Donald Trump’s first criminal trial will be both momentous and tawdry
But will it even matter?

Manhattanites once rolled their eyes at Donald Trump. Then they came to revile him. Soon 12 will decide if he is a felon. Jury selection in his first criminal trial, expected to last up to eight weeks in a shabby courtroom, has sped along; prosecutors will set out their case in a matter of days. One prospective juror confessed that the weight of the task at hand had kept her up at night: “This is, like, a big deal in the grand scheme of things.”
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This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Do I look guilty to you?”
United States April 20th 2024
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