DC judge gave Trump 'a humbling worthy of Shakespeare's Richard II': analysis

Former President Donald Trump's appearance at the Prettyman federal courthouse in Washington D.C. on Thursday appeared to be a "humbling" experience, according to news analysis written by The Guardian's David Smith.

In his piece, Smith observes that Trump on Thursday was "meek, shrunken, stripped of bravado and any sense of control" as he entered to plead not guilty to committing a conspiracy to defraud the United States and deprive Americans of their rights to have their votes counted.

Added to this humiliation, writes Smith, was the fact that magistrate judge Moxila Upadhyaya forced Trump to wait by arriving 15 minutes late and then addressed him as "Mr. Trump" rather than "President Trump."

"It was a humbling worthy of Shakespeare’s Richard II handing his crown to Bolingbroke: 'My crown I am, but still my griefs are mine. You may my glories and my state depose but not my griefs; still am I king of those,'" Smith comments. "Dethroned, Trump was forced to undergo the same legal rituals as any other defendant. When a court deputy read aloud the name of the case – 'United States of America v Donald J Trump' – he shook his head in disapproval."

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In fact, Smith argued that Trump's "smallness" at the hearing was an excellent argument for broadcasting the entire trial without commentary to the American public.

"Except for a few dozen journalists and judges who attended Thursday’s hearing, the public was denied the chance to see Trump receive his comeuppance after decades of impunity," he argues. "If they could see the smallness of Trump, some might feel differently."