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Donald Trump's campaign has been trying to spin the allegations in his first criminal trial as simply a bookkeeping issue, and even his critics describe the charges as a hush money case, but this trial — like the others before it — expose his entire life as a lie, a columnist wrote Thursday.

The former president faces charges of falsifying financial records to cover up hush money payments to a adult movie actress with whom he allegedly cheated on his third wife. Daily Beast columnist David Rothkopf said the first witness in the case, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, has already presented damning evidence of criminal liability and systemic fraud.

Minutes before Donald Trump addressed his MAGA crowd at the Ellipse on January 6, 2021 his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump spoke to his supporters, vowing to "take our country back" because the Trump "family didn't get in this fight for just four years. We are in this fight to the bitter end."

Fast forward to April, 2024.

Donald Trump's decision not to try and woo supporters of former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC) is coming back to bite him, experts said citing the results of Tuesday night's Pennsylvania's primary.

With independent voters reportedly out of reach, the former president will have to rely on his MAGA base and mainstream Republicans to beat President Joe Biden. Votes for Haley in Pennsylvania, despite her ending her campaign over a month and a half ago, illustrate a serious problem for the Trump campaign.

Donald Trump's silence on former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, who is appearing as a witness for the prosecution in the hush money trial playing out in a Manhattan courtroom, raised eyebrows Wednesday morning on MSNBC.

With the former president still lashing out before the press and on his Truth Social platform at his former attorney Michael Cohen, who has yet to take the stand, one "Morning Joe" analyst suggested the former scandal sheet publisher has unreleased dirt on Trump that has the former president quaking in his boots.

With her biggest booster abandoning her after she flipped out as Congress passed a massive $95 billion foreign aid package despite her threats, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) appears to have overplayed her hand — and set in motion the end of her reign of terror in the House.

That is the opinion of the New York Times' Michelle Cottle in a column in which she claimed Greene just had the worst week of her political career, culminating in Donald Trump siding with House Speaker Michael Johnson on the bill and subsequently leaving her "flapping and flailing."

Donald Trump begged Republicans to step in and help him wriggle out of his legal troubles in a middle-of-the-night rant Wednesday.

The quadruple-indicted former president is standing trial in Manhattan in the hush money case and has already been found liable for fraud, defamation and sexual abuse, resulting in a half-billion dollars in penalties. He continues to insist the cases in both federal and state courts are a political hit job from President Joe Biden and his Democratic allies.

By using a cut-out company, Donald Trump has been disguising where $8 million in legal fees are being spent — and that has legal experts suggesting the former president is flouting federal laws at the same time that he's facing multiple criminal trials, according to a report.

The company in question, a compliance firm called Red Curve Solutions, has handled millions funneled from various Trump-aligned committees, even though it is not known for legal services.

Details never before made public are expected to be admissible in Donald Trump's latest New York trial — and onlookers are expecting them to be revealing.

New York Times investigative reporter Sue Craig said she was "struck" by the "new information" revealed in Monday's opening statements, which includes a series of text messages from National Enquirer reporters involved in investigating the stories of adult movie actress Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claimed to have had affairs with Trump.

As Donald Trump's hush-money trial kicks into its second day with a hearing on his apparent violation of Judge Juan Merchan's gag order, a former Department of Justice prosecutor suggested the embattled ex-president read the writing on the wall and seek a plea deal.

In an interview with Salon's Chauncey DeVega, attorney Kenneth McCallion, who investigated Trump for racketeering, stated the trial is starting off well for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office.

Reacting to a New York Times report that Donald Trump is less than pleased that his fans are not showing up outside the Manhattan courtroom where he is facing 34 felony counts, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough laughed at the former president's fury.

According to the Times, "Donald J. Trump was evidently not happy with what he saw out the window of his chauffeured S.U.V. as he rode through Lower Manhattan on Monday morning for the beginning of opening arguments in his first criminal trial," adding, "Mr. Trump has portrayed his legal jeopardy as a threat to America itself, and he has suggested that the country would not put up with it. But the streets around the courthouse on Monday were chaos-free — well-patrolled and relatively quiet. As his motorcade made its way to the courthouse, the few Trump supporters gathered in the park were outnumbered by Trump detractors, who waved signs about his alleged liaison with a porn star."

Prosecutors for the State of New York in their opening statement drew a direct line between the October 2016 "Access Hollywood" leaked audio and Donald Trump's alleged "hush money" payoff to two women, including the adult film actress Stormy Daniels, telling the jury it was "election fraud, pure and simple."

Legal experts are dissecting the prosecution's opening argument. Professor of law, MSNBC contributor and former FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann summed it up, saying New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg "squarely places the NY criminal trial in the election interference/corruption bucket-- exactly what the DC and GA indictments allege, just 4 years later."

The former chairman of the National Enquirer’s parent company took the stand Monday as the first witness called in Donald Trump's New York hush money criminal trial, and he's expected to confirm Trump's motivation and intent when it came to his alleged attempt to buy the silence of an adult film star he's accused of sleeping with.

David Pecker, who once headed American Media, helped Trump bury embarrassing stories before they had a chance to circulate in the media. He was also a key figure in the scheme to cover up the hush money payment Trump allegedly made to Stormy Daniels ahead of his 2016 campaign, prosecutors claim.

A former Department of Justice prosecutor who investigated Donald Trump for racketeering believes that the former president is in a downward emotional and psychological spiral as the reality of his Manhattan criminal trial pierces the bubble of invulnerability he has created around himself.

With the 77-year-old former president confronting the first trial in his life that could lead to prison, ex-prosecutor Kenneth McCallion told Salon's Chauncey DeVega that "the alternate reality Trump lives in is crumbling."