Politico | Inside the Donald Trump bubble: ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ but no talk of Michael Cohen
The president's West Virginia rally was business as usual even as courtroom events in Washington and New York escalated the legal and political threats he faces.
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Lorraine Woellert on politico.com on August 22, 2018.
My window seat on Air Force One was like a prison. It was late afternoon, and all day major news had threatened to come crashing down on President Donald Trump. But here we were, headed to a campaign event in West Virginia. Business as usual.
As the plane throttled for take-off, everything hit: Trump’s former campaign manager had been convicted of a felony and the president’s one-time fixer was turning against him in a campaign corruption case.
We were wheels up. Our phones blinked out. No Instagram-addicted teen has felt withdrawal the way I did at that moment.
The rumours had started before lunch. A verdict was due any minute in the prosecution of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.
And reporters in New York were picking up signs that the president’s long-time buddy, Michael Cohen, was about to betray him. Barricades had gone up outside the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan.