While the cameras are focused on the Boeing 757 stopped on a runway of New York's LaGuardia airport, filming the slightest maneuver while waiting for the billionaire to disembark, a CNN commentator whispers that all this is still "surreal".

And now Donald Trump, the first US president to be criminally charged, is once again watching America.

Reality

Monday was a reminder of the extent to which, during his first campaign and then his presidency, the Republican fed on the media fascination as much as journalists gorged themselves on his most outrageous remarks and his most unlikely stagings.

Starting with this declaration of candidacy of June 2015 preceded by a slow descent of escalator, in the marble and golden reflections of Trump Tower, in Manhattan, where the former president will spend the night from Monday to Tuesday.

The entourage of the former businessman did not fail to point out that Donald Trump, former star of a reality show, had returned to the front of the stage.

Members of the media outside Trump Tower in New York, April 3, 2023 © Ed JONES / AFP

Eric Trump, his son, tweeted a photo taken on the plane, showing ... the same plane, filmed live by Fox News before it left Florida, where Donald Trump now resides.

Jason Miller, an adviser to the Republican, already campaigning for the 2024 presidential election, was happy to share screenshots showing all the major American television networks, simultaneously and live broadcasting the journey of his boss.

24 hours

CNN, in addition to an aerial view, even broadcast footage of the plane's arrival in New York filmed from a boat.

For the journey between the luxurious Mar-a-Lago residence and the Palm Beach airport in Florida, the American media obviously mobilized helicopters, to follow the convoy from the air - enough to recall the most famous sequence of its kind, the pursuit in 1994 by the police, live, of the American football star O.J. Simpson, charged with double murder.

Journalists began queuing nearly twenty-four hours in advance around the New York courthouse where Donald Trump will have to learn about the criminal proceedings against him on Tuesday from 14:15 (18:15 GMT).

He will also have to state his name, age, profession, submit to a fingerprint - and be photographed.

Some newsrooms - anxious to preserve their stars before another marathon day on Tuesday - have resorted to waiting professionals, who, for a fee, will face the coolness of the New York night and keep the coveted place.

Donald Trump supporters outside Trump Tower in New York, April 3, 2023 © Stefani Reynolds / AFP

It is a safe bet that the show will delight the former president, even if it takes place in a circumstance a priori unfavorable.

In 1987, he wrote, in his bestselling book "The Art of Negotiation": "What's very funny is that even a critical, hurtful article can be very profitable for your business." Or, to put it more simply: for Donald Trump, there is no bad publicity.

© 2023 AFP