The national audience for this trial — a recent Gallup poll found that 75% of Americans are dissatisfied with the state of the country — couldn't be more restless and divided. Trump has often alluded to violence and hate speech, and his rallies are a mix of militant fervor and sacred intonations. His base, mainly white, working-class and feeling neglected and forgotten by Washington, views him as a victim of a witch hunt. Democrats see him as a threat to civil liberties and immigration — a danger to the Constitution.

Left and right are disillusioned, angry and skeptical over whether the trial's verdict will produce either justice or clarity at a time when mistrust of government is high and disinformation is insidious.

"As far as the effect of this on the American soul, that has already been felt in deep kinds of ways," said Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University.

"There is a very discouraging sense that all of this stuff is further putting another shovelful of cynicism on the grave of the American experiment," Thompson continued. "People on both sides of this argument have the idea that the old notions of justice prevailing and that in the end the truth will come out" will not be met.

Over the last year, Trump, with an entourage of SUVs and lawyers, has grown accustomed to courtrooms and to judges, some of whom he has ridiculed. In February, he was ordered to pay about $450 million in a New York civil fraud case for inflating his wealth on financial documents. In January, a jury ordered him to pay $83.3 million to E. Jean Carroll for defaming her after she accused him of raping her decades earlier. Trump has met the judgments with scowls, anger and astonishment, even as he has turned courthouses into campaign stops.

"This gives President Trump a global platform," Stephen K. Bannon, Trump's chief strategist in 2016 who was later convicted of contempt of Congress, said in a recent podcast. "One of the reasons President Trump is back and leading is because half of his campaign is these court appearances."

Fox's Sean Hannity, who has amplified the former president's victimhood scenario, said Trump is being persecuted by a Biden administration that wants to "use our system of justice as a political weapon."

The trial is expected to last weeks and promises testimony on finances, sex and celebrity. A judge has ruled that Cohen and Daniels — a documentary film about her has just been released — can testify. The backdrop will be New York City, where Trump, the scion of a real estate developer and a favorite of the tabloids, rose to prominence.

The proceedings, including the prospect that a pole dancer will defy a legion of election deniers and protests will erupt, will probably further entrench Trump's supporters and opponents. But it is not known what effect the trial might have on ambivalent and undecided voters.

"A great quote from a Leonard Cohen song says there is a 'crack in everything / That's how the light gets in,'" said Robert Greenwald, founder of Brave New Films, a nonprofit that produces social justice documentaries. "Will this moment let the light in to see the true colors of one of the candidates? It has the possibility of getting to voters who don't follow the twists and turns of politics, people who might say, 'This is not moral, this is not right.'"

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