Trump's trial will electrify the world. But his enemies, so desperate to see him locked up, may have made a monumental tactical blunder, writes ANDREW NEIL

It's hard to blame Donald Trump (aka Dozy Don) for apparently nodding off during the first day of his 'hush money' trial in New York on Monday.

Yes, it's the first ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president and he's also the only leading presidential candidate ever to face criminal proceedings. Add to that the chance he could go to jail if he's found guilty and you might expect Trump to be paying close attention.

But the early stages of the trial have been dominated by arcane legal arguments about procedural points and the interminable process of choosing a jury, now an unavoidable feature of American justice.

That could continue for another week or more. So, despite all the hoopla surrounding this trial and the massive media circus which attends it, Trump and the rest of us should be prepared to be bored for a little longer yet.

But patience will have its just rewards, for this trial is the stuff of tabloid dreams — porn stars, hush money, dodgy lawyers, Playboy bunnies, illicit sex and cover-ups — which means it will find a mass audience far beyond those usually interested in Trump for mundane matters like his politics.

Former US president Donald Trump at the State Supreme Court in New York this week

The circus which has set up its big top on the 15th floor of a rather dingy Manhattan court building will be captivating most of America soon enough — and much of the rest of the world, too.

Whether it will also provide a compelling case against Trump is another matter. Dozy Don faces 88 criminal charges in cases spread across four states.

Many Democrats, who would love to see him go down for one or all the indictments, are dismayed that the first one up is the New York case that they, along with legal experts and political commentators, fear is the weakest — and that, even if Trump is found guilty, voters will struggle to understand that what he did was really criminal.

T his also plays to Trump's oft-repeated claim that he is the victim of political persecution by Democratic activists, including many in the Biden administration, who are using the law against him because they fear they can't beat him at the ballot box.

The way he sees it, the proceedings have all the hallmarks of a show trial. Trump will be judged by an overwhelmingly Democratic jury in a trial presided over by a Democratic judge and brought about by a Democratic District Attorney.

Manhattan, from where the jury will be drawn, voted 87 per cent for Joe Biden in 2020. Almost 100 prospective jurors were wheeled out on Monday only for 50 per cent to be dismissed immediately because, on a show of hands, they admitted they could not be fair or impartial.

The selection process will no doubt root out the most egregiously biased against Trump. But, in the end, the jury will still lean overwhelmingly Democrat.

The presiding judge, Juan Merchan, donated to the Biden-Harris campaign in 2020 and to other 'progressive' causes. The amounts were a pittance but it illustrates how he leans too.

On his way into court yesterday the defendant said Judge Merchan was 'Trump hating' and 'totally conflicted'.

District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Left-wing Democrat, campaigned for election pledging to 'get' Trump. He wasn't sure for what, but promised he'd find some charge to drag Trump into court. Since indicting Trump he's raised $850,000 (£680,000) for his re-election campaign.

U.S. justice has always been too influenced by politics but is now so politicised, by Democrats and Republicans alike for their own ends, it barely qualifies any more as independent and impartial.

Yet, even in what Trump and his followers see as a rigged trial, it is not clear that District Attorney Bragg has a sufficiently compelling case to secure a conviction.

Porn star Stormy Daniels, who it is alleged Donald Trump had a 'sexual encounter' with... the trial is the stuff of tabloid dreams, writes Andrew Neil, featuring porn stars, hush money, dodgy lawyers, Playboy bunnies, illicit sex and cover-ups

In 2006, it is alleged that Trump — by then married to Melania — had a 'sexual encounter' with a porn star who goes by the stage name Stormy Daniels. Ten years later, on the eve of the 2016 presidential election, Trump's then lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, paid her £105,000, widely regarded as hush money to keep her quiet until the election was out of the way. It is not illegal under New York State law to pay someone off to bury a sex scandal.

Cohen was reimbursed in stages through 2017 via a monthly retainer disguised, it is alleged, as payments for legal services, which also compensated him for the tax he'd have to pay on this income.

This 'false accounting' is what Bragg has zoomed in on. Even so, such fudging of business records is generally regarded as relatively minor — a misdemeanour — rather than more serious criminality, or felony.

To reach that higher level of criminality, Bragg has to show, under New York law, that Trump was cooking the books with intent to commit a crime, which would turn a misdemeanour into a felony.

Just what that crime was is not clear, certainly not to this layman or even to many legal experts. It could involve the illegal use of campaign funds by paying off a mistress. Or using money to aid a presidential candidate by unlawful means. Or perhaps it's something to do with tax fraud.

It really isn't clear. This is why federal prosecutors, who looked at the matter, decided not to go down this road. Nor did Bragg's predecessor.

But, throwing caution to the wind, the District Attorney has doubled-down, padding out his indictment by including every invoice, cheque and ledger entry related to the Cohen payments, giving him a charge sheet against Trump of 34 felonies, each carrying a possible four-year jail sentence.

So far, Bragg has advanced some 'theories' on Trump's actual crime, three of which the judge has accepted are worthy of the court's time. No doubt the trial will make plain exactly what Trump is alleged to have done.

'Stormy' plans to testify. So does Karen McDougal, a former Playboy bunny who Trump is said to have had an affair with for months (his friends tell me he was really smitten), and who was paid £120,000 to keep quiet.

Cohen will be the prosecution's key witness since he is on a mission to destroy his former boss. But he's already admitted to lying under oath and done three years in prison for tax evasion and corporate violations. So he might not be the clinching witness Bragg hopes.

The trial will take up four days a week and last six to eight weeks. Since it's a criminal trial, Trump has to attend every session, which will curb his ability to campaign or raise funds at a time when President Biden is raising tens of millions for his re-election.

O n the other hand, the trial will give Trump oodles of what he loves most: publicity. Whether that reinforces his pitch for the White House remains to be seen.

The 'show trial' aspect could fire up more than just his supporters in sympathy for him. Or the more sordid side of the case could simply repel independents and moderate Republicans, especially women, among whom Trump already polls badly.

The Georgia criminal case against Trump, in which he's accused of trying to interfere with the result of the 2020 election, is far more serious than the New York charges.

But Trump is a lucky man. The Georgia case is in trouble because the District Attorney there is mired in scandal for having an inappropriate relationship with her lead prosecutor.

So New York comes first and might be the only case to be completed this side of the November election.

We don't even know if, in the event of a guilty verdict, the prosecution is seeking jail time (not that being behind bars — which is unlikely — would necessarily stop Trump from running for the White House).

Nor do we know the attitude of the Secret Service, a federal agency pledged to protect presidents past and present, if New York law enforcement should try to jail him.

Uncharted territory indeed, though that is always the case with Trump. Dozy Don may be his new moniker but nobody will be falling asleep when this case really gets under way.