Originally a comment by Screechy Monkey on Still scrambling.

Trump knows that the Senate isn’t going to convict him no matter what defense he mounts. He can ignore the trial entirely, or hire competent counsel and heed their advice, or show up personally and moon Chuck Schumer and call the GOP Senators “my obedient little bitches, especially Ted Cruz who has an ugly wife,” and the outcome will be the same.

So Trump’s goal isn’t to mount a “good defense,” or even any defense at all, except in the sense of “the best defense is a good offense.” What he really wants to do is indulge his own emotional needs and put on a good show for his supporters. Ranting about how the election was stolen from him, how Sleepy Joe Biden is a Chinese Communist tool who also take bribes from the Ukraine, and the Mueller investigation was all a hoax, and COVID is a Democratic plot funded by George Soros, and Rachel Maddow kicks puppies, and I’m-not-saying-QAnon-is-all-true-but-I’m-not-saying-it-isn’t-if-you-catch-my-drift…. it all helps rile up his base, remind GOP officeholders that he still owns the party, and that all sets him up to keep the grift operation running.

Trump isn’t going to measure success in this trial by whether or not 34 GOP Senators vote to acquit him or 50 do; he’s going to measure it by the TV ratings and the amount of donations that come in.