Well, the three-ring circus of the Trump trial got underway today. If you thought jury selection was “interesting”, you ain’t seen anything yet. Today, the public was treated to opening arguments, a witness, motions and, of course, the media pontificating on who said what and why and what it all means. In other words, business as usual with the truth buried somewhere in there, probably where the sun don’t shine.

It started this morning with a report out of The New Republic where Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling characterized a post made by Donald Trump earlier on TruthSocial as “dangerous” and said it was a call for his followers to “descend upon U.S. courthouses”. According to Houghtaling, his comments were “eerily similar” to those she alleges led to the January 6^th protests. Funny how she couldn’t be bothered to address the other issues raised by Trump’s post about how only protestors from the Right are being shut down, sometimes even jailed, while Pro-Palestinian protesters and others are allowed to shut down traffic, terrify citizens and more without facing any sort of criminal liability.

But Houghtaling wasn’t the only one. Rachel Maddow proved once again that the words “fair”, “impartial”, and “reporter” aren’t part of her vocabulary.

The poor (yes, my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek) reporters had to wait outside in the cold before being allowed in. Picture me playing the world’s smallest violin in sympathy.

Of course, Trump had to get his shots in before entering the courtroom.

“Thank you very much. I just want to say before we begin these are all Biden trials,” Trump said. “This is done as election interference; everybody knows it. I’m here instead of being able to be in Pennsylvania, Georgia and lots of other places campaigning. And it’s very unfair.

“Fortunately the poll numbers are very good, they’ve been going up because people understand what’s going on. This is a witch hunt, it’s a shame, and it comes out of Washington. It’s in coordination with Washington, everything, including the DA’s office. It’s a coordination with Washington. I just want people to understand that. This is done with purposes of hurting the opponent of the worst president in the history of our country.”

While he’s right this is not only politically motivated but timed to try to interfere with his campaign, he needs to focus on the trial, not on his playing the victim. He would be better served focusing on the issues that most impact our country when he talks about Biden and his failures as president. Trump’s supporters are already in his corner. The voters he needs to focus on are the undecided, the independents, the ones who are not going to be swayed by comments like the above but who want to know what he will do differently to pull this country out of the muck and mire we’re currently in.

Then we get to the opening arguments. Let’s just say the prosecution is doing its best to bring in everything, including the kitchen sink, to make their case. While characterizing the case against Trump as one “’about a criminal conspiracy and a cover up,” part of an effort to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election,” they went on to quote from the Access Hollywood tape where Trump and Billy Bush were caught on an open mic making crude and crass comments. The very next day, the Trump campaign learned of the Stormy Daniels allegations against him. That, according to the prosecution, is when the cover-up began.

To counter, Todd Blanche, who is one of the attorneys representing Trump, told the jury this: “Would a frugal businessman… would a man who pinches pennies” spend $420,000 total to cover a hush payment of $130,000?

According to the same report, Blanche also stated that there’s “nothing wrong with trying to influence an election.” Depending on the context, that one statement very well might come back to bite Trump when he claims yet again that the charges against him are an attempt by the Biden Administration to influence the election in their favor.

As for the first witness, the jurors heard briefly from David Pecker. According to NBC News, he’s a “Trump ally” and was the CEO American Media Inc, the parent company of the National Enquirer. Pecker’s an important cog in the case against Trump because the National Enquirer is alleged to have paid for the Daniels-Trump story but never published it. Under questioning from the prosecution, Pecker admitted he authorized the payment for different stories, not just stories about Trump. The key part of his testimony will be if the State is able to convince the jury, through his testimony, that the Enquirer, in collusion with Trump, practiced “catch and kill” to pay for negative information about Trump and to quash it so it never came to light.

It is going to be interesting. It is also going to be a prime example of reporters, and I use that term loosely, trying to spin the proceedings to fit their own narratives.

But, so far, we have a lot of smoke and a lot of innuendo but no fire. Not that it’s stopping the prosecution from trying. Pecker will return to the stand tomorrow and, golly gee, the judge has said he’ll keep the jury there until 2pm, unlike their dismissal before 12:30 today. At this rate, the election may be over with by the time the two sides rest their cases, especially if the judge refuses to put in a full day of evidentiary hearings.

This is a case that will go down in history. But will it be as an example of the court system working the way it was designed or to show the next nail in the coffin of our Republic? Only time will tell.

Featured image created using Midjourney AI.