Is Trump’s Trial Really About ‘Hush Money’?

As former President Donald Trump’s first criminal trial begins, there is one battle taking place in a Manhattan courtroom, where he faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

But there is another fight taking place in the court of public opinion, which concerns a much more basic question: What should this trial even be called?

Many media outlets — including The New York Times — have used “hush-money trial” as a shorthand for the proceedings. It’s a nod to the fact that Trump is accused of directing a payoff, and then falsifying business records, to cover up a potential sex scandal involving a porn star.

Alvin Bragg, the district attorney in Manhattan, has argued that the case is about something much bigger: that the payment, made to Stormy Daniels, was part of an effort to hide information from voters ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

“It’s an election interference case,” he said in an interview on NY1 in January.

Trump, who has always understood the power of catchy shorthand, is trying to label the case the “Biden trial,” falsely claiming that the charges have been orchestrated by the president to influence the 2024 election.

Disagreement over the most basic facts is a fixture of American politics, particularly when Trump is involved. He has described the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, as a beautiful day. He wrongly says the 2020 election was stolen. So it is not surprising that he has tried to reframe his trial as interference in the 2024 election — even as he tries to wield it to his benefit by using it to grab attention in New York and solicit funds across the country.

Crucially, the judge, Juan Merchan, seems to echo Bragg’s framing of the case — and it is his interpretation that could matter most.