His team is certainly trying. “He is not just our former president,” his lawyer argued during the opening statements of the trial. “He's a husband. He's a father. And he is a person, just like you and just like me.” (Mr. Trump has denied the allegations, saying he did not have sex with Ms. Daniels.)
But consider me skeptical.
Mr. Trump's ability to have a relationship beyond just a transaction is one of the great mysteries about him, and the current evidence on this is mixed. There have been moments in the process that have emphasized that Trump thinks and acts like a family man — or at least that it's all in the family and he's the head of it. Hope Hicks, his former communications director, explained last week how the Trump Organization was run “like a small family business” and how, following a 2016 article in The Wall Street Journal, an alleged affair with a former Playboy model, Karen McDougal, described. Mr Trump was most concerned about his wife – and asked Mrs Hicks to hide the papers from her. (What's more honorable than a husband who goes out of his way to hide his affair?)
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump has made attending the high school graduation in Florida of his youngest son, Barron, a particular sticking point, ranting to Truth Social: “Who will explain it to my wonderful son, Barron, who is an AMAZING is a student? at a fantastic school, that his father will probably not be allowed to attend the graduation ceremony? (The judge has since given him the day off. Of course, he will also reportedly take part in a fundraiser that day – in Minnesota.)
And yet: Mr. Trump's actual family is largely absent from the courtroom, despite wishing Melania Trump a “very happy birthday” from the hallway where he addresses the press. On Tuesday, Trump's son Eric attended the trial. He sat in the front row, fiddling with his tie and peering at the evidence on the courtroom screens as Ms. Daniels testified.
And when Ms. Daniels explained how Mr. Trump called her “honeymoon” when he called her and told her he missed her, I wondered: Is this a man capable of missing someone? Do we have proof of that, proof that this man, who seems to have no lasting close friends, or a family to be by his side in his lowest moments, is credible as someone who puts loved ones (let alone country) first? his own interests?