With the jury selection process underway in Donald Trump’s trial of the century, some members of the culled pool were struck by the experience of encountering the former president in the flesh for the first time.
And one juror, asked about her first impression of the Don, was surprised by his complexion more than anything else. According to her, Trump’s typical Tropicana glow was more toned down than she expected.
“He looked less orange, definitely,” the woman, identified by her first name Kat, told MSNBC’s Yasmin Vossoughian outside the courthouse. “Like more yellowish, like yellow,” she clarified.
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Kat added that the former president didn’t seem to be sweating the case, despite his various rants and tantrums in the past few days.
“He didn’t look angry,” Kat said, “I think he looks bored, like he wants this to finish and go do his stuff.” Trump did appear to find the trial a literal snoozefest on Monday, when he was seen by several reporters dozing off at the table beside his lawyer.
The jury selection process has already been beset with roadblocks, with one juror quitting on Thursday morning after friends and colleagues figured out her role. The jurors in this case have been made anonymous to everyone except those directly involved with the trial for their own safety, given its exceedingly high stakes and the loudmouthed tendencies of its defendant. Judge Juan Merchan, who has himself been a target of Trump’s tirades, scolded the defendant for attempting to intimidate jurors on Tuesday when he appeared to gossip about one in the courtroom.
Trump is facing 34 felony counts for allegedly falsifying business records related to hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels amid the 2016 presidential campaign. It’s the only one of the four criminal cases against him to have reached the trial stage so far, and may be the only one to do so before the November election.
