In his Maga heartlands, Trump is a victim not a defendant

In one US, he cuts a diminished, humbled figure. "He seems considerably older and he seems annoyed, resigned, maybe angry," said broadcaster Rachel Maddow of MSNBC after seeing Donald Trump up close in court. "He seems like a man who is miserable to be here."

- David Smith WASHINGTON

But in the other US - that of Fox News, far-right podcasts and the Maga (Make America Great Again) base - the trial of the former president over a case involving a hush money payment to an adult film performer is playing out very differently.

Here, anger at what is seen as political persecution meets another emotion: sublime indifference. Barely a handful of Trump supporters bother to protest each day outside the court in New York, a Democratic stronghold.

The divergence ensures that, with TV cameras not permitted in court, two rival narratives are forming around the first criminal trial of a former US president.

In one, Trump is a philanderer who falsified business records to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election. In the other, he is victim of a conspiracy designed to rob the Republican nominee of victory in 2024.

This trial would already be devastating for any conventional politician.