 | BY CALDER MCHUGH | | 
Former President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at the end of today's proceedings in his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments at Manhattan Criminal Court. | Pool photo by Doug Mills | CALL FOR BACKUP — Donald Trump complained last week that the courtroom and the surrounding area outside of 60 Centre Street was so locked down — like a “buttoned up vest” — that his supporters couldn’t show up to protest. So this week, Trump got some backup. A series of former and current advisers and friends arrived at the courthouse to serve as a kind of security blanket, providing some small measure of moral support to a man accustomed to being surrounded by a coterie of advisors, admirers and flatterers. After three weeks of being regularly encircled by court personnel, lawyers, strangers and the media, forced to hear testimony about his alleged misdeeds in court day after day, the cavalry heeded the former president’s call. He not only looks angry and alone in the courtroom, his public remarks betray the sense he feels that way. Reports suggest Trump has taken to bad mouthing his lead lawyer Todd Blanche in closed door phone calls, as he grows frustrated that Blanche won’t follow his lead. In a gag order hearing on Thursday, after Blanche agreed with Judge Juan Merchan that no one forced Trump to attack Michael Cohen online, Trump reportedly looked over at Blanche and shook his head . Yet Trump’s friends aren’t always the most reliable, or the most loyal. Whether they’re there to support a friend in need, or for more transactional purposes, it’s sometimes hard to tell. Remember Carter Page, the Trump campaign advisor from 2016 who was wiretapped by the FBI in 2016 due to his ties to the Russian government? He unexpectedly showed up on Tuesday. So did David McIntosh, the president of the anti-tax Club for Growth, the group that feuded with Trump and sought to defeat him in the early 2024 primary states before both sides made peace. Another supporter in attendance was Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton , whose own legal entanglements and political stylings overlap considerably with Trump. He made sure his whereabouts were well-publicized, posting on X , “With President Trump in NYC to sit through this sham of a trial. This trial is a travesty of justice. I stand with Trump.” Some family members and close associates — most notably Trump campaign senior adviser Susie Wiles and Trump’s son Eric — were spotted in the room Tuesday. Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn — who was just indicted in Arizona over attempting to subvert the results of the 2020 election — has been in the courtroom multiple days, sitting behind Trump and conferring with Trump’s lawyers . Trump aides Dan Scavino and Jason Miller also showed up to support the boss. Earlier today, Hope Hicks, one of Trump’s former closest confidantes, testified that the Trump organization was “run like a small family business in a certain way … People reported to the core family members.” Still, for a family business, there is an unusual degree of self-preservation and cold calculus. Today, Hicks broke down crying on the witness stand after questioning from the prosecution, in which she detailed how Trump explained the $130,000 that Cohen had paid to Stormy Daniels . “Mr. Trump was saying he had spoken to Michael and that Michael had paid this woman to protect him from a false allegation … And he did it out of the kindness of his own heart and he never told anybody about it.” But according to Hicks, that didn’t sound like Cohen. “I didn’t know Michael to be an especially charitable person or selfless person,“ she said, describing him instead as “the kind of person who seeks credit.” Here was one former Trump aide cutting down another as self-interested and bad at his job . We’re likely to hear similar testimony as the prosecution continues to call witnesses next week. Hicks’ description of Cohen is materially relevant to the trial, but it’s also a clear reminder of the motivations of the denizens of Trumpworld. Like Cohen back in 2016, the aides and friends who showed up this week weren’t necessarily doing so out of the kindness of their heart. They’re all drawn to Trump like moths to a light. And when his mood goes dark, the spotlight of the trial will do. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at cmchugh@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @calder_mchugh .
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| | THE GOLD STANDARD OF POLICY REPORTING & INTELLIGENCE: POLITICO has more than 500 journalists delivering unrivaled reporting and illuminating the policy and regulatory landscape for those who need to know what’s next. Throughout the election and the legislative and regulatory pushes that will follow, POLITICO Pro is indispensable to those who need to make informed decisions fast. The Pro platform dives deeper into critical and quickly evolving sectors and industries—finance, defense, technology, healthcare, energy—equipping policymakers and those who shape legislation and regulation with essential news and intelligence from the world’s best politics and policy journalists.
Our newsroom is deeper, more experienced, and better sourced than any other—with teams embedded in the world’s most active legislative and regulatory power centers. From Brussels to Washington, New York to London, Sacramento to Paris, we bring subscribers inside the conversations that determine policy outcomes and the future of industries, providing insight that cannot be found anywhere else. Get the premier news and policy intelligence service, SUBSCRIBE TO POLITICO PRO TODAY . | | | | | | | TRUMP AID? — Although Hope Hicks is a witness for the prosecution, some of her testimony this afternoon may be helpful to Trump — her longtime boss to whom she was loyal for years. A central plank of Trump’s defense is that he wanted allegations of extramarital sex buried in order to protect his family — not, as prosecutors allege, to influence the 2016 election. And in just a few minutes on the witness stand, Hicks offered several statements that seem to strengthen the defense narrative. She said Trump’s main concern with regard to the Wall Street Journal’s story on Karen McDougal was how it would affect his wife, Melania. Hicks said Trump was “concerned how it would be viewed by his wife,” and said Trump asked her to make sure newspapers weren’t delivered to their residence that morning. And Hicks said she didn’t believe he was specifically concerned with how the story might impact his presidential campaign. Prosecutors have argued that, in the wake of the Access Hollywood tape, Trump was motivated for political reasons to conceal other unflattering stories about his conduct with women. MISUNDERSTANDINGS — At the start of today’s proceedings, Justice Juan Merchan instructed Donald Trump that the gag order doesn’t prevent him from testifying at his criminal trial , correcting a comment Trump made Thursday. “It came to my attention that there may be a misunderstanding” about the gag order, Merchan told the former president. “You have an absolute right to testify at trial if that’s what you decide to do after consultation with your attorneys,” Merchan said. “It is a fundamental right that cannot be infringed upon.”
