Donald Trump understands the camera. He is particular about angles, lighting and his inimitable hair. But the camera is very likely to turn tormentor; Trump was due to be told in a New York courthouse on Tuesday to pose for a mug shot like a common criminal.
The first US president to be twice impeached and attempt the overthrow of an election is now the first US president to be charged with a crime. He was due to face the humiliation of being photographed, fingerprinted and entering a plea to charges involving a 2016 hush money payment to the adult film actor Stormy Daniels.
The effects were felt before his day in court. There were signs that the legal perils engulfing Trump are pushing him to new extremes. He has never been a conventional politician, but his divisive brand of populist-nationalism is growing ever more provocative.
His 2024 campaign for the White House is embracing a violent rhetoric that could inflame tensions and put the US on a path to conflagration. Barricades were put up around the New York courthouse. Daniels cancelled a television interview out of "security concerns". Trump's language on the campaign trail and social media, haranguing his enemies, is laced with race-baiting and antisemitic conspiratorial tropes.
"There's nothing traditional about Donald Trump and there never has been, but we've never been in this situation before and what's different now is how polarised we are," said Frank Luntz, a pollster who has worked on numerous Republican election campaigns. "This is like lighting a match in the middle of a bonfire that's been doused with gasoline."
Briefly, it seemed this time might be different. Trump launched his 2024 election campaign last November at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida with uncharacteristic low energy, avoiding his stolen election lies and insisting: "We're going to keep it very elegant."
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Finn family murals
The optimism that runs through Finnish artist Tove Jansson's Moomin stories also appears in her public works, now on show in a Helsinki exhibition
I hoped Finland would be a progressive dream.I've had to think again Mike Watson
Oulu is five hours north from Helsinki by train and a good deal colder and darker each winter than the Finnish capital. From November to March its 220,000 residents are lucky to see daylight for a couple of hours a day and temperatures can reach the minus 30s. However, this is not the reason I sense a darkening of the Finnish dream that brought me here six years ago.
A surplus of billionaires is destabilising our democracies Zoe Williams
The concept of \"elite overproduction\" was developed by social scientist Peter Turchin around the turn of this century to describe something specific: too many rich people for not enough rich-person jobs.
'What will people think? I don't care any more'
At 90, Alan Bennett has written a sex-fuelled novella set in a home for the elderly. He talks about mourning Maggie Smith, turning down a knighthood and what he makes of the new UK prime minister
I see you
What happens when people with acute psychosis meet the voices in their heads? A new clinical trial reveals some surprising results
Rumbled How Ali ran rings around apartheid, 50 years ago
Fifty years ago, in a corner of white South Africa, Muhammad Ali already seemed a miracle-maker.
Trudeau faces 'iceberg revolt'as calls grow for PM to quit
Justin Trudeau, who promised “sunny ways” as he won an election on a wave of public fatigue with an incumbent Conservative government, is now facing his darkest and most uncertain political moment as he attempts to defy the odds to win a rare fourth term.
Lost Maya city revealed through laser mapping
After swapping machetes and binoculars for computer screens and laser mapping, a team of researchers have discovered a lost Maya city containing temple pyramids, enclosed plazas and a reservoir which had been hidden for centuries by the Mexican jungle.
'A civil war' Gangs step up assault on capital
Armed fighters advance into neighbourhoods at the heart of Port-au-Prince as authorities try to restore order
Reality bites in the Himalayan 'kingdom of happiness'
High emigration and youth unemployment levels belie the mountain nation's global reputation for cheeriness
