Trump’s ‘Al Capone’ Strategy Carries Risks in November

Two days after his victory in the New Hampshire primary, Donald Trump was back in court today, testifying in the defamation case brought against him in New York by E. Jean Carroll, the writer who has accused him of raping her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s.

“I just wanted to defend myself, my family and, frankly, the presidency,” Trump said in his under four-minute appearance on the stand. He was responding to a question about whether he had intended to harm his accuser with his defamatory statements denying her allegations despite having been found liable in the civil proceeding for sexually abusing her.

And though the judge told the jury to disregard those remarks, Trump got his message across.

It’s a pattern Trump has stuck to for months: Far from playing down his many legal woes, he has put them front and center, often bragging (apparently falsely) that he has been charged more times than Al Capone.

He features his courtroom troubles in his stump speeches, portraying them as an effort by Democrats who fear they cannot beat him at the ballot box to weaponize the justice system against him. Casting himself as the victim of a witch hunt, Trump has highlighted his four criminal indictments in fund-raising emails. He revels in media coverage of his motorcade speeding to various courthouses. And his confrontational performances in front of judges and juries are calculated for maximum attention.

So far, the strategy appears to be working, helping to rally Republican base voters to his side in Iowa and New Hampshire.

But as he tries to shift into general election mode, it is much less clear that making his legal liabilities central to his campaign will be an effective way of building the broader coalition he needs to win in November.