthouse Monday, decrying the "depressing" courtroom, claiming Trump is being forced to experience "mental anguish," attacking District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and promoting a false, anti-immigrant narrative suggesting perhaps the jurors aren't American citizens.
"We discussed what I predicted would be a growing trend of GOP officials, including VP hopefuls, appearing courtside," Carpenter wrote Monday morning.
"Trump is under order a gag order," she noted. "If he directs anyone to make statements that his [sic] prohibited from making that is a direct violation of the gag order and the judge must be monitoring these surrogate statements."
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She adds, "Previous surrogates have not opted to defend Trump on the merits. They [are] following the Trump playbook of attacking family members of the court, which Trump's former lawyer Ty Cobb described as a 'strategic' act of intimidation, 'designed around his traditional approach to delegitimizing the proceedings.' That's a real threat afoot here," she observes.
"It's really worth reflecting on that," Carpenter stresses. "Republican officials are scurrying up to NYC to launch awful, slimy attacks on the court."
She warns, "Assembling members of the GOP to defend Trump courtside is a raw display of political power. And again, this has to be emphasized, they are not defending Trump on the merits. They are attacking the court."
"Trump has successfully co-opted the GOP to shield himself from political accountability and now he is using the GOP to shield himself from criminal accountability. That's the difference between 2016/2020 and 2024. This is a very grave danger."
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