Ever since The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump got underway on April 15 in Lower Manhattan, you just knew that at some point this first-ever criminal trial of an American ex-president—which started out as a sober legal proceeding but grew increasingly lurid with each passing day—would be overrun by the operatic, often squalid brand of political performance art that has been a hallmark of the Trump era. So I watched and waited and waited and watched until this past Thursday afternoon, when, et voila, the sign we’d arrived at that fateful juncture suddenly appeared: a squadron of pink, penis-shaped balloons festooned with the faces of Trump’s legal foes (Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg, Special Counsel Jack Smith, etcetera) swirling above the courthouse.