As the hush-money trial continues, Trump's allies step up to say what he can't

Semafor Signals

Supported by

Insights from Politico, NBC News, and The Atlantic

The News

Stormy Daniels finally left the stand on Thursday after more than seven hours of questioning and stirring testimony that rattled the defense in Donald Trump’s hush-money trial. Daniels’ answers caused some in the jury to look away and the former president to curse audibly, according to the court transcript.

The adult film actor’s alleged sexual encounter with Trump and its aftermath is at the center of the narrative the Manhattan prosecutors have woven about Trump’s criminal charges of falsifying business records to cover up hush-money payments in service of influencing the 2016 presidential election. Ahead of the election, Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to keep silent about her allegations. Trump has denied ever having any kind of relationship with Daniels.

Judge Juan Merchan on Thursday denied a second attempt by Trump’s legal team to see a mistrial declared in the case. And the drama continues to unfold, with a growing number of Trump allies coming to court to speak up while the usually loquacious former president remains under a gag order.

SIGNALS

Trump’s allies come to say what he can’t

Sources:  NBC News, Politico

In light of Trump’s gag order, political allies of Trump and Republican politicians hoping to woo him have stopped by the trial to act as his megaphone. Trump can’t talk about the prosecutors, jury, witnesses, or the judge, but his allies can. Florida Senator Rick Scott, who is vying to be Trump’s vice presidential pick, accompanied Trump into the courtroom Thursday. At a morning press conference, Scott mounted “the very criticisms that Trump is legally barred from making,” Politico reported. He swiped at one of the prosecutors, their families, and Merchan’s daughter. Other allies, including Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Eric Trump, have also started coming regularly to the trial after Trump reportedly complained no one was “defending him” during the initial proceedings.

Daniels’ testimony revives questions about Trump’s view of women

Sources:  Just Security, The Atlantic

Daniels’ testimony “edged close to a topic the judge had forbidden from trial: the fact that Trump has been accused of sexual assault, numerous times,” Just Security reported. Daniels is adamant that she’s not a victim, but her descriptions of her alleged 2006 encounter with Trump and subsequent cross-examination by the defense captivated the jury, and even made some look uncomfortable. Quinta Jurecic, an editor at Lawfare and fellow at the Brookings Institute, wrote in The Atlantic that Trump’ s alleged encounter and separate incidents involving women “speak to his understanding of the world as rigidly divided between the dominating man and the women he dominates.” “His 2024 campaign is a promise to enforce that vision as a matter of government policy,” she wrote.

Evangelicals still love Trump, in spite of and because of his past

Sources:  Politico, USA Today

It’s possible some evangelicals might support Trump because of his sins, not in spite of them, sociologist Samuel Perry argued. Evangelical Christians have embraced Trump as their own, in part because he promised, and delivered, a conservative political agenda in line with their religious views. “He delivers for them. They tolerate him,” history professor John Fea said. But some evangelicals also think Trump’s relationships with women reflect positively on his masculinity, Perry said. “Trump is representative of a kind of masculinity that is so masculine that his sexual appetites cannot be contained,” Perry said.