Trump unhappy with his impeachment trial defense after day one: reports

Former President Trump is reportedly displeased with his legal representation, just one day into his impeachment trial.

Trump expressed frustration with his defense’s strategy right out of the gate Tuesday, according to a report in Politico.

“President Trump was not happy with the performance of his legal team in action,” a person familiar with Trump’s evaluation of the day told the outlet.

CNN reported that Trump and his team were confused by his team’s last-minute change in speaking order, and that the former president was “borderline screaming” as attorney Bruce Castor delivered his opening argument, which was criticized by people on both sides of the aisle as rambling.

Castor also said during his comments that he was impressed with what the Democratic representation had presented, a remark unlikely to make the former president happy.

“I’ll be quite frank with you: We changed what we were going to do on account that we thought that the House managers’ presentation was well done,” Castor said after the House managers concluded.

Some members of the GOP criticized the performance by Trump’s attorneys as well, dubbing their arguments as “weaker” than the Democratic showing, including Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.).

Cassidy joined five other Republicans in voting that the trial was unconstitutional, a flip in his position from a similar, procedural vote in January.

“Anyone who listened to those arguments would recognize that the House managers were focused, relied upon and trusted upon the opinion of legal scholars,” Cassidy said. 

“Anyone who listened to President Trump’s legal team saw they were unfocused, they attempted to avoid the issue. And they talked about everything but the issue at hand,” he added.

Republican Sen. Pat Toomey (Pa.) echoed Cassidy’s sentiment, saying, “I thought the House impeachment managers made very strong arguments. It was persuasive and well grounded in the Constitution and precedent.”

Trump’s legal team was assembled just over a week ago, after the former president’s original team fell apart following disagreements over legal fees and other issues, according to reports.