Mary Trump, niece of the former president, said that the five-second video of Donald Trump walking into a Manhattan courtroom for his arraignment hearing on Tuesday was “all we needed” to analyze his emotional state.
Trump has made history as the first sitting or former U.S. president to face criminal charges after an investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office ended with a grand jury voting to indict the former president last week. On Tuesday, Trump appeared in court for booking, where he was told that he was facing 34 felony counts related to falsifying business records.
The charges are in relation to hush money investigations involving adult-film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, stemming from before the 2016 presidential election in which Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump pleaded not guilty to all 34 counts.
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Mary Trump, a staunch critic of her uncle and a psychologist, took to Twitter Tuesday evening to share her opinion of Trump’s arraignment, writing that the proceedings showed “the seriousness of the charges against Donald Trump, the professionalism of District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the ridiculousness of Donald’s legal team, and the extent to which the mainstream media really love showing footage of nothing.”
“TV cameras weren’t allowed in the courtroom but it turns out they weren’t necessary—the video of Donald walking into the courtroom, all five seconds of it, was all we needed to figure out his state of mind,” Mary Trump wrote.
“Before the arraignment, I said Donald would be docile in the courtroom seated before the judge,” she continued. “And during that brief glimpse, we saw the uncertainty, the fear, and the humiliation.”
Recording and broadcast equipment was not allowed in the courtroom while Trump was being arraigned, consistent with New York law regarding media coverage of court hearings. Plenty of outlets, however, captured the moment between the former president’s booking and entering the Manhattan courtroom.
Mary Trump continued in her tweet, “The false bravado will return, and the middle-of-the-night posts will continue to be unhinged but Donald Trump has finally gotten a glimpse of what it looks like when his past, finally, at long last, catches up with him—and he’ll never be able to outrun it.”
Trump has been repeatedly critical of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in the months leading up to his indictment, and continued to ram into Bragg over his Truth Social Tuesday evening. Some experts had speculated that the judge would impose a gag order during Tuesday’s arraignment to keep the former president from speaking about the case publicly, but no such restrictions were put in place.
“Alvin Bragg shut down New York City, brought in 38,000 NYPD officers, and will spend an estimated $200,000,000 of NYC funds, for a totally legal $130,000 NDA,” Trump said in one post. “On top of all that, the 9th Circuit Court just awarded me $122,000 — over the $500,000 already awarded, from Stormy ‘Horseface’ Daniels!”
Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks regarding his arraignment hearing at 8:15 p.m. EST Tuesday from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s press team via email for comment.
