How a "Camera Free" Courtroom is Dealing Trump the Deepest Visual Blow
The lack of TV cameras in the courtroom during Trump's criminal trial has inadvertently provided a unique and damaging portrait of the former president.
Nothing to see in the Trump hush money trial? Think again.
While the absence of TV cameras in the courtroom is a significant detriment, analysts are missing the impact of what we see by default.
Although the circulated visuals would have taken a backseat, at best, in televised proceedings, the blackout has captured a view of Trump we wouldn't have focused on. In their extraordinary stillness, these images of Trump brought to heel profoundly disrupt his public persona and could haunt him going forward.
Confined to the courtroom for hours and days, subjected to extended photo availability and microscopic visual inspection before and after sessions and during breaks, Trump—who otherwise craves and expertly plays to the camera—cannot control the exposure, the space, or the (consistent) pose.
Whereas this kind of shot typically denotes the significance of an event, this picture with the cameras documents Trump’s “fish in a barrel” predicament, the former president helplessly on display for perhaps the first time in his political life.
Fate of the Mugshot
Last summer, Trump's legal jeopardy was practically a wind at his back. Catapulted by his Fulton Country mugshot in August, those entanglements supercharged his visual impact, martyr persona, and campaign fundraising. As late as February of this year, despite Trump losing the massive business fraud and E. Jean Carroll cases, the costly judgments were only starting to chip away at his visual Teflon.
Fast forwarding to the hush money trial, there is less hard glare and more vacant stare.
Like Narcissus, who could not tear himself away from his reflection and withered to nothing, three-quarters of a year after Trump aced the mugshot, he looks older and more tired. The bags under his eyes are heavier, especially in the harsh courtroom light, and he can’t get the same grimace on.
From the Side and Shrinking: The Day One Front Pages
Trump received the best glare shot he could hope for from the conservative WSJ, but even before the first week of the trial was out, the pose seemed redundant, now just “a thing he does.”
Trump earned a nice-sized image from the New York Times, but the news here is that the man who commands our whole attention has suddenly been denied the full frontal. Relegated to a side angle, Trump had morphed from a visual commander into an object of inspection.
WAPO denied Trump the head-on stare, and the treatment revealed another visual development. Despite the five-column lede, Trump was shrinking.
Adding insult to injury, Trump’s picture got run off entirely by The Globe, his perpetual drama preempted by a different marathon.
Sleepy Don
The fate worse than death was the double blow of having his best put-down nickname boomerang back on him and losing the ageism battle. Based on descriptions of reporters and the wonderfully suggestive scraps of imagery on hand, the visual dagger from week one was Trump checking out.
In a vicious photo edit, NY Magazine used a picture of Trump blinking in the break (see caption) to approximate catching him in the act.
From what I could tell, news organizations tended to avoid publishing this court illustration by Jane Rosenberg, even though it went wild on social media. To date, it remains the definitive visual documentation of the Napper-in-Chief. (And the juxtaposition with the handcuffs is not to be missed.)
But, Not So Sleepy
Perhaps the most significant liability of no video is that we’ve been deprived of Trump’s open defiance of the court, including whipping out his phone before his attorneys make him stash it, talking trash to the Judge, and, worst of all, attempting to intimidate the jury. One courtroom reporter observed that Trump has been “making persistent eye contact“ and “has been outright hostile and almost aggressive toward them.”
This sketch above depicts Trump smiling at the jury pool. However, it’s hard to know—exaggerated as it seems—how obsequious or smarmy this expression might be.
This drawing is more suggestive of what has been reported and shows Trump turning vigorously and eyeballing prospective jurors as they raise their hands and request to be excused from serving.
Waylaid and Beleaguered
Time will tell, but I’m wondering if photos like these might become the most telling and damaging to Trump’s brand.
Where is the cell phone or the remote? This portrait ran in Rolling Stone chasing the “sleepy Don” meme, but his look feels more damning. It’s the famously written about but rarely-seen Trump bored.
This one was taken from another Sleepy Trump article. But the photo is striking for Trump without claws. The man who avoids showing weakness at any cost looks absolutely stymied.
Finally, this shot from a Telegraph article allegedly catches Trump napping, but more strikingly, it shows a man cut off from his usual manic self. These deflated, impotent portraits might prove more damaging to Trump's brand than anything we’ve seen. After all, his persona has always relied on projecting dominance and fury. Seeing him checked and deprived of the space to rage, I believe the description of sleepiness does not go deep enough. The still courtroom cameras have captured something I’ve never seen before - the depressive Donald.
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