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Trump turns his felony verdict into a grievance tour
The day after becoming the first former U.S. president convicted of felony crimes, Trump used a Trump Tower appearance to cast the verdict as persecution and attack the justice system.
Edition · June 1, 2024
The Daily Fuckup: June 1, 2024
Trump spent the first day after his felony conviction trying to sell it as martyrdom, while Republicans immediately started treating the verdict like a fundraising asset and a warning label at the same time.
May 31 left Trump-world with a giant legal stain and an instant political spin operation. The former president used his post-verdict appearance to attack the judge, the jury process, and the justice system, while allies rushed to convert the conviction into donor fuel and to police who got to cash in on it. The through-line was the same: no accountability, only grievance. But the headlines also made clear that the verdict changed the race in a real, measurable way — even if Trump’s team tried to pretend otherwise.
Closing take
Trump’s playbook after a catastrophe is always the same: deny, denounce, monetize. On May 31, it was all three, and none of it looked especially stable.
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Trump team moves to block Republicans from fundraising off the verdict
After Trump’s May 30 conviction, his campaign quickly pushed back on Republican efforts to use the verdict in their own fundraising appeals.