Donald Trump melted down before walking into court on Thursday because his fans weren’t showing up to protest at his trial.
Trump said:
Every single review, every legal scholar that I’ve been able to read said there is no case, no crime, it’s a disgrace that it was allowed to happen. The judge, as you know, is highly conflicted like nobody I’ve ever seen conflicted. He should not be the judge. Not be allowed to have anything to do with this case. He should be so far away from this case.
Outside we take a look. It looks like we’re at Fort Knox. So many police. They don’t allow people to come. You are allowed — we aren’t allowed to have anything here. They have more police and more assistant D.A.s. I’ve never seen anything like it.
CNN fact-checked a similar claim made by Trump earlier in the trial and found:
Only a handful of Trump supporters have shown up to demonstrate near the building. And while there are various security measures in place in the area, including some street closures enforced by police officers and barricades, it’s not true that “for blocks you can’t get near this courthouse.” In reality, the designated protest zone for the trial is at a park directly across the street from the courthouse – and, in addition, people are permitted to drive right up to the front of the courthouse and walk into the building, which remains open to the public. If people show up early enough in the morning, they can even get into the trial courtroom itself or the overflow room that shows near-live video of the proceedings.
Republican members of Congress have been taking turns coming to court in the morning to make it look like Trump has support. Eric Trump has been the only family member to regularly show up. The members of Congress all stay until the first morning court break and then they leave to go outside and talk to the press.
Trump can’t handle the reality that he is not as popular as he thinks he is and that his supporters don’t seem to care if he gets convicted of a felony or three dozenish.
The Trump campaign lied about the size of the crowd at his New Jersey rally. Trump isn’t what he used to be, and his fans are reminding him that it isn’t 2016 anymore.
