Piers Morgan urges Trump to risk arrest and skip trial to attend son’s graduation

Piers Morgan has accused Americans of “losing their minds” over the treatment of Donald Trump at his New York hush money trial.

“Have you lost your minds, America? What a demeaning way to treat a former president,” Mr Morgan said during an appearance on Fox News.

“Secondly, if you’re on the left, why would you think this would possibly work? Why would you not think that what you’re doing here is going to almost guarantee Donald Trump wins the next election?”

Mr Trump is the first former US president to face a criminal trial and appeared at a Manhattan courthouse on Monday to witness jury selection.

Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg accuses him of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in October 2016 to stay silent about an affair she alleges she had with the politician in 2006.

Mr Trump denies the affair and has pleaded not guilty to the 34 felony charges he faces.

Day one of the trial saw Judge Juan Merchan decline to recuse himself and rule on what evidence would be admissible as 50 potential jurors were dismissed after they admitted they could not rely on themselves to remain fair and impartial in a case concerning Mr Trump.

For all that, it was the defendant himself who made the headlines after denouncing the case as “an assault on America” and complaining that it would cause him to miss his son Barron Trump’s high school graduation, despite Judge Merchan not actually ruling that out and instead remaining non-commital, saying he would address the question nearer the time.

Worse for Mr Trump, his campaign was later forced to deny claims by reporters that he had fallen asleep in court, inviting a deluge of ridicule on social media.

Joining Fox News’s The Five with panellists Jeanine Pirro, Greg Gutfeld, Jesse Watters and Dana Perino, Mr Morgan denounced the trial as “utterly ridiculous” and “the most petty, self-harming acts of political suicide I’ve ever witnessed” on the part of the prosecution, a baseless accusation of political bias against Mr Bragg and his team.

Suggesting the trial would only serve to increase sympathy for Mr Trump among the electorate, Mr Morgan advised Trump to ignore Judge Merchan’s warning that he must attend court every day or potentially face arrest and attend his son’s graduation from Oxbridge Academy in Palm Beach, Florida, later this month.

“Donald Trump should go to his son’s graduation,” he said.

“Honestly, if you’re watching President Trump, just go to the graduation. Every parent in America, whether they like you or hate you, will go, ‘Yeah, I’d have done that, too’.”

The British former tabloid newspaper editor now hosts Piers Morgan: Uncensored on YouTube but has conducted several fawning interviews with Mr Trump in the past, gifting him an Arsenal football shirt on one occasion and a replica of Sir Winston Churchill’s trademark Homburg hat on another.

Mr Watters appeared to agree with Mr Morgan’s contention about the graduation, commenting: “If this judge says he can’t attend Barron’s high school graduation, [Mr Trump] wins in a landslide.

“He’ll win California if that happens.”