MSNBC Shows Sketch of Trump Sleeping in Courtroom: He’s Imagining He’s ‘Eating a Cheeseburger in the Triplex at Trump Tower’

Wallace: “So Tim, you were in the courthouse today. Two things that people thought would happen that didn’t. I mean, Michael Cohen didn’t blow up. Michael Cohen was underestimated. And I know Michael Cohen is capable of a lot of outbursts, but that he didn’t have one. It was the defense’s strategy and expectation, I think, that he would. And Trump has seemed to land on a coping strategy of closing his eyes. Whether or not he’s awake, I have no idea. I’m not there. But how — is that a weird thing? Is that a normal thing? Can the jurors see him with his eyes closed?”

O’BRIEN: “Yeah, of course they can see him with his eyes closed. And he’s — not only his eyes are closed, he’s sort of leaning back. And I think in the early days of the trial people said he was falling asleep, and he may have been, but you can’t sleep there for 8 hours. And he — you know, he perks up occasionally —“

Wallace: “Is he motionless? Is he rocking?”

O’BRIEN: “He’s motionless. He occasionally leans over to one of his lawyers. He perked up and eyes wide open when the cross of Michael Cohen began. But with a lot of the other witnesses, he was just lying there, slightly tilted back with his eyes closed. And I was looking at him —“

Wallace: “Oh, there he is. Do we have that? Do we have the sketch? Yeah, we’ll put it up.”

O’BRIEN: “And I thought, you know, he’s just — yeah, that’s what he looks like. And I thought, he’s just going to Never-Neverland because he doesn’t want to see the porn star testifying against him and he doesn’t want to see the turncoat in-house lawyer testifying against him. So instead he’s imagining he’s on the first tee at Bedminster, he’s on the beach at Mar-a-Lago, or he’s eating a cheeseburger in the triplex at Trump Tower. He’s doing any of these things that takes him to that happy place for him, rather than engage with what’s going on in the court. I think that’s possibly part of it. The other thing is, Donald Trump has noticeably aged. Even since 2020, you know, he’s a little more crook backed, he doesn’t, you know, he’s very gummy. We’ve seen it now in these rallies where he has nonlinear speeches and he makes huge mistakes and he goes off on tangents. So I also think he’s aged. That’s a factor. And I think, lastly, is this is a man, and we’ve talked about this now for what, nine years together —“

Wallace: “Yes, unfortunately.”

O’BRIEN: “You know, but he’s been insulated from the consequences of his own mistakes since birth, first by wealth and by celebrity, then by the power of the presidency. So he’s never really feared accountability. And I’ve been watching this and I was, you know, I wasn’t sure that this case, I thought this — and I still think it’s the weakest of the four cases in terms of the legal existential threat, I think the other cases pose more of a legal threat in terms of the consequences. But as this case has proceeded on, I’ve become, you know, more aware that this could have a tougher outcome for him than I anticipated. And I would — and now I’ve been watching him sort of wondering, is he thinking about the possible consequences here as we near the finish line and he’s sitting there in his fugue state.”