WASHINGTON (AP) – His rallying cry for supporters has been dissected. His videos, press conferences and calls to Fox News were played continuously. His Twitter account is once again dominating news coverage, his missives read aloud in the Senate Chamber.
More than three weeks away from the White House, Donald Trump’s voice is again permeating the nation’s capital – but not on his terms.
Deprived of his social media megaphone, the former president watched the early days of his historic second impeachment trial unfold on television without any of his old counterattack tools at his disposal. Instead, he will have to rely on a hastily assembled team of lawyers – whose initial appearance he criticized – to present his defense against the Democrats’ accusations on Friday.
“I think the only thing I remember, frankly, that he was in such a weak position and unable to really change history, would be bankruptcies in the early 90s,” said Sam Nunberg, former Trump adviser of long date.
Still, he argued that if Trump had access to Twitter, he would probably be more in trouble.
In the days leading up to the start of the trial this week, Trump was relatively detached from events in Washington, spending his time playing golf and planning his future while adjusting to the paces of a much more placid post-presidential life.
But Trump was quickly removed from the shutdown on Tuesday, as he watched the opening arguments of the trial unfold.
Trump exploded with advisers about his lawyers’ poor performance, complaining that they look ill-prepared and lousy on television. And he worked on the phones, demanding a more aggressive defense, according to people familiar with his reaction.
Trump’s team and allies assured him that he has more than enough Republican votes to absolve him of the Democrats’ accusation that he incited the January 6 uprising. And they convinced him that he had better be quiet to avoid the risk of saying something explosive that could alienate Senate jurors, including making his baseless allegations of mass electoral fraud a central argument in his defense. This means that there will be no media interviews, detailed comments or calls to Fox News.
Trump’s inner circle acknowledged that the two days of striking video were damaging, but felt that the Democrats’ case lost momentum on Thursday. In fact, Trump was spotted on the golf course by a team of CNN cameras. What was not clear: how and when Trump would respond to the verdict.
Trump’s inner circle remains confident of acquittal, but there are concerns among the allies about the lasting damage the trial could do to his already destroyed reputation, potentially diminishing his future position and ability to exert influence over a party he handled. iron.
Aides know that the powerful images shown at the trial – and broadcast live on broadcast networks – go beyond policy addicts who watch cable news and reach voters with little information, which could further undermine Trump’s position. In the end, more Republicans may be willing to break with him and some of his supporters may abandon him, his advisers fear.
“If he doesn’t make a correction halfway here, he will miss this Super Bowl,” said Peter Navarro, a former White House economic adviser who remains close to Trump and has urged him to abandon his current legal team and focus his case in allegations of electoral fraud that were rejected by dozens of state judges and election officials, as well as Trump’s former attorney general.
Trump is not expected to make changes to his team, although David Schoen should assume the central role. Senior adviser Jason Miller said the legal team should begin and conclude its discussion on Friday, using much less than 16 hours of allocated time.
Even Trump supporters were surprised at how strong their control over the party has been since leaving office, with those who rejected their attempts to overturn the election being met with fierce anger from the ex-president’s still loyal base.
But Wednesday’s performance, in particular, was a blatant accusation, filled with unpublished and striking videos and audio of the riot as Trump supporters clashed violently with the police, stormed the Capitol building and walked the sacred halls of Congress, menacingly hunting lawmakers and successfully interrupting the final count of electoral votes.
This footage was interspersed with Trump tweets and excerpts from his speeches as Democratic House promoters methodically traced his month-long effort to undermine his supporters’ faith in the election results, convince them that the election had been stolen and push them for the fight.
For all these reasons, Trump – who for decades described himself as the last counter-attack and his best spokesman – has been cut from his previous platforms. He was banned from Twitter and Facebook. He no longer has a White House press corps on standby to record each of his statements.
Even his post-presidential team’s effort to communicate through traditional press releases has been hampered by technical difficulties that have resulted in frequent delays in emails reaching reporters’ inboxes.
“It changes the dynamics a lot, the fact that the president doesn’t have that platform,” said Scott Walker, the former Wisconsin Republican governor who ran against Trump in 2016, referring to his social media megaphones.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a close ally of the president, said he emphasized to Trump that although his team “does better, it can do better”, what matters is the result.
“I reinforced for the president: the case is over. It’s just a matter of getting the final verdict now, ”he said.
Walker said that, in the end, he hopes the trial will help bring together Republicans currently involved in a heated debate over the future of the party and the extent to which Trump should be embraced.
“No matter where people are in terms of the president’s claims or concerns about electoral fraud or whatever, it’s really easy for Republicans in the Senate – and in that case, any Republican, whether elected or not – to be against impeachment and based on the most fundamental reason, which is just a joke to try to accuse someone who’s no longer in office, ”he said. “I think he’s a great unifier.”