Principals

Whistles and rage: The scenes from Donald Trump’s arraignment day

THE NEWS

The protesters were outnumbered by the press. The indictment included just a handful of surprises. And Donald Trump delivered a rambling speech attacking the judge’s family. In the end, the United States witnessed history as the former president pleaded not guilty to felony charges in New York. The next court date is December 4th. Here’s what Semafor’s reporters saw on the scene.

THE VIEW FROM THE PROTESTERS

A smattering of protesters in MAGA hats and other gear, some left over from the 2020 election, stood on one side of Collect Pond Park. Across police barriers, counter protesters celebrated the indictment with life-size Hillary Clinton cutouts and signs that read “Lock Him Up.” Reporters and photographers, who had swarmed the scene, far outnumbered each group.

Only two members of New York’s Congressional delegation attended the dual rallies: Reps. George Santos, R-N.Y. and Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y. Santos left soon after being mobbed by the press, later telling Semafor he had felt threatened.

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene had been billed as the star of the protest. But she too skipped out after a brief appearance, during which her remarks were drowned out by the counter protesters, a number of whom were blowing whistles. That group included New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who told Semafor he came after being urged by his friend Bowman. “We wanted to say hello with some whistles,” he said. “We got our message heard.”

I caught up with Greene for an interview in her car afterwards. She shared an excerpt of her speech that few were able to hear. “I stood up and I said: You know, for six years, they told us that President Trump would destroy democracy, but really today democracy has been destroyed because of this Manhattan DA.” When asked if Trump should still become president if he’s convicted, she said: “Absolutely. I mean, let’s use Nelson Mandela, for example— a great leader. They arrested him and that was political persecution as well.”

— Kadia Goba

THE VIEW FROM THE COURTHOUSE

Trump’s lawyers strode into the uncomfortably warm courtroom just before 2:30 p.m., and a stone-faced Trump soon trudged down the aisle after them, flanked by New York State court officers and Secret Service.

The proceeding lasted just under one hour. Trump sat with his back to the rest of the courtroom, only speaking when the judge directly addressed him. His tone sounded ever-so-slightly defiant as he pleaded “not guilty” to the 34 felony counts against him.

The most gripping moments came as the two sides sparred over Trump’s social media posts. In recent days, the former president accused Judge Juan Merchan of bias, warned of impending “death and destruction,” and posted an article featuring a photo of himself holding a baseball bat next to a picture of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s head.

The DA’s office described them as “threatening” and “escalating,” while Trump’s team sought to downplay the seriousness of his rhetoric. Judge Merchan said he would not impose a gag order, telling the room that he’d decline to do so even if it had been requested out of his concern for “critically important” First Amendment rights. At the same time, he urged both sides to avoid statements that might incite violence or create civil unrest and warned that he’d look closer at Trump’s comments should his inflammatory rhetoric continue.

Trump exited the courtroom shortly before 3:30pm — looking even more serious and ignoring the camera crews in the hallway as he was whisked away from the scene. Afterwards, in the scrum outside, Trump attorney Joe Tacopina told the press that the former president’s post wasn’t meant to threaten Bragg. “That is a picture of him showing off an American-made bat,” he said.

— Shelby Talcott

THE VIEW FROM THE PROSECUTORS

The indictment against Trump did not contain major surprises. Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records for allegedly labeling hush money payments he made to adult actress Stormy Daniels as legal expenses. Cooking company records is ordinarily a misdemeanor in New York, but can become a felony if it’s done to conceal another crime. In their statement of facts, prosecutors claim Trump faked his accounting in order to hide an “unlawful” scheme with the National Enquirer to “catch and kill” damaging stories about the former president’s affairs during the 2016 election.

It’s a legally complicated case based on facts that have long been public, and many commentators dismissed it as thin. “That indictment landed like a dud,” Andrew McCabe, the former FBI deputy director, said on CNN.

Given that federal and local prosecutors had both decided to pass on bringing charges over these issues in the past, why was Bragg bringing an indictment now? He offered an answer during an afternoon press conference, suggesting that, as the “business capital of the world,” New York had a “profound” interest in enforcing record keeping laws.

