'You can see the terror"

Trump's tough guy posture over indictment isn't fooling these insiders and confidantes, writes Andrew Feinberg

- Andrew Feinberg

The indictment of Donald Trump by a New York City grand jury has left Republicans bouncing between outrage and confident predictions that the unprecedented charges could actually help him back to the White House. It has also sent authorities scrambling to address the possibility of violence from his supporters, with the New York Police Department ordering every single officer to report to work to deal with possible civil disturbances.

Officials are also on high alert for threats against Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, who has become the first-ever prosecutor to obtain an indictment against a former president after a long-running probe into a hush-money scheme to keep porn star Stormy Daniels from going public during the 2016 election campaign about a decade-old liaison.

Multiple reports indicate Trump is facing more than 30 counts related to business fraud. He will stand before a judge at his arraignment in New York on Tuesday. Trump reportedly claims to relish the idea of being arrested and paraded before the press outside court in a "perp walk" spectacle because he believes it will juice his support in the Republican presidential primary and solidify his 2024 election chances.

But multiple people who have been close to Trump in the past say the confidence he projects in interviews and in public appearances belies a complete inability to grasp what it means for him to become a defendant in a criminal case. These former Trumpworld insiders told The Independent the ex-president's decades of evading responsibility for his actions and his past ability to neutralise legal jeopardy with a combination of bluster and litigation tactics has left him incredibly ill-equipped for what lies ahead of him now that the Manhattan grand jury has voted for an indictment.