In the opening of his address at Mar-a-Lago tonight, Trump kicked things off with a familiar list of grievances. He complained about the Russia investigation and lied about “spying on his campaign.” He moaned about the “first impeachment hoax” and “second impeachment hoax.” He once again falsely claimed that he won the 2020 election but was thwarted thanks to “votes illegally stuffed into ballot boxes.”

It’s clear that for Trump — and his supporters — this objectively very serious new legal development is just another example to add to a long list of complaints of supposedly unfair treatment.

Trump’s high-profile supporters have gathered in Florida tonight for the former president’s first post-arraignment speech.

Flanked by screens urging fans to donate cash, Trump will be speaking to a very friendly crowd indeed. NBC News reports that such MAGA faithful as Roger Stone, failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate (and election denier) Kari Lake, Rep. Ronny Jackson, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Rep. Matt Gaetz and Trump children Don Jr., Eric and Tiffany are in the venue.

Green notably spent her morning in New York, at a short-lived rally for Trump that did not go very well. Jackson spent his day tweeting fatphobic attacks at Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg.

In defense attorney Joe Tacopina’s bombastic remarks to the media after Trump was arraigned, he lobbed a particularly inane criticism at the reporters who had gathered to observe the day’s historic proceedings.

“If this man’s name was not Donald J. Trump, there is no scenario we’d all be here today,” Tacopina said.

I must have missed the defense attorney telling the journalists who covered the recent trial where Gwyneth Paltrow was acquitted that they were covering a ski crash trial only because the defendant was an an Oscar Award-winning actress.

Of course, so many journalists were there because the case involves Trump. Of course, few (if any) journalists would be there for somebody who’s unknown. That’s not, pardon the pun, an indictment of journalism. It’s how celebrity works. 

And nobody should understand that more than an attorney representing a bona fide publicity hound like Trump.

One of the biggest conservative talking points today has been that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was grasping for a crime to charge Trump with and landed on an obscure one — “falsifying business records in the first degree.” But last month, the national security law blog Just Security looked at more than a decade’s worth of cases from New York district attorneys’ offices to determine whether it would be outside the norm for Trump to face the charge.

Their conclusion: Nah, this totally makes sense.

The authors determined:

Prosecution of falsifying business records in the first degree is commonplace and has been used by New York district attorneys’ offices to hold to account a breadth of criminal behavior from the more petty and simple to the more serious and highly organized.

What makes this case novel, as some have argued, is that the “first-degree” felony charge requires the falsification to be done in the name of other crimes that Trump isn’t actually charged with. So while this is the kind of case that the Manhattan DA handles all the time, Bragg is going to need to convince a jury that these alleged crimes were committed to facilitate further crimes that aren’t part of the indictment.

Aerial shots showed thin crowds at the pro-Trump rally this morning at Collect Pond Park in Manhattan, along with significant numbers of counterprotesters as well.

Given that Trump likely has well over 100,000 supporters in New York City alone, and many more within a drivable radius, it was a weak showing.

Ahead of his post-arraignment remarks at Mar-a-Lago, tonight Trump apparently decided that the charges presented by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg earlier today are proof of Trump's innocence.

“The hearing was shocking to many in that they had no ‘surprises,’ and therefore, no case,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Virtually every legal pundit has said that there is no case here. There was nothing done illegally!” 

This is, unsurprisingly, false. Legal analysts across the political spectrum vary in their assessment of the strength of the Manhattan district attorney’s charges against Trump for falsifying business records. But more than a few believe that he’s got a strong case. They’ve been saying so all day — and not just on MSNBC. And of course the charges don’t require some element of “surprise” to have binding legal consequences. Expect more misdirection and evidence-free denialism from Trump during his speech tonight, slated for 8:15 p.m. ET.