On opening night of the Republican National Convention in 2016, Donald Trump came out onstage like a pro wrestler, amid clouds from a smoke machine and dramatic shadows.
It was the kind of image he likes to project of himself: grandiose and imposing, like the floating head of the Great and Powerful Oz ordering Dorothy to bring him the broomstick of the Wicked Witch.
But eight years later, the real Trump has been revealed before the world in a courtroom in lower Manhattan. Whether he was sitting in the courtroom or standing outside of it amid bad fluorescent lighting, he looked small, diminished and the very opposite of presidential.
And just as the Wizard of Oz tried desperately to distract Dorothy and her friends when he was revealed, Trump and his lawyers are trying hard to keep the public from looking at the man behind the curtain.
This is a preview of Symone Sanders-Townsend's latest article. Read the full column here. For more thought-provoking insights from Symone Sanders-Townsend, Alicia Menendez, and Michael Steele, watch "The Weekend" every Saturday and Sunday at 8 a.m. ET on MSNBC.
