--- title: Paul Manafort Indictment: Donald Trump's Moves Won't Work description: Donald Trump has a handful of go-to moves when facing political trouble, but they're not going to help him much now. canonical: https://time.com/5002254/paul-manafort-indictment-donald-trump-politics/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-30T15:51:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T18:02:33.174Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump's Go-To Moves Won't Help With the Manafort Indictment og:description: The legal system plays by different rules. og:url: https://time.com/5002254/paul-manafort-indictment-donald-trump-politics/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt721d3363f8f86352/6988e3bc8fd2ee23823596cc/gettyimages-826020114.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Veterans Affairs Announces New Technology To Provide Medical Care To Veterans og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump's Go-To Moves Won't Help With the Manafort Indictment twitter:description: The legal system plays by different rules. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt721d3363f8f86352/6988e3bc8fd2ee23823596cc/gettyimages-826020114.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump's Go-To Moves When Facing Trouble Won't Help With the Manafort Indictment > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Oct 30, 2017 3:51 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald J. Trump listens during a Department of Veterans Affairs announcement of a new program using video and software technology to provide medical care to veterans at The White House August 3, 2017 in Washington, DC. U.S. President Donald J. Trump listens during a Department of Veterans Affairs announcement of a new program using video and software technology to provide medical care to veterans at The White House August 3, 2017 in Washington, DC. Photo by Chris Kleponis-Pool—Getty by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Oct 30, 2017 3:51 PM UTC President Trump has a handful of go-to moves when facing political trouble, but they’re not going to help him much as his former campaign chairman and an associate [face federal charges](http://time.com/5002070/paul-manafort-charged-donald-trump-robert-mueller/). On Monday, former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort was indicted on charges of [funneling more than $18 million through overseas shell companies,](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/us/politics/paul-manafort-indicted.html?%5Fr=0) while his longtime associate, Rick Gates, was indicted on charges of transferring more than $3 million from offshore accounts. Trump has already broken out some tactics he’s used successfully in the past: ## Changed the subject to Hillary Clinton On Sunday, Trump [tweeted](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/924635359480303616) that the investigation should focus on the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee’s [roles in funding opposition research](http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/24/politics/fusion-gps-clinton-campaign/index.html) on Trump that ended up in the FBI’s hands and leaked after the election as [an infamous dossier](http://time.com/4996741/what-is-the-trump-dossier/). > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/925005659569041409) This is a well-worn tactic known as [“whataboutism,”](http://time.com/4941771/donald-trump-whataboutism-rhetoric/) which Trump has long used. When faced with allegations of sexual harassment and assault during the campaign, he brought forward women who had accused Bill Clinton in the past. But courts don’t care about someone else. They care about the person sitting at the defendant’s table. As the cases against Manafort and Gates churn on, Trump won’t be able to change the subject. ## Hoped conservative media would avoid the topic On Monday, Trump tweeted out praise for “Fox and Friends,” a morning show on Fox News that he’s praised in the past. As many people pointed out, the show had a big segment on an [emoji cheeseburger](https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/30/16569346/burgergate-emoji-google-apple). (To be fair, “Fox and Friends” [covered the indictments](http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/fox-and-friends/index.html), but not with the same kind of wall-to-wall coverage as other cable channels.) > [](https://twitter.com/robferdman/status/924973311435657221) Trump has long relied on conservative media. A Pew Research survey released in January found that 40% of Trump voters said they relied on Fox News for election coverage, while just 8% said they tuned into CNN, the second most-cited source. But again, courts don’t care. In fact, the U.S. legal system has a long history of trying to avoid media bias from affecting proceedings, from sequestering jury members away from broadcast news to barring participants from commenting to the media during a trial. ## Complained that he’s being unfairly targeted On Monday, Trump also argued that Democrats were [ginning up a controversy](http://time.com/5002314/paul-manafort-trump-twitter/) over possible campaign collusion with Russia as part of a “terrible (and bad for our country) Witch Hunt for evil politics.” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/924639422066384896) This is a move that Trump has relied on in the past, even down to using the term [“witch hunt.”](http://time.com/4784040/donald-trump-special-counsel-twitter/) In May, he [argued at a Coast Guard graduation](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/5/17/15654526/trump-politician-history-treatment) that “no politician in history — and I say this with great surety — has been treated worse or more unfairly.” He’s also [frequently argued](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/10/25/trump-says-the-media-unfairly-portrays-him-as-uncivil-which-hes-not-because-he-went-to-an-ivy-league-college/?utm%5Fterm=.0e353807e909) that the press treats him unfairly. Again, courts aren’t here for that. Judges and juries determine whether the facts they are presented prove the case that the prosecutor has made beyond a reasonable doubt. Defense attorneys sometimes use unfairness as a counterargument, but Trump’s tweeting isn’t going to change what takes place in the courtroom. ## In short, facts matter now more than spin As the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller moves into its next phase, Trump will have less ability to set the narrative. The 31-page indictments of Mueller and Gates have already laid out a number of facts about their finances, their contacts with Russia and their work on the campaign. The guilty plea of former Trump campaign adviser George Papadapoulos [contains even more facts](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-campaign-adviser-george-papadopoulos-pleads-guilty-lying-n815596) that will dog Trump and his team. In the world of cable news appearances, Twitter and the White House press briefings, spin is the chief currency. But Trump is about to learn that politics plays out differently in the courtroom. That doesn’t mean he has no options. He can still [use pardons](http://time.com/4868108/donald-trump-pardon-himself/) or even [try to fire Mueller](https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/08/03/could-trump-fire-mueller-its-complicated-215453) to influence the investigation, but there are risks to any of those actions. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5002254/paul-manafort-indictment-donald-trump-politics/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5002254/paul-manafort-indictment-donald-trump-politics/"},"headline":"President Trump's Go-To Moves When Facing Trouble Won't Help With the Manafort Indictment","datePublished":"2017-10-30T15:51:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T18:02:33.174Z","description":"Donald Trump has a handful of go-to moves when facing political trouble, but they're not going to help him much now.","url":"https://time.com/5002254/paul-manafort-indictment-donald-trump-politics/","keywords":["Donald Trump","russia","White House","FBI","Paul Manafort","Robert Mueller"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt721d3363f8f86352/6988e3bc8fd2ee23823596cc/gettyimages-826020114.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt721d3363f8f86352/6988e3bc8fd2ee23823596cc/gettyimages-826020114.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Veterans Affairs Announces New Technology To Provide Medical Care To Veterans","caption":"Veterans Affairs Announces New Technology To Provide Medical Care To Veterans","creditText":"Photo by Chris Kleponis-Pool—Getty","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5002254/paul-manafort-indictment-donald-trump-politics/","name":"President Trump's Go-To Moves When Facing Trouble Won't Help With the Manafort Indictment"}}]}] ```