Chris Crucial: The public embarrassment of Donald Trump

PLUS: RFK Jr. turned down a Trump VP offer?!?!?

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1. The embarrassment factor: Donald Trump made history today — the first president (or former president) to face a criminal trial. Which is a big deal!

Now, I am on record as being very skeptical that the trial that started in New York on Monday is going to be a major game-changer in the 2024 presidential race. I even made a video about it over on my YouTube channel! Subscribe!

But, that doesn’t mean that the trial won’t have an impact on Trump. Because I think it will — mostly on his ego.

Here’s why: At the heart of this case is Stormy Daniels. She’s a former porn star who alleges that she and Trump had an affair in July 2006 when the billionaire businessman was married to Melania Trump.

The allegation is that Trump — via his one-time fixer Michael Cohen — paid Daniels $130,000 in October 2016 as a way to buy her silence about the affair. Cohen has testified under oath on Capitol Hill that Trump was aware of and directed the payments. Trump has said that the payments he subsequently made to Cohen — over $400,000 worth — were retainers for his services and had nothing to do with any payment to Daniels.

At issue in this trial is something even more legalistic: Whether Trump falsified business records to cover up the transfer of funds as a way to better his chances of winning the election.

Daniels is, presumably, one of the key witnesses (or at least a potential witness) for the prosecution.

And she has not been shy to speak — in often graphic detail — about her alleged encounter with Trump, which she said happened in a Lake Tahoe hotel room.