New York – It’s a Donald Trump disappointed, tired, worried, the one who returned to speak to his people, from Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach, Florida, at the end of a historic and difficult day: He became the first former US president arrested and indicted. “My only crime – he says at the beginning – was to have defended America, without fear, from those who seek to destroy it”. He sentence all the rallies, but with less energy than in the past.
The crowd bath among his own
Yet the entrance was the same as always, with Trump relieved to be among his people, to whom he distributed thumbs up, smiles, clenched fists, to say that he is not willing to give up. A star entrance, as always, with music in the background, people crowded to elicit a greeting, a photo, a word. Rally scenes, as it was then, usual scenes but with the novelty of the indictment, the first time of a former president forced to have his fingertips taken like a criminal, the first time sitting in the courtroom like a defendant, with behind two policemen in uniform. The patriotic chorus “Iu-e-ssei, Iu-e-ssei” from the Mar-a-Lago audience invoking the USA was like a Trumpian plot, but there was a melancholy atmosphere in the air. Trump didn’t shuffle the cards: he attacked President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, evoked Russia, China and “American decline”, like dozens of times.
Three of the children, Tiffany, Eric and Don Jr were joined by two loyalists of the tycoon, the ultra-right deputies Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene and Mike Lindell, the owner of the pillow company My Pillow, overwhelmed by billionaire lawsuits and who has become one of the tycoon’s staunchest supporters, with the hope that Trump’s return to the White House will save him. The Mar-a-Lago salon was the same one from where The Donald had presented his third presidential candidacy in November, with its 350 seats already filled an hour before the speech.
A short and unplanned speech
It all went without surprises to the point that the big networks, from Cnn a Msnbc, they immediately disconnected the line to go back to commenting on the day, leaving the silent images of the tycoon as he spoke in the background. Trump read, following the teleprompter, unlike the impromptu rallies he had given in recent months, and he did it for less than half an hour. According to the canons of him, it is a very short speech. He returned to talking about electoral fraud, despite no evidence from local courts and conservative regulators. And he reiterated the allegations to the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, “funded by George Soros”, the philanthropist obsessed with conspiracy theorists. He devoted little time to the New York investigation, he avoided talking about the allegations concerning him, perhaps on the advice of his lawyers.
Trump’s wrath in court: “They arrest me, I’m innocent”
by our correspondent Anna Lombardi
In the same minutes, his campaign announced that it had raised $8 million in donations since the day of the indictment on Friday, but the feeling is that Trump has been disappointed by the absence of protests in New York. A few dozen faithful, present with their flags and their red hats with the words ‘Make America Great Again’, did not change history. If anyone hoped for a new January 6, he was disappointed. “I will fight with all my might,” he promised his fans, but in a less creepy tone. The faithful audience of Mar-a-Lago applauded, itself far from the electric climate of November. She will be able to comfort him, make him feel at home, but the isolation experienced in New York seems to have left its mark on him for the first time.