https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/05/03/the-cavalry-comes-for-
trump-00156129

Donald Trump complained last week that the courtroom and the surrounding
area outside of 60 Centre Street was so locked down � like a �buttoned up
vest� � that his supporters couldn�t show up to protest.

So this week, Trump got some backup. A series of former and current
advisers and friends arrived at the courthouse to serve as a kind of
security blanket, providing some small measure of moral support to a man
accustomed to being surrounded by a coterie of advisers, admirers and
flatterers.

After three weeks of being regularly encircled by court personnel,
lawyers, strangers and the media, forced to hear testimony about his
alleged misdeeds in court day after day, the cavalry heeded the former
president�s call.

He not only looks angry and alone in the courtroom, his public remarks
betray the sense he feels that way. Reports suggest Trump has taken to bad
mouthing his lead lawyer Todd Blanche in closed door phone calls, as he
grows frustrated that Blanche won�t follow his lead. In a gag order
hearing on Thursday, after Blanche agreed with Judge Juan Merchan that no
one forced Trump to attack Michael Cohen online, Trump reportedly looked
over at Blanche and shook his head.

Yet Trump�s friends aren�t always the most reliable, or the most loyal.
Whether they�re there to support a friend in need, or for more
transactional purposes, it�s sometimes hard to tell.

Remember Carter Page, the Trump campaign adviser from 2016 who was
wiretapped by the FBI in 2016 due to his ties to the Russian government?
He unexpectedly showed up on Tuesday. So did David McIntosh, the president
of the anti-tax Club for Growth, the group that feuded with Trump and
sought to defeat him in the early 2024 primary states before both sides
made peace. Another supporter in attendance was Texas Attorney General Ken
Paxton, whose own legal entanglements and political stylings overlap
considerably with Trump. He made sure his whereabouts were well-
publicized, posting on X, �With President Trump in NYC to sit through this
sham of a trial. This trial is a travesty of justice. I stand with Trump.�

Some family members and close associates � most notably Trump campaign
senior adviser Susie Wiles and Trump�s son Eric � were spotted in the room
Tuesday. Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn � who was just indicted in Arizona
over attempting to subvert the results of the 2020 election � has been in
the courtroom multiple days, sitting behind Trump and conferring with
Trump�s lawyers. (Epshteyn was also in court multiple days last week.)
Trump aides Dan Scavino and Jason Miller also showed up to support the
boss.

Earlier today, Hope Hicks, one of Trump�s former closest confidantes,
testified that the Trump organization was �run like a small family
business in a certain way � People reported to the core family members.�

Still, for a family business, there is an unusual degree of self-
preservation and cold calculus.

Today, Hicks broke down crying on the witness stand after questioning from
the prosecution, in which she detailed how Trump explained the $130,000
that Cohen had paid to Stormy Daniels.

�Mr. Trump was saying he had spoken to Michael and that Michael had paid
this woman to protect him from a false allegation � And he did it out of
the kindness of his own heart and he never told anybody about it.�

But according to Hicks, that didn�t sound like Cohen.

�I didn�t know Michael to be an especially charitable person or selfless
person,� she said, describing him instead as �the kind of person who seeks
credit.�

Here was one former Trump aide cutting down another as self-interested and
bad at his job. We�re likely to hear similar testimony as the prosecution
continues to call witnesses next week.

Hicks� description of Cohen is materially relevant to the trial, but it�s
also a clear reminder of the motivations of the denizens of Trumpworld.
Like Cohen back in 2016, the aides and friends who showed up this week
weren�t necessarily doing so out of the kindness of their heart.

They�re all drawn to Trump like moths to a light. And when his mood goes
dark, the spotlight of the trial will do.

This article first appeared in POLITICO Nightly.

--
We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.

Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem. It has none.

No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed
dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.