Also, he said his office had turned up new evidence. Though he didn’t get into specifics, that appears to include text messages that could help corroborate testimony from former Trump-attorney turned critic Michael Cohen, as well as testimony from former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker suggesting the catch and kill operation was indeed aimed at helping Trump’s election chances, rather than protecting his family — both of which could help cut off Trump’s avenues of defense.

— Jordan Weissmann

THE VIEW FROM MAR-A-LAGO

If anybody thought Trump might mellow his rhetoric after Judge Merchan’s warning, he proved them wrong during his post-arraignment speech at Mar-A-Lago.

“I have a Trump-hating judge with a Trump-hating wife and family, whose daughter worked for Kamala Harris,” the former president told a crowd of attendees seated inside the ballroom of his Florida home. (Earlier in the day, his son Donald Trump Jr. posted a Breitbart article on Truth Social that featured a photograph of the judge’s daughter).

The meandering remarks played a bit like an unfocused campaign speech, combining his personal grievances with riffs on the war in Ukraine, inflation, and election conspiracies. He railed against the investigations against him, calling Special Counsel Jack Smith a “lunatic” and dismissed Bragg’s case as politically motivated. “They can’t beat us at the ballot box,” he said. “So they try to beat us through the law.”

— Shelby Talcott

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☞ White House: Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeatedly declined to comment on the arraignment of former President Trump, saying the White House didn’t want to wade into ongoing cases. Meanwhile, Biden phoned King Charles III to congratulate him on his upcoming coronation (which first lady Jill Biden is attending).

☞ Senate: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he believes Trump “will have a fair trial that follows the facts and the law.” Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has yet to weigh in publicly on the charges against the former president, but he did cheer Finland’s recent accession to NATO.

☞ House: Speaker Kevin McCarthy accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of “interfer[ing] in our democratic process” and said House Republicans would hold him accountable.

In Chicago, ex-teacher and union organizer Brandon Johnson won the race to succeed Mayor Lori Lightfoot, edging past former city schools CEO Paul Vallas. Johnson, backed by the Chicago Teachers Union, proposed tax hikes to fund more education and city services, and tackle the “root causes” of crime; Vallas, who promised to hire hundreds more police officers, couldn’t overcome years of talk radio remarks he’d made mocking the political left and declaring himself “personally pro-life.”

Progressives pulled off another electoral triumph in Wisconsin, where Judge Janet Protasiewicz blew past former state Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly, winning the most expensive state judicial race in history with a relentless focus on abortion rights and “democracy.” She shared the stage at her election night party with the three liberals already serving on the court, celebrating a new 4-3 majority that’s expected to rule against Republican-drawn gerrymanders and strike down limits on abortion.

The Biden administration announced another aid package for Ukraine totalling $2.6 billion. The Pentagon plans to send $500 million worth of weapons from existing stockpiles, including more ammunition for Kyiv’s HIMARS rocket launchers, artillery rounds, and transport vehicles, as well as new truck guns and laser-guided rockets designed to counter Iranian-made drones used by the Russians.

The Club for Growth endorsed House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Alex Mooney’s, R-W. Va. bid for Senate in 2024, a race that GOP Gov. Jim Justice is also expected to enter “at the behest of the National Republican Senatorial Committee,” Politico notes. The race would be for the seat currently held by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., who hasn’t said whether he plans to run for reelection — or for president — and doesn’t plan to do so until year’s end.

— Morgan Chalfant and David Weigel

Punchbowl News: John Bresnahan and Jake Sherman say they’ve “picked up on some nervousness” among House Republicans after Trump’s indictment: “Does this signal that GOP lawmakers will spend the rest of the cycle talking about Trump’s legal woes? And how will that impact the 18 House Republicans representing districts that Biden won in 2020?”

Playbook: Politico runs through arraignment day, and sums up the reaction to the indictment: “Despite Bragg’s efforts to plug these legal gaps, the consensus of the legal punditocracy was that they were underwhelmed by the case. The same goes for many Trump skeptical Republicans.”

