Donald Trump
is already
fundraising off of his indictment.
The subject line
in this morning's appeal,
one of many is
rumored details of my arrest.
He writes that he's not afraid of
what is to come
before asking his supporters for campaign
to donors donations.
The former
president is already
a declared
Republican candidate for the presidency.
And while it is still very, very early,
he is leading
the Republican field in the polls,
in some cases by a lot.
But for now,
he sees
this as a politically advantageous
situation.
Still, sources do tell us
Trump does not want to be arrested
and he is anxious about his own future.
Our panel is back with us.
In just the last couple of minutes.
Ivanka Trump has weighed in.
We haven't heard a lot from her,
frankly, since
she's left the White House.
But she says this on Instagram,
I love my father.
I love my country today.
I am pained for both.
I appreciate the voices
across the political spectrum
expressing support and concern
Just weighing in from
the former president's
daughter and a former
White House official.
But the scene down in Florida
where Trump has been spending
most of his time is this according
to The New York Times,
he's been keeping
a relatively normal schedule at Mar
a Lago, which he calls my beautiful home.
He's been dining with guests, playing
golf, telling nearly everyone
that he's in a good mood
and that he believes the case against him
by Alvin Bragg
and the Manhattan
district attorney had fallen apart.
That was until yesterday evening.
And then everything changed.
It did. And I was
talking to some people
who were speaking with him
and they said, look,
he was caught off guard by this,
not necessarily
the fact that was going to happen.
But he did think last week
it would happen.
It didn't happen.
So some of his advisers often
say what he wants to hear.
They said that,
you know, this may not happen at all.
So his level of optimism had increased.
He even sent out a message
last week or earlier this week excuse me
about the grand jury that, yeah,
we have that here. He says jobs here.
He says,
I have gained
such respect for this grand jury,
perhaps even the grand jury system.
And then he adds,
The grand jury is is saying, hold on.
We're not a rubber stamp.
He was really convinced
that he had put his thumb
on the scale here without question.
And look, he did.
I mean, he long has lived his life
as thinking that he is
above the law here.
Now, we will see if that's happening.
So one of the reasons he's anxious,
because he is not
in control of this process
he's in control of sort of,
you know, the optics of it.
But once he enters inside
that courtroom,
this is not the Donald Trump show
that he is used to doing.
But one thing that he can sort of
take some heart in that he's
essentially frozen
this presidential race.
He is frozen this 20, 24 campaign.
And as we enter the month of April here,
the second
quarter of the year,
five months before the debates begin.
That is good for him
that he has frozen this in place.
But we should say clearly,
we have no idea
what the long
term politics
of this are for Donald Trump.
We have no idea.
And he doesn't want to be indicted.
No, he doesn't want to be charged
with a crime.
No indictment is not good for any
And listen,
I think for
Trump, this is in some ways humiliating.
Yeah, right.
I mean, if you think about
of the circumstances of this case,
what it means for his family,
and what he was doing possibly
with with Stormy Daniels,
and also the fact that people
who were essentially
his sycophants right now as somebody like
Michael Cohen are part of this case
and part of possibly bringing him down.
So he is going to be booked in process
or have to give his fingerprints
and take a mug shot, possibly
handcuffed it's not clear.
I mean, I think that's still up
for debate at this point.
But this is not something
he is looking forward to at all.
And the idea
that maybe
it'll help him in the short term
to raise some money possibly,
but in the long term for his prospects,
an indictment is just not good.
Here's
David Urban, who knows
Donald Trump very well.
And has worked with him over the years,
explaining just that psychology
that you're describing there
you know, fingerprinted, put his hands up, down and
and have his photograph taken.
And he's not going to like it.
He's not going to like it at all.
It is a completely sobering thing.
And I think it's going to
it's going to affect him deeply.
Now, Trump
is a master of taking a bad situation
and trying to use it to raise money,
trying to use it
for his political benefit.
But just as
this is an unprecedented moment
for this country,
I think even he
when he was facing
his second impeachment,
he also didn't want to be impeached
a first time
or a second time
because of what
that would say about his legacy.
But to Jeff's point about control,
he had far more control of that process.
Which was a political process
because of the loyalty and fealty
that the Republicans on Capitol Hill
were still displaying for him
during the impeachment process here.
Obviously, this goes back to
what I think Urban is describing, is
this is exactly the moment
where it all goes out of his control
because he is going
into this court system.
So as much as, yes,
he is a master brander,
he is trying to call this
without any evidence
that it's
election interference and he will work
every lever he can work
The problem is he has no levers
inside the actual court process to work.
That is for attorneys, the judge, a jury.
And that is not a position
he has normally found himself in.
And it's going to be more important
than ever.
You'd think that he would start
listening to his attorneys
because he is famously doesn't
or his advisers
but, you know,
he was put out on to social.
There was that meme of him
holding a baseball bat and Alvin Bragg,
things like that are not going to be
going to fly when,
as you said, he doesn't have any control.
He doesn't have a chorus
of Republican senators to defend him.
He's already starting to attack the judge
in this case.
You know,
it would be interesting
to see
whether or not that continues
because this is a legal proceeding
and judges
typically don't like defendants
going around
trying to taint the case in
the court of public opinion.