'He's pretty rattled': Ex-aide explains why looming hush money verdict terrifies Trump
Whatever the hush money trial jury decides — a former aide warns the American public should "buckle up" for an unleashed Donald Trump fueled on grievance.
Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served in Trump's White House as the communications director, appeared on CNN Tuesday night to discuss what she described as 45th president's mounting frustration that he cannot control the outcome of Manhattan criminal court trial.
Griffin pointed to Trump's rambling Memorial Day message — in which he rails against "human scum" — as coming from a man "who's rattled, who's angry, [and] who spent hours deep into the night going after those who he sees his adversaries."
"I think he's concerned about this," Griffin said. "I think that just the lack of control over the situation, the lack of control out over the outcome is something he's never been good with.
"He's somebody who has just general control issues and wants to be able to have a say in how things are going to turn out, so his campaign has already thinking about how they're going to message out either outcome here but a conviction or not conviction is going to be something that I think is incredibly challenging, challenging with swing voters — he needs to be ready for that."
And Griffin is convinced that win or lose — the country is going to bear witness to a volcanic Trump.
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"Donald Trump does seem like he's pretty rattled over just not knowing what direction this might come down," she said of the trial that has dragged on for six weeks and will soon be in the hands of the jury to render a verdict.
She believes Trump has been pushing to get his family members in front of the cameras as he panics over what effect the trial will have on his 2024 presidential re-election campaign.
"I think he is worried a conviction that has major political implications," she said. "And of course, the legal ones. But even an acquittal, I think we need to get ready and buckle up to hear weeks and weeks of him saying, 'It was a witch hunt!', 'It was the Biden government that was pushing this!' — and whether he's exonerated or not, he's probably going to lean into grievance regardless of what the outcome of this is."