The Early 202: Even Mitt Romney, the sole Republican who voted to convict Trump in both his impeachment hearings, criticized Bragg’s case on Wednesday. “I believe the New York prosecutor has stretched to reach felony criminal charges in order to fit a political agenda,” he said in a statement.

What to know about McCarthy’s big meeting with Taiwan’s president

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and a bipartisan group of lawmakers will meet with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen later today in a gesture of broad U.S. support for Taipei in the face of threats from China.

The planned meeting has infuriated Chinese officials, who claim that Taiwan is part of its territory, and have threatened to retaliate with “resolute countermeasures.” The White House has urged restraint in response, noting that Tsai as well as “every other previous president of Taiwan” has made stops in the U.S. before.

“There’s nothing atypical about it and there’s no reason for the Chinese to overreact,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters on a call on Monday, noting that the White House hasn’t been surprised by the rhetoric coming out of Beijing.

While Tsai’s trip is the 29th informal “transit” visit by a Taiwanese leader to the United States, her sitdown with McCarthy will be the highest-level meeting to take place yet during one of those trips. It also comes at a moment of rising tensions between the U.S. and Beijing, and follows a steady stream of visits by U.S. officials to Taiwan in recent months.

Kirby declined to predict how Beijing would respond to Tsai’s visit, but China has used previous meetings between lawmakers and Taiwanese officials as a pretext to launch large scale military drills. After then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi became the highest-ranking official to travel to Taiwan in a quarter century last year, China launched ballistic missiles over the island and practiced setting up a blockade. Beijing also severed cooperation with the U.S. on key issues like narcotics control.

Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, told Semafor that China’s reaction would depend in part on the degree to which McCarthy’s meeting with Tsai is public and what they say.

The Taiwanese president kept a decidedly low profile during her brief stop in New York last week on the way to Guatemala and Belize, delivering remarks at a private event hosted by the Hudson Institute. She is not expected to grant any one-on-one media interviews during her stops in the U.S., nor is she expected to meet with any Biden administration officials. Tsai will stop over in California, the site of the McCarthy meeting, on her way back to Taiwan.

Glaser predicted that Beijing would react with more than words, but that it would not be as forceful as the response to Pelosi’s trip.

“They have to do something. They can’t just ignore this,” she said.

Drew Thompson, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore and former Pentagon official working on China and Taiwan issues, said the Biden administration and McCarthy “have acted with restraint” by avoiding meetings between administration officials and Tsai and scheduling her meeting with the Speaker in California rather than Washington.

Chinese President Xi Jinping “and his advisors will likely take that into account, as well as the fact that Speaker McCarthy represents the opposition party, which is an anathema for Beijing anyway,” Thompson said.

— Morgan Chalfant

Finland officially became the 31st member of the NATO alliance on Tuesday, a process jumpstarted by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“We’ve reached the finishing line,” Finnish Permanent State Secretary Jukka Salovaara told Semafor in an interview.

The developments deal a blow to Russia’s Vladimir Putin. But while Finland cleared the final hurdle with Turkey’s approval of its membership application, Sweden is still waiting for Turkey and Hungary to approve its own application.

Salovaara expressed disappointment that Sweden hasn’t yet been let into the alliance but said he was confident Sweden would be approved, adding that the ideal target date would be by the July NATO summit.

Asked about the impact  U.S. officials and lawmakers had on Finland’s efforts, Salovaara credited the Biden administration and robust support from lawmakers and singled out Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. in particular.

“If we were to name one,” he said. “Mitch McConnell has done great work to help Finland into NATO and we’ve felt that support.”

— Morgan Chalfant

Stories that are being largely ignored by either left-leaning or right-leaning outlets, according to data from our partners at Ground News.

WHAT THE LEFT ISN’T READING: Cornell University rejected a student-led resolution calling for professors to add “trigger warnings” to class content that could be traumatizing.

WHAT THE RIGHT ISN’T READING: A federal appeals court vacated a permit developers needed to build the Mountain Valley pipeline in West Virginia, a project backed by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va. that has been plagued by delays.

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— Steve Clemons