| | — Israel briefs US on plan to move Gazans ahead of Rafah invasion: The Israeli military has informed aid groups and the Biden administration of a plan to begin removing Gazans from Rafah ahead of an invasion , according to a U.S. official and two other people familiar with the situation. The Israel Defense Forces recently told the U.S. government and aid groups operating on the ground that they had developed a plan to move people out of Rafah, the main humanitarian hub in the enclave, to al-Mawasi, a small strip of land on the southern Gaza coast. The IDF sent a map of the area to aid workers this week, a copy of which POLITICO obtained. — Former government official charged with falsely implicating colleagues in Jan. 6 attack: Federal prosecutors have charged a former government employee with falsely accusing seven colleagues — many of whom held security clearances and at least some of whom worked in the intelligence community — of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. Investigators say Miguel Zapata used “burner” emails to submit anonymous tips to an FBI tipline about seven ex-colleagues, causing the bureau to investigate and interview many of them. Agents pursuing the tips verified that none of the seven were in Washington that day and confirmed they were working during the hours of the attack. — Biden’s final EV tax credit rules please automakers, anger China hawks: The Biden administration finalized guardrails for its electric vehicle tax credit today that keep President Joe Biden’s EV adoption goals in sight but are likely to draw challenges from critics on both sides of the aisle who say he is illegally opening the door for Chinese imports. The rules offer some reprieve for automakers on the most severe restrictions on Chinese minerals, acknowledging that fledgling American battery suppliers will need years — or possibly decades — to catch up to their Chinese competitors.
| | NEXT TARGET — The coalition of Democratic groups that pressured No Labels out of the 2024 contest is now turning its sights on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Billboards funded by the Democratic National Committee have begun popping up outside Kennedy’s events. Trackers paid for by American Bridge, a Democratic super PAC, are following him with cameras. And another super PAC, founded exclusively to take on third-party threats, is message-testing ads on Kennedy in coordination with Future Forward, the flagship pro-Biden super PAC. It’s a widespread effort among Democratic donors and strategists to neutralize Kennedy’s third-party threat to President Joe Biden’s reelection. And Biden’s allies are now considering going even further, with a coalition of major Democratic groups privately discussing running a negative ad campaign against Kennedy. GOING SOFT — In late March, 5,000 Democratic luminaries packed into a star-studded Radio City Music Hall fundraiser featuring President Joe Biden and former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, writes POLITICO. From the fat cat attendees to the guests of honor, the sold-out spectacle was rife with comedic opportunity. But there was little skewering to be found on late night television that evening or afterwards. One reason: The Late Show’s Stephen Colbert, one of the most famous comedians in the world and a self-styled hero of the ongoing resistance against former President Donald Trump, served as the event’s moderator. Colbert’s ultra-friendly exchanges with Biden, Obama and Clinton as emcee of the largest Democratic fundraiser ever — it raised a whopping $26 million for Biden’s reelection effort — were emblematic of a new era in late night comedy . It’s more proudly partisan. More one-sided. More cautious in its targets. And it’s generally soft on Biden.
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Students rally on Place du Pantheon in Paris today. | Victoria Valdivia/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images | PARIS PROTESTS — Police forced out a pro-Palestinian group which staged an occupation overnight at Sciences Po in Paris , a top university known as a breeding ground for France’s political elite. The occupation follows similar student movements — in protest against Israel’s war in Gaza — at major U.S. universities including Columbia in New York and UCLA in Los Angeles, which have triggered large-scale police responses. Sciences Po’s administration decided to shut down access to its main facilities today after the Comité Palestine Sciences Po moved in to the university’s main building, located in the heart of Paris, “in support of the Palestinian people.” In echoes of the U.S., pro-Palestinian student movements are organizing across France, with blockades and encampments being set up on university campuses amid an increasingly tense environment as Israel’s monthslong war on Hamas in Gaza drags on. SHOT TO THE HEART — Ukraine has the “right” to use British-supplied weapons to strike Russia inside its own territory , U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron said on a trip to Kyiv. In an interview with Reuters, Cameron said it was up to Ukraine to decide how U.K. weapons are used. Asked if that included targets inside Russia, he said: “Ukraine has that right. Just as Russia is striking inside Ukraine, you can quite understand why Ukraine feels the need to make sure it’s defending itself.”
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| | | COLD IS HOT — The cold storage industry is blowing up . Investors expect around 8 to 10 percent annual growth in the specialized real estate of refrigerated warehouses. So why is this happening now? It’s tapping into all kinds of trends at the same time. The ability to quickly freeze food as it travels from place to place around the world is huge for all kinds of consumers: Fast casual and fast food chains, delivery services and even individuals who are looking for healthy, organic produce and protein year round. As people’s diets become less seasonal, there’s also an increasing need to be able to store products from far away parts of the world. Patrick Sisson reports on the trend for Sherwood News.
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On this date in 1981: Anti-war marchers cross the Memorial Bridge in Washington, D.C., on their way to the Pentagon for a rally to protest U.S. military involvement in El Salvador and President Ronald Reagan's proposed cuts in domestic social programs. | Ira Schwarz/AP | Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here . | |
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