Stone-faced, narrow-eyed Trump leans back in chair as his lawyers fight over evidence that could be VERY embarrassing: How ex-president reacted to explosive first morning of hush-money trial

The Trump campaign arrived at New York’s highest criminal court Monday morning.

Donald Trump made remarks in the courtroom while one of his most loyal hucksters worked the audience outside and c-list talking heads took their seats in an overflow room to watch the proceedings.

This is what day one looked like in the first of Trump’s criminal cases.

The history books will record that the first ever trial of a former commander-in-chief, a momentous day for the nation and the world, opened with discussion about whether the evidence could include unproven allegations of sexual abuse against him (no, said Judge Juan Merchan) or headlines, that 2016 contender Ted Cruz’s father was somehow involved in the assassination of JFK (yes, the judge ruled).

Through it all, in courtroom 1530 in downtown New York, the defendant made his displeasure clear.

Donald Trump sat stony-faced, eyes closed and lips pursed as his lawyers battled with prosecutors over how many vicious (and untrue) National Enquirer headlines could be shown to jurors and whether they could hear him say ‘take them their p*** **s’ or if they could only read transcripts of the famous Access Hollywood tape.

The Manhattan district attorney’s team sat shoulder to shoulder at their desks.

In contrast, Trump dominated the room among his legal team. He leaned back in his chair or moved forward to look at a video screen, like a silverback gorilla reminding the courtroom who was boss.

When a decision went against him – like when referee Juan Merchan ruled he wouldn’t quit – he briefly showed his frustration and gave a furious little nod.

But at other times he did his impression of a legal scholar: brow furrowed, head bowed, as if considering the judge’s decision to admit Molineux evidence.

On their face, the charges are prosaic: 34 counts of tampering with business records.

But beneath that, prosecutors allege, was a plot to pay off two women, including a porn star, Stormy Daniels, and hide their affair from voters in the run-up to the 2016 election.

The charges may be the least serious of the 88 he faces in four separate criminal cases — including charges that he endangered national security by keeping secret intelligence documents or trying to overturn the 2020 election — but they could prove be the most consequential.

The New York case looks set to be the only one closed before the November election.

And it will provide a number of lines of attack for President Joe Biden’s campaign and doubts for swing voters.

Jury selection was due to begin on Monday, but first the two legal teams had to work through a series of arguments about what evidence was and was not admissible.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked to introduce evidence about the Trump 2016 campaign’s coordination with The National Enquirer.

Stories included hits on his 2016 rivals, including Sen. Marco Rubio’s drug addiction and sex scandal.

He said they were part of a deal struck in Trump Tower between the campaign and National Enquirer owner American Media Inc. to hide damaging stories in a practice known as ‘catch and kill’.

“This evidence will do nothing but confuse the jury about the actual crime charged,” Todd Blanche told the defense, saying the stories had been cherry-picked.

But he also said there was nothing “illegal” or “inappropriate” about a publisher and campaign meeting to discuss stories.

Merchan decided that prosecutors would be allowed to introduce them.

As always, Trump had to use his appearance to cast doubt on the proceedings as a form of election interference and to do what he could to keep his campaign going.

“This is an attack on America,” he told reporters in the corridor outside courtroom 1530.

“Nothing like this has ever happened before – there has never been anything like it.

‘All the legal scholars say this is nonsense, it should never have been brought. It doesn’t deserve anything like that. There is no case.’

His appearance produced a familiar crop of people who have become famous on his coattails (on both sides).

George Conway, who split from Trump pollster Kellyanne Conway after he became increasingly vocal in his opposition to the then-president, sat with reporters as the hearing unfolded in courtroom 1523, an overflow room.

Outside his loyal ally Laura Loomer, known for promoting conspiracy theories, worked a crowd of Trump supporters who occasionally paused for media hits.

A maze of barricades directed pedestrians away from Trump’s criminal trial.

Horrified security guards directed reporters this way and that.

Protesters held up signs that read ‘Loser’ and ‘Judge Trump already.’

Journalists were screened twice with magnetometers. Bags checked and then searched again.

On the 15th floor, a makeshift pen had been built for a handful of photographers and reporters to document the former president’s arrival in the courtroom at 1530.

Trump cut a defiant figure as he left his Trump Tower home around 8:30 a.m. and waved to onlookers.

And he kept up a steady stream of social media posts and fundraising emails in the 24 hours before his appearance, accusing his opponents of using the courts to keep him off the campaign trail.

“The radical left Democrats are already rigging the 2024 presidential election by filing, or helping to file, all these bogus lawsuits against me, forcing me to sit in courthouses and spend campaign money instead of being out in the field and beat Crooked Joe Biden, the worst president in US history,’ he wrote on his Truth Social website.

‘Election shuffle!’