All rise

The former president has lit his path to a Manhattan criminal court with invective and dire warnings. However it plays out, Donald Trump is hogging the political spotlight and firing up his support base

- David Smith

Donald Trump understands the camera. He is particular about angles, lighting and his inimitable hair. But the camera is very likely to turn tormentor; Trump was due to be told in a New York courthouse on Tuesday to pose for a mug shot like a common criminal.

The first US president to be twice impeached and attempt the overthrow of an election is now the first US president to be charged with a crime. He was due to face the humiliation of being photographed, fingerprinted and entering a plea to charges involving a 2016 hush money payment to the adult film actor Stormy Daniels.

The effects were felt before his day in court. There were signs that the legal perils engulfing Trump are pushing him to new extremes. He has never been a conventional politician, but his divisive brand of populist-nationalism is growing ever more provocative.

His 2024 campaign for the White House is embracing a violent rhetoric that could inflame tensions and put the US on a path to conflagration. Barricades were put up around the New York courthouse. Daniels cancelled a television interview out of "security concerns". Trump's language on the campaign trail and social media, haranguing his enemies, is laced with race-baiting and antisemitic conspiratorial tropes.

"There's nothing traditional about Donald Trump and there never has been, but we've never been in this situation before and what's different now is how polarised we are," said Frank Luntz, a pollster who has worked on numerous Republican election campaigns. "This is like lighting a match in the middle of a bonfire that's been doused with gasoline."

Briefly, it seemed this time might be different. Trump launched his 2024 election campaign last November at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida with uncharacteristic low energy, avoiding his stolen election lies and insisting: "We're going to keep it very elegant."