Behind closed doors at Mar-a-Lago, former President Donald Trump has told friends and associates that he likes the idea of authorities exposing him to throngs of reporters and news cameras. He has even openly pondered whether he should smile for the media and pondered how the public would react and he is said to have described the potential show as a fun experience.
No one is quite sure if his comments are bragging or a genuine resignation about what lies ahead. If you’re really looking forward to it, you might be disappointed.
There is no indication, even if Trump is charged, that authorities would engage him in that storied New York City police tradition known to detectives and crime reporters alike: ushering the newly arrested in front of a group of reporters.
If Trump is indicted and turns himself in, arrangements will likely be made between the Secret Service and law enforcement to prevent a media circus.
Another person who has spoken with Trump, who was not authorized to speak, said the former president was less concerned with the details of where he would be seen than with securing the opportunity to show the public that he is not slinking away in shame.
As he awaits a likely criminal indictment, making him the first current or former US president to face criminal charges, Trump often seems significantly out of touch with the seriousness of his potential legal troubles, according to people who have spent time with him. in the last days.
The Republican has been seen cruising around his Palm Beach, Florida resort in his golf cart and on a recent night DJed a party to his personally curated Spotify playlists, which often include music by the Rolling Stones. and “The Phantom of the Opera.”
When Trump has focused on the case – one of four criminal investigations in Georgia, New York and Washington now pitting the leading candidate for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination – he has done so to project strength and avoid any hint of shame over his circumstances. , an approach that reflects his handling of repeated political crises and his talent for creating dramatic made-for-television moments.
Seeing Trump after a court appearance could also galvanize his supporters, whom the former president urged over the weekend to protest his arrest.
“He wants to be defiant, to show the world that if they can try to do this to him, they can do this to anyone,” said one person who spoke to Trump over the weekend. A Trump campaign spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump has felt both empowered and angered by the prospect of being arrested, according to those who spoke to him. And he has also entertained a certain amount of magical thinking.
For decades, according to people who worked with him at the Trump Organization, the former president, who was first criminally investigated in the 1970s, was clearly afraid of being arrested. He spent years cultivating officials who could influence investigations into him or his company.
Trump has discussed the possibility that his recent lobbying campaign, a series of personal, unproven and provocative attacks he has unleashed on investigators, Democrats and Republicans, could persuade Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to withdraw from the case.
That idea, according to legal experts, is highly unlikely, but Trump has a long record of believing that he can manipulate external events to his will and, on occasion, has succeeded.
Bragg, who was a senior official in the New York attorney general’s office who filed a series of lawsuits against the Trump administration, has publicly stated that his legal decisions will not be influenced by politics.
Trump, for now, seems content to follow his own formula for crisis communications, one that eschews long-term planning for short-term gain.
The former President has long stressed the importance of winning the next starter at virtually any cost and with little regard for what happens next.
On Saturday morning, the former president kicked off a frantic news cycle by announcing on social media that he would be arrested in three days. Trump then visited one of his nearby golf courses, letting his team clarify that he had no direct knowledge of the time of an arrest.
By Saturday afternoon, Trump escaped controversy by flying to the exact location of another past political humiliation: the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a sparse crowd turned out for his first rally of the pandemic era on September 20. June 2020.
This time, Trump was not standing apart from the crowd, but rather walking through it, his dark blue suit and red tie contrasting with a crowd dressed mostly in T-shirts, hoodies, and T-shirts to watch the Wrestling Championships of the NCAA Division I.
He chatted with the fighters after their bouts, met some trainers and entertained a few brief chants in his honor, a performance meant to show arrogance and mask any concerns about a pending arrest.
“He’s completely focused,” a staff member commented, “on the fighters.”
