As James Poniewozik of The New York Times points out, none of Trump's recent trials have been televised, and his upcoming federal trials (assuming they ever happen) are unlikely to be televised either. So far, Trump is using the power of the media to spin what's happening to him, and he seems to have no high-profile counterpart doing the same on the other side:
In each case, Mr. Trump has sought out the cameras, or brought in his own, to offer a stream-of-consciousness heave of legal complaints and re-election arguments. In the process, the former reality-TV host and current presidential candidate has turned his many legal cases into one-sided TV productions and campaign ads....Trump, in effect, has set up a spin room for himself, one in which he's the chief spinner. What he says in the spin room is that his trials are an election story, and he's punching back hard at victory-minded Democrats who are using "lawfare" to punish him. On the other side, there's no prominent Democrat spinning back.
After closing arguments in the fraud case, Mr. Trump took questions and reiterated his complaint in front of a wall of flags at his property 40 Wall Street, wearing a red tie and flag pin, as though he had just walked out of a summit meeting. Before the verdict in the Carroll trial, he appeared in a video on his social media platform Truth Social to declare, “I don’t even know who this woman is,” from a stately, wood-paneled room, flanked by two more American flags....
Mr. Trump’s star-spangled tirades exploit a void in TV imagery, at a time when Americans have become used to seeing everything from police-violence cases to celebrity defamation trials live on TV.
... outside the court, he recasts himself as the defiant fighter. Appearing on camera at his own properties, arrayed in flags, he is in control. He is vested with authority. He is, the set dressing seems to suggest, still the president.
His appearances may be inaccurate or irrelevant or unhelpful to his legal defense. But they are forceful, a perception he always sought.
... the headlines and TV captions are Trump Lashes, Trump Hits, Trump Slams — the kind of verbs of vitality and power (Hulk smash!) that are as valuable to him as currency.
I'd feel better if there were a high-profile Democrat known for snark who could be Trump's chief antagonist. If Democrats operated like Republicans, it might be the president -- or, more likely, the vice president -- who'd take on this task. Republican tickets tend to have a Spiro Agnew, someone whose job it is to bash the opposition. Sometimes it's the president (Ronald Reagan did Democrat-bashing with a wink and a smile). Sometimes it's the VP accusing Democrats of disloyalty to country (Dick Cheney). Republicans who take on this task aren't always effective -- hi, Dan Quayle -- but Democratic tickets never seem to include a person who takes on this job. And Democratic congressional leaders tend to be too earnest and humorless to do the job effectively.
I'm sorry the Trump trials aren't being televised. His behavior in court and the prosecutors' presentation of the facts would probably be all the spin we'd need. But failing that, the trial outcomes aren't sufficiently vivid for non-MAGA voters. (The fraud trial isn't even the lead story at nytimes.com right now.) Trump might end this year a broke-ass felon and the president-elect. Democrats can't rely solely on the law to prevent the latter outcome. They need to talk about why Trump is losing in court. (Short answer: because he really has done things that aren't legal.) They need to seize the narrative.
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