NEW YORK (AP) — It seems “selfish and egotistical,” one woman said.

His way of behaving in public “leaves a lot to be desired,” said another.

His “negative and biased rhetoric,” another man said, is the “most damaging.”

During last week, donald trump has been forced to sit inside a frigid New York courtroom and listen to a parade of potential jurors in his hush money criminal trial share their unvarnished assessments of him.

It has been a dramatic change for the former president and presumptive Republican nominee, who is accustomed to spending his days in a cocoon of cheering crowds and constant adulation. Now criminally charged, Trump will spend the next few weeks subject to strict rules that strip him of control over everything from what he is allowed to say to the temperature of the room.

“He is the object of ridicule. It’s his nightmare. He can’t control the script. He can’t control the cinematography. He can’t control what is said about him. And the result could go in a direction he doesn’t really want,” said Tim O’Brien, a Trump biographer and critic.

While Trump occasionally clashes with protesters, he generally lives a life sheltered from criticism. After leaving the White House, Trump moved to his Mar-a-Lago beach club in Palm Beach, Florida, where he is surrounded by paid, caring staff and dues-paying members who have shelled out tens of thousands of dollars to be nearby. of the.

Many days, Trump heads to his nearby golf course, where he is “surrounded by people who want to shake his hand, take pictures and tell him how amazing he is,” said Stephanie Grisham, a longtime aide who broke up with Trump after the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

When he returns to Mar-a-Lago in the afternoon, members eating lunch on the patio often stand and applaud. He gets the same standing ovation at dinner, which often ends with Trump DJing on his iPad, playing favorite songs like James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.”

Grisham, who spent long periods traveling with Trump and at Mar-a-Lago during his 2016 campaign and as White House press secretary, described staff constantly acting as cheerleaders and telling Trump what he wanted to hear. To avoid angry outbursts, they requested caravan routes that avoided the protests and left a pile of positive press clips each morning on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.

Now, Trump faces a trial that could result in felony convictions and possible prison time. And he will have to listen to more criticism, without being able to respond verbally, something he loves to do.

Among the witnesses expected at the trial are his former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, and the porn actor who alleged she had sex with him, Stormy Daniels. Both have fiercely attacked him in interviews and books, as well as on social media.

Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Trump demonstrated during his first week in court that he “will remain defiant in the face of this unprecedented political war” and said: “It is clear that the support of the American people will only grow as “As they watch Joe Biden, Alvin Bragg and the Democrats organize this fake show trial six months before the election.”

New Yorkers who said they could not approach the case fairly were excused during jury selection. But one of the women who judges him harshest will be among those who will determine her fate on 34 counts of falsifying business records.

“I don’t like his personality, how he presents himself in public,” said the woman, who has lived in Upper Manhattan for the past 15 years. The woman said she disagreed with some of Trump’s policies, which she called “outrageous.”

“He just seems very egotistical and egotistical, so I don’t really appreciate that in any public servant,” she said, adding that while she doesn’t “know him as a person,” how he “portrays himself in public.” , it just seems like it’s not my cup of tea.”

Trump’s legal team disagreed with her answers, but they were out of challenges by the time she was under consideration.

Judge Juan Manuel Merchán has hidden the names of the potential jurors for security reasons.

On Friday, a potential juror who said she attended the 2017 Women’s March protesting Trump’s inauguration complained about the influence she has on her base.

“I think their rhetoric sometimes allows people to feel like they have permission to discriminate or act on their negative impulses,” he said, citing people he has heard make homophobic or racist comments. Still, she said she did not have strong feelings toward the former president and was unsure of his current political positions.

Another man said he had grown up admiring the former president and business magnate’s real estate portfolio and even thinking he might one day live in Trump Tower. But he had come to oppose Trump’s “negative rhetoric and prejudice against the people he talks about.”

At other times, attorneys read aloud social media posts from potential jurors mocking Trump and celebrating his defeats.

One potential juror, an older white woman, was kicked off the jury by the judge after Trump’s legal team discovered years-old social media posts that described Trump as a “racist and sexist” narcissist.

One of Trump’s lawyers called the posts “scathing.”

“She has a deep hatred for him,” said attorney Susan Necheles. She “said that she ‘wouldn’t believe Donald Trump if his tongue was notarized’” and that he was “anathema” to everything she had been taught about love.

When confronted with the posts inside the courtroom, the juror said she understood why they would worry the defense, but that her views had evolved. “Electoral politics can get pretty spicy and Mr. Trump can get pretty spicy,” she said.

Merchan, the judge, also dismissed a man who in 2017 had shared a Facebook post celebrating the defeat of one of Trump’s policies in court. “Take him out and lock him up!” reads in part.

Court rules require Trump to be present throughout the trial. He can’t storm out of the courtroom like he did during a recent defamation trial. A gag order also prohibits him from attacking any of the jurors, including on his Truth Social platform.

Merchan already reprimanded him for saying something out loud and making gestures while a juror answered questions.

“I will not tolerate any juror being intimidated in this courtroom,” said Merchan, who previously warned Trump that he could be sent to prison for disruptive behavior in court.

Trump’s assessments in court weren’t all bad, however, with a perhaps surprising number of potential jurors saying they didn’t have strong opinions about one of the best-known and most divisive men on the planet.

In fact, the process appeared to reveal more supporters than might be expected in a district where President Joe Biden won 87% of the vote in 2020.

One prospective juror who spoke of Trump in glowing terms Thursday said he was “impressed” with Trump’s career as a successful businessman.

“I mean he was our president, pretty amazing. He is a businessman in New York. He has forged his path, you know, he made a kind of history in terms of where he started and where he has arrived,” said the man, who said he viewed his own history in a similar way.

On Tuesday, another man regretted not being able to combine the trial with his work.

“Your Honor, as much as I would love to serve for New York and one of our great presidents, I couldn’t leave my job for more than six weeks,” he said.

Many said they had read his book “The Art of the Deal.”

Even the woman who criticized his personality and ended up on the jury recognized his appeal to voters.

“Sometimes his behavior in public leaves a lot to be desired. At the same time, I can relate to sometimes not having any filter,” she said. “I see him talking to a lot of people in the United States. “I think there is something to be said for that.”

___ Associated Press writers Michael R. Sisak, Jennifer Peltz and Jake Offenhartz contributed to this report.