Former US President Donald Trump sits at the defense table during jury selection on April 16, 2024 in this courtroom sketch.
Illustration: Jane Rosenberg/REUTERS
If a normal person fell asleep during a high-profile trial over hush-money payments they made to cover up an affair with a porn star, how would they react?
It’s a bit hard to say, since a normal person would never be in this scenario. But it seems likely they’d be embarrassed or angry at themselves.
Of course, Donald Trump doesn’t experience those emotions. So instead he has “privately raged” at the journalists who informed the public that he’s been unable to keep his eyes open in court, according to three sources who spoke to Rolling Stone.
The magazine reported that Trump has been particularly focused on Maggie Haberman of the New York Timeswith whom he had a long, complicated relationship. Last Monday, on the trial’s first day, she reported, “Trump appears to be sleeping. His head keeps dropping down and his mouth goes slack.” Then she repeated her observation in an interview with CNN. Per Rolling Stone:
The observation immediately went viral, provoking an irate denial from Trump’s campaign and reigniting the former president’s antipathy towards Haberman, who has been reporting on him for years. The resentment lasted the entire week, the sources added.
… In recent conversations with Republican associates, Trump has repeatedly torn into Haberman and her CNN appearances, attacked her journalistic credentials, and bizarrely insisted that she was wrong about him falling asleep. Despite his dozing being widely reported, the former president has laid much of the blame for the detail going viral at Haberman’s feet. He was even observed glaring at her on Monday as he exited the courtroom following her CNN appearance.
Haberman was the most prominent journalist to cover Trump’s courtroom naps, but several other reporters backed up her observation. And if Trump was so deeply upset by the accusation, he probably should have channeled that energy into staying awake; Multiple journalists saw him sleeping in court two more times last week.
The “Sleepy Don” narrative isn’t the only thing sending Trump over the edge. Rolling Stone reported that he’s also upset about late-night hosts joking about the trial (which explains last week’s incoherent Truth Social rant about Jimmy Kimmel) and how he’s been portrayed by courtroom sketch artists:
Trump has also privately asked people close to him if they agree that the courtroom sketch-artist must be out to get him, two of the sources say. Trump has criticized the sketches of him that have circulated in the media this week, and insisted some of the images were probably drawn to make fun of him. One such sketch captured Trump snoozing, with his eyes closed and head tilted.
When court broke for lunch on Tuesday, Trump was observed licking his lips as he walked down the middle aisle before flashing a small smile at the courtroom sketch artist as he exited.
So he’s upset about both journalists and sketch artists relaying what they’re seeing with their own eyes. I hate to needle a guy who’s already feeling paranoid, but it seems objective reality is “out to get” Trump.
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