United States | Burlesque hour

Donald Trump’s first criminal trial will be both momentous and tawdry

But will it even matter?

Photograph: Getty Images
|New York

Manhattanites once rolled their eyes at Donald Trump. Then they came to revile him. Soon 12 will decide if he is a felon. Jury selection in his first criminal trial, expected to last up to eight weeks in a shabby courtroom, has sped along; prosecutors will set out their case in a matter of days. One prospective juror confessed that the weight of the task at hand had kept her up at night: “This is, like, a big deal in the grand scheme of things.”

Explore more

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Do I look guilty to you?”

Reasons to be cheerful about Generation Z

From the April 20th 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from United States

The demise of an iconic American highway

California’s Highway 1 is showing the limits of man’s ingenuity

How the election will shape the Supreme Court

A second Trump administration could lock in a conservative supermajority for decades


Could the Kamala Harris boost put Florida in play for Democrats?

Some party enthusiasts think so, but realists see re-energised campaigning there as a savvy Florida feint


America is not ready for a major war, says a bipartisan commission

The country is unaware of the dangers ahead, and of the costs to prepare for them

The southern border is Kamala Harris’s biggest political liability

What does her record reveal about her immigration policy?