Former US president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 charges in connection with the alleged payment of bribes to a porn star and others when he appeared in court in New York on Tuesday. The French daily newspapers wonder if the media show won't boost Trump's chances of re-election, whatever his legal fate.
"While we are living through the darkest hours of American history, I can say that, at least for this moment right now, I am in great spirits.
"I never thought anything like this could happen in America," Trump told an audience of several hundred donors, political allies and other supporters after returning to Mar-a-Lago, his beachfront mansion in southern Florida.
"The only crime that I've committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it. It's an insult to our country."
The twice-impeached Republican is the first sitting or former American president to be criminally indicted.
The 76-year-old is the frontrunner in the race for the 2024 Republican nomination.
A dangerous double-edged sword
French centrist daily newspaper Le Monde warns that the case against Trump could turn out to be a double-edged sword for his opponents.
The swaggering former leader faces serious charges. But the global media attention and his use of this brush with the law to mobilise supporters while attacking the media, intellectuals, conspiracy theorists, socialists, and the other dark forces threatening America, could leave his rivals for the Republican ticket struggling for visibility. Donald Trump casts a very broad shadow.
Le Monde also provides details of the actual charges against the man, generally and incorrectly accused of trying to bribe Stormy Daniels and two other individuals. In fact, the tabloid paper The National Enquirer, owned by Trump friend and supporter David Pecker, bought the exclusive rights to the stories of these people, and then decided not to publish. In the hands of a skillful defence team, that may finally look dubious but far from illegal.
The tax case against Trump is more worrying. And the falsification of business documents could sink him, if the prosecution can prove he altered accounts in order to mislead American voters.
Trump is winning the publicity battle at the moment. Le Monde says he has invented a new form of media spectacle, somewhere between a royal corronation and a state funeral. And his supporters are lapping it up. Reasonable Republicans may find themselves left with no alternative.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, who represents Georgia in the US House, said on Tuesday "Donald Trump has joined the most remarkable people in history," including Nelson Mandela and Jesus.
Marjorie Taylor Greene is tipped to be Trump's pick for vice-president if he wins the Republican nomination.
The pornstar, the porter and the Playmate
Right-wing Le Figaro goes a tad tabloidesque with 25 photographs from Tuesday's legal circus, and a headline which could be translated as "The pornstar, the porter and the Playmate," a reference to the three alleged cover-ups, the porter being a former doorman who worked for Trump and who claims to have details of an out-of-wedlock child fathered by the former president.
Left-leaning Libération says that the conspiracy charges against Trump are the most dangerous elements in a case that is otherwise a media stormy in a teacup. It is not clear, warns Libé, that the allegations against Trump will stand up when they finally get to court.
Catholic paper La Croix soberly notes that Ron DeSantis, pro-gun, anti-abortion, the other leading Republican challenger for next year's primaries, must be worried by Trump's widening lead in the opinion polls and his total domination of media space.
The La Croix article ends by noting that, "with Donald Trump, nothing is impossible".
