On the Eve of a Secret Trial, the Big and Bold Donald Trump Shows He’s Just a Giant Chicken

For a guy who considers himself a tough alpha male – brimming with “I’m right and you’re wrong!” » boast like the rooster in the march – Donald Trump is, in reality, a giant chicken.

Trump’s first criminal trial is set to begin Monday in New York. If you’re having trouble keeping up with the countless accusations against this man, here’s one involving Stormy Daniels, the adult film star he’s accused of paying before the 2016 presidential election to keep quiet about their alleged affair.

He called Daniels “Horse’s head» and wrote on social networks: “She knows nothing about me, a total scam! Last year, he called the case “Stormy ‘horseface’ Daniels’ extortion plot.”

Trump has claimed – repeatedly – ​​that this affair is part of a vast left-wing conspiracy against him, a “witch hunt to destroy the Make America Great Again movement” and “political persecution and election interference at most high level “. level in history.

On the eve of the first criminal trial, Trump is just talking – as usual

In a March 2023 statement, Trump Name-checked Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and boasted: “So our Movement and our Party – united and strong – will first defeat Alvin Bragg, and then we will defeat Joe Biden.” »

You would think that an extremely confident macho man like Trump would be champing at the bit to get into a courtroom with his lawyers and prove the “thugs and freaks of the radical left” wrong, to pull back the curtain on this persecution /unjust prosecution, to put the proof of his angelic innocence directly in their smug faces.

It looks like it. But Trump did the opposite, doing everything possible to delay the trial. His lawyers filed three unnecessary appeals this week, all of which were rejected.

He complains that he cannot get a fair trial in Manhattan, that the judge imposed an unconstitutional silence on him and that the judge has a conflict of interest because his daughter is a Democratic political consultant.

Trump’s abortion issue: Florida Supreme Court Puts Abortion on the Ballot — and Poses a Serious Problem for Former President

At this rate, I expect him to show up in court on Monday in a WHAAAAAAAAA ambulance, then be carried off on a stretcher, complaining about how the deep state gave him a fever typhoid.

Donald Trump wants to be tough, but his fear of the Stormy Daniels trial says otherwise

These are not the actions of a bold, confident man who knows he is innocent and will fight to prove the naysayers wrong.

This is probably because Trump is not a bold, confident man who knows he is innocent and doesn’t know how to “fight.” He just throws mud and runs away shouting, “I never threw mud!” This is FAKE NEWS! »

Republicans hate each other: Nobody hates the GOP as much as Republicans hate the GOP. Just ask Marjorie Taylor Greene.

As with any self-attributed description of Trump – a “great” president, a “brilliant” businessman, a “tough” guy – it’s all a mirage. This is ineptitude, stupidity and cowardice masked by a fragile brand image.

Trump fighting? LOL! Man never fights, he runs away.

When he lost the 2020 presidential election, his narcissism did not allow him to accept the results. So it’s Vice President Mike Pence’s fault. It has become a “rigged election.” And did Trump himself enter the halls of Congress to stop the transfer of power, courageously backed by facts he believed to be in his favor?

No. He sent out the most gullible of his supporters, let them invade the U.S. Capitol, and let them be locked up. If he loses again in November, he’ll do the same thing: talk a good fight, then send in the rubes.

When the trial begins on Monday, Trump will finally have to answer for his actions.

On Monday, barring a legal miracle, the man who thinks so highly of himself that he dedicates Bibles will walk into a courtroom and become the first former U.S. president to face a jury of his peers in a criminal trial.

He is terrified of this moment. Baseline narcissism has never been held responsible. If he had any confidence, he wouldn’t be paying lawyers – probably with GOP donors’ money, not his own – to pull off every harebrained legal trick they can muster to delay, delay, to delay.

He wouldn’t spend hours online and at rallies complaining, whining, and complaining.

He would be ready, confident and eager to clear his name. It would be tough.

He is not.

Trump is a chicken. A frightened and clucking hen who, from Monday, will have no room to run.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

You can read various opinions from our committee of contributors and other authors on the front page of Opinion, on Twitter. @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump, a scared, clucking chicken, fails to delay his secret trial.