I cannot of course know what the outcome of the trial will be, but already Donald Trump has paid a hefty price for his bad company. During the trial, the former President is living in his apartment in Trump Tower on 5th Avenue, just 15 minutes away, with his security staff leading the way home from the courthouse where his case is being heard.

However, one might as well be a world away from the other. Such is the stark contrast in treatment he receives. In one world, in his luxurious apartment, he is a king. In the other, in the cold courtroom, he is subjected to relentless humiliation. For example, in order to remove unwanted jurors from the selection process, his lawyer read in court their negative comments about Trump, which were posted on the Internet.

One person said: “Stop the election of a racist, sexist narcissist.”

Another said “I wouldn’t believe Donald Trump if his tongue were notarized.”

And she continued reading from someone else:

“Trump is an anathema to everything I was taught to love about Jesus, everything I was taught about how to live out my faith. His disdain for decency, disrespect toward basic tenets of right and wrong and complete disregard for the most vulnerable among us could not be more fundamentally un-Christian.”

And all this just steps away from Trump, who couldn’t speak, but was making faces. When the prosecutor took the floor at the trial, the epithets he used were even worse. He described him as a thief, a fraudster, a greedy man who broke the law, calling it “election fraud, pure and simple.”

And he continued by presenting to the jurors the story of the reported sexual relationships of the former President with the porn star Stormy Daniels and with the former Playboy model Karen McDougal – while he was already married to Melania. Trump was also sitting there as the former publisher of the scandalous newspaper “National Enquirer” described his efforts, in cooperation with Trump and his then-lawyer Michael Cohen, to “catch and kill” stories against Trump, meaning to discover, buy, and not publish stories unfavorable to Trump, who was then a candidate for the U.S. presidency.

So far neither the porn star nor Michael Cohen, once a fan and friend and now a fervent enemy of his, have testified.

Of course, he wouldn’t be in this humiliating position if it weren’t for the company he kept. But apart from Trump, the media also suffered a blow to their credibility. Yes, of course, they’re not all the same. But the trial somehow casts a shadow over them too.

And only God knows what else we will learn as the trial progresses.