The defeat at the Supreme Court was a rare reversal for Trump’s strategy of seeking to delay his criminal cases with multiple appeals – which he used in his federal cases to buy time until he could use his executive authority to thwart them. Of course, for this to work he had to live up to his end of the bargain and win the election.

Trump's twice-delayed sentencing was indeed imposed Friday, where Merchan followed through with his sentence of unconditional discharge. This places a "guilty judgment on Trump's record, but would not impose custody, a fine or probation," Reuters said. Being a felon is "designation Trump had hoped to avoid," The Washington Post said.