(Tommy Deeb, Facebook)
Many Americans probably expected Donald Trump's hush-money trial in New York to be a bit of a clown show. After all, Trump has a knack for interjecting theatrics and chaos into most any situation. And the trial already has a dramatic flavor, being the first time in American history that a former president has gone on trial for alleged criminal conduct. But I doubt even the most cynical anti-Trumper -- and you can count me among that group -- expected that news heading today into the trial's second week would be dominated by reports of Trump snoring and passing gas during the proceedings, reportedly causing his own lawyers to have their gag reflexes kick in.
Even a member of Congress, U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA), jumped into the smelly fray, writing on X (formerly Twitter) : "I had some challenging clients during my lawyer days, but never anything quite like what Trump is putting his lawyers through . . ." Huffman linked to @acyn, the account of Ben Meiselas, an attorney and founder of the MeidasTouch Network, which also is known as Democracy Defense Action. The Meiselas link included a video, with Meiselas stating: "What I’m hearing from credible sources is that Donald Trump is actually farting in the courtroom… I’m hearing it from credible people that as he’s kind of falling asleep, he’s passing gas and that his lawyers are really struggling with the smell."
Dash Dobrofsky has added his take at "The Gen Z Perspective" Substack page. Under the headline "Trump FARTS While Asleep During Hush-Money Trial; Credible sources claim defendant Donald Trump has been passing gas throughout the jury selection process," Dobrofsky writes:
According to MeidasTouch, credible sources from inside the Manhattan courtroom have been smelling a foul odor emitting from defendant Donald Trump’s seat — who allegedly has been farting in his sleep throughout the trial.
Smelly Trump passes gas during jury selection processBen Meiselas — the legal reporter for MeidasTouch — shared some new reporting on MeidasTouch about the putrid smell that has been surrounding Trump’s body: “What I’m hearing from credible sources is that Donald Trump is actually farting in the courtroom… I’m hearing it from credible people that as he’s kind of falling asleep, he’s passing gas and that his lawyers are really struggling with the smell.” Wowza
The story is accurate. I produced content for MeidasTouch during the 2022 midterms, and they never publish anything without a legitimate source behind the scoop!
The Snopes fact-checking site did not agree with Dobrofsky's conclusion and labeled the claims "Unproven." Under the headline "No Evidence Trump Passed Gas in Courtroom During Hush-Money Trial; Claims of presidential flatulence are a mainstay here at Snopes." Jack Izzo writes:
On April 15, 2024, the first day of the criminal trial against former U.S. President Donald Trump, The New York Times' Maggie Haberman reported Trump appeared to be falling asleep during court proceedings. The news went viral immediately.
Days later, a new, unconfirmed rumor joined the media circus: The former president had been rather … flatulent. The claim appeared on April 19, 2024, in a clip posted by the X (formerly Twitter) account @Acyn of an interview on the MeidasTouch Network, a progressive media organization.
In the clip, the founder of MeidasTouch, Ben Meiselas, talked about how he had heard from credible sources that Trump's gas was noxious enough to make his lawyers struggle with the smell. Meiselas did not name his sources, and almost backed off from the claim at the end: "Take it for what it's worth, they may be going on background telling me that because it's the Meidas Touch and they think that we want to hear that."
The claim was backed up by George Conway, who was married to Trump aide Kellyanne Conway until 2023 and has vocally campaigned against the former president. Conway said on his X account he had heard similar rumors:
I heard this too. I’m not kidding. The court’s going to have to issue more than a gag order here.We appreciate Snopes' commitment to the facts -- they tend to be kind of important in journalism -- but if you can't have a few laughs with a story like this, when can you lighten up? The first rule of comedy, I think, is this: You can never go wrong with a fart joke; I think someone told me that once -- or maybe I saw it written on a piece of scrap paper tucked inside a library book. You never know when such a pearl of wisdom is going to come your way. (See image at the end of this post.)
Our props go out to George Conway for not allowing Snopes to suck all of the fun out of the room -- to borrow a phrase from the late, great Glenn Frey of the Eagles, in reference to the perfectionistic tendencies of his songwriting partner, Don Henley
Conway didn't let us down with an item from OK Magazine, under the can't-miss headline "'Struggling With the Smell': Donald Trump Farts Up a Storm During His Criminal Trial as a Foul Stench Fills the Courtroom: Report":
Outspoken Trump critic George Conway commented on the video, writing, "Not that anyone should do anything with this information—but flatulent and fraudulent do rhyme."
Let's return to Snopes' take on this story that now resides at the heart of our democracy . . . you might call it "Fartapalooza breaks out in New York courtroom." Writes Jack Izzo of Snopes:
Snopes performed its own investigation into whether this rumor passed the smell test but came up short — everything we found could be traced back to either Meiselas or Conway. Because neither of them shared who their sources were, and no major news outlet had covered the supposed flatulence, we have rated this claim as "Unproven."
There's a long history of making fun of minor presidential gaffes, like a "Saturday Night Live" take on Gerald Ford, inspired by the time he fell down the stairs of Air Force One. When that claim is about the president's supposed flatulence, it's often an implication that the person is growing senile and might be unfit to serve. But as Snopes summarized in 2022, claims about embarrassing behavior by a president, current or former, are not new, no matter the political positions or the truthfulness of the claim. We've covered them about Trump, Joe Biden and Barack Obama.
Since Ben Meiselas had the first word on this subject, we will give him the last word, too. This is from his Twitter account:
I had mixed feelings about how viral our reporting on Donald Trump’s court room flatus went since it was a very small part of our broader, very stellar coverage of the Trump criminal trial, with some of the top experts. Here is some feedback I received however:
“Ben, don't apologize. We are yet awaiting Justice, and public humiliation is simple karma. Instant, natural justice is so satisfying. Always.”
“Ben, normally I'd feel sorry for someone with a serious disability. With trump and his cruelty towards others, it's just karma.”
“These poor people who have to sit and smell him. They are the ones gagging.”
“OMG! Don't talk about this! All those MAGAs will rush the podium where Trump speaks, just to stand in the presence of Trump's holy gas!”
“Ben, I genuinely despise attacking, or watching others attack, a person's personal health or mental dysfunction. But when a vile creature deliberately seeks out weaknesses and personal challenges in every person he encounters, to use against them while trying to hide his own, open the floodgates and let it flow. Nobody is more deserving of public humiliation than Trump. He even makes up embarrassing issues to go public about others to make himself look better. He deserves no sympathy.”
Here is a video we made on this ordeal https://youtu.be/CHuCVBk1L4c?si=PL9-17kXGCgQM_Ji
