NEW YORK (AP) — He seems “selfish and selfish,” one woman said.
His way of behaving in public “leaves something to be desired,” says another.
His “negative rhetoric and prejudice,” another man said, is what is “most harmful.”
Over the past week, Donald Trump was forced to sit in a freezing New York courtroom and listen to a parade of potential jurors in his secret criminal trial for money share their unvarnished assessments of him.
It was a dramatic departure for the former president and presumptive GOP nominee, who is used to spending his days in a cocoon of cheering crowds and constant adulation. Now criminally charged, Trump will spend the next few weeks subject to strict rules that strip him of control over everything from what he is allowed to say to the temperature of the room.
“He is the object of derision. It’s his nightmare. He can’t control the scenario. He can’t control the cinematography. He can’t control what people say about him. And the outcome could go in a direction he really doesn’t want,” said Tim O’Brien, a Trump biographer and critic.
Although Trump is occasionally confronted by protesters, he generally leads a life free from criticism. After leaving the White House, Trump moved to his Mar-a-Lago waterfront club in Palm Beach, Florida, where he is surrounded by a paid staff and dues-paying members who have shelled out dozens thousands of dollars to be near him.
Many days, Trump heads to his nearby golf course, where he is “swarmed by people who want to shake his hand and take his picture and tell him how incredible he is,” said Stephanie Grisham, an aide. longtime veteran who broke with Trump afterward. the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
When he returns to Mar-a-Lago in the afternoon, members eating lunch on the patio often stand up and applaud. He gets the same standing ovation at dinner, which often ends with Trump playing DJ on his iPad, blasting favorites like James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.”
Grisham, who spent extended periods traveling with Trump and to Mar-a-Lago during his 2016 campaign and as White House press secretary, described staff constantly serving as cheerleaders and saying to Trump what he wanted to hear. To avoid angry outbursts, they requested motorcade routes that avoid protests and placed a stack of positive news clips each morning on the Resolute desk in the Oval Office.
Now, Trump faces a trial that could result in felony convictions and possible prison time. And he will have to listen to more criticism, without being able to retaliate verbally – which he likes to do.
Witnesses expected at trial include his former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, and the porn actor who claimed to have had sex with him, Stormy Daniels. Both attacked him in interviews, in books and on social media.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Trump had proven in his first week in court that “he will remain defiant in the face of this unprecedented political war” and said: “It is clear that his Support from the American people will only grow the more they watch Joe. Biden, Alvin Bragg and the Democrats are holding this fake trial six months before the election.
New Yorkers who said they could not approach the case fairly were excused during jury selection. But one of the women who will pass the harshest assessment of him will be among those who will determine his fate on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
“I don’t like his personality, the way he presents himself in public,” said the woman, who has lived in northern Manhattan for 15 years. The woman said she disagreed with some of Trump’s policies, which she called “outrageous.”
“He just seems very selfish and egotistical, so I don’t really appreciate that in any public official,” she said, adding that while she doesn’t “know him as a person,” how he “feels like present in public. , it seems to me that it’s not my cup of tea.
Trump’s legal team disputed her answers, but they no longer faced challenges by the time she was examined.
Judge Juan Manuel Merchan withheld the names of potential jurors for security reasons.
On Friday, a prospective juror, who said she attended the 2017 Women’s March to protest Trump’s inauguration, complained about the influence he has on her base.
“I think his rhetoric sometimes allows people to feel entitled to discriminate or act on their negative impulses,” she said, citing people she has heard make homophobic or racist comments. Still, she said she doesn’t have strong feelings toward the former president and is unsure about his current political positions.
Another man said he grew up admiring the former president and business mogul’s real estate portfolio and even thinking he might one day live in Trump Tower. But he has come to oppose Trump’s “negative rhetoric and bias against the people he’s talking about.”
At other times, lawyers read aloud prospective jurors’ social media posts mocking Trump and celebrating his defeats.
One prospective juror, an older white woman, was removed from the jury by the judge after Trump’s legal team discovered years-old social media posts that described Trump as a “racist and sexist” narcissist.
One of Trump’s lawyers called the posts “vitriolic.”
“She harbors a deep hatred toward him,” attorney Susan Necheles said. “She said that ‘I wouldn’t believe Donald Trump if his language was notarized'” and that he was “anathema” to everything she was taught about love.
Confronted with the messages inside the courtroom, the juror said she understood why they would be concerning to the defense, but her views had evolved. “Election politics can get pretty spicy and Mr. Trump can get pretty spicy,” she said.
Merchan, the judge, also fired a man who in 2017 shared a Facebook post celebrating the defeat of one of Trump’s policies in court. “Take him out and lock him up!” ” it read in part.
Court rules require Trump to be present throughout the trial. He can’t storm out of the courtroom like he did in a recent defamation trial. He is also prohibited, by gag order, from attacking any of the jurors, including on his Truth Social platform.
He was previously reprimanded by Merchan for saying something audibly and gesturing while a juror was answering questions.
“I will not tolerate any juror being intimidated in this courtroom,” said Merchan, who previously warned Trump that he could be sent to prison for disruptive behavior in court.
Trump’s courthouse assessments weren’t all bad, however, with a perhaps surprising number of potential jurors saying they had no strong opinions about one of the country’s best-known and most notorious men. controversial on the planet.
In fact, the process appeared to reveal more supporters than might be expected in a district where President Joe Biden received 87% of the vote in 2020.
On Thursday, a potential juror who spoke highly of Trump said he was “impressed” by Trump’s career as a successful businessman.
“I mean, he was our president, it’s pretty incredible. He’s a businessman in New York. “He made his way, you know, he made some kind of history in terms of where he started and where he became,” said the man, who said he saw his own history in the same way. .
On Tuesday, another man regretted not being able to reconcile trial and work.
“Your Honor, as much as I would love to serve for New York and one of our great presidents, I could not give up my job for more than six weeks,” he said.
Many have said they have read his book “The Art of the Deal”.
Even the woman who criticized his character and ended up on the jury acknowledged his appeal to voters.
“Sometimes the way he behaves in public leaves something to be desired. At the same time, I can understand not being filtered sometimes,” she said. “I see him talking to a lot of people in America. I think there is something to be said about that.
___ Associated Press writers Michael R. Sisak, Jennifer Peltz and Jake Offenhartz contributed to this report.
