South Dakota
The jury now will decide Trump’s fate in hush money trial, after lengthy closing arguments • South Dakota Searchlight
WASHINGTON — Closing arguments in the first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president concluded Tuesday, leaving the jury to now decide if Donald Trump is guilty of faking reimbursement to his personal lawyer for hush money paid to a porn star just before the 2016 presidential election.
Just outside the Lower Manhattan courthouse during summations, the campaign to reelect President Joe Biden held a press conference featuring actor Robert DeNiro and two former U.S. Capitol Police officers who were overwhelmed by the angry mob of Trump supporters who stormed the building on Jan. 6, 2021.
DeNiro bickered with a heckler and the Trump campaign then followed with its own press conference.
The trial’s final day of arguments wrapped up after nearly eight hours of closing arguments, during which the defense portrayed Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen as the “M.V.P. of liars” and Trump as a victim of extortion and too busy a leader in 2017 to understand the payments to Cohen.
Meanwhile, the prosecution walked jurors through excruciating details of events and witness testimony to show that Trump’s objective, along with those in his orbit, was to “hoodwink the American voter” leading up to the 2016 election, according to reporters at the courthouse.
New York does not allow recording in the courtroom but provides public transcripts of the proceedings. States Newsroom covered the trial in person on May 20.
Trump, the presumed 2024 Republican presidential nominee, is charged with 34 felonies, one for each of the 11 invoices, 11 checks, and 12 ledger entries that New York state prosecutors allege were cooked-up as routine “legal expenses,” hiding what were really reimbursements to Cohen for paying off adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
Trump denies any wrongdoing
Daniels, also an adult film director, testified in early May to a 2006 sexual encounter at a Lake Tahoe golf tournament with Trump, which he maintains never happened.
Cohen, the prosecution’s key witness, later told the jurors that he wired Daniels $130,000 to secure her signature on a nondisclosure agreement in late October 2016, and that Trump was aware.
Trump declines witness stand as testimony in his first trial concludes
Cohen’s payment swiftly followed the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape, in which Trump was recorded telling a TV host that his fame allows him to grab women by the genitals.
The revelation spun Trump’s campaign into a frenzy over possibly losing women voters, additional witnesses testified.
Further, Cohen testified that Trump was present during conversations to hatch a plan with the Trump Organization’s longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, to repay Cohen under the guise of “legal expenses.” Cohen would eventually receive a grossed-up sum of $420,000 to account for a bonus and taxes.
The hush money trial, which began in mid-April, is likely the only one to occur prior to the November election. Three other criminal cases against the former president, two federal and one in Georgia, remain stalled.
Throughout the six-week trial, jurors heard from nearly two dozen witnesses called by the prosecution to establish Trump’s history of working to suppress negative stories.
David Pecker, former National Enquirer publisher, testified to coordinating with Trump and Cohen earlier in 2016 to pay off former Playboy model Karen McDougal and bury her story of an alleged affair with Trump.
The G.L.O.A.T.
In his closing statements, Trump attorney Todd Blanche addressed the jury for nearly three hours, arguing that Trump made no such effort to influence the 2016 election by “unlawful means.”
Blanche told the jurors to put the idea of a conspiracy aside, emphasizing that the existence of a nondisclosure agreement is “not a crime.” Working with editors to buy sources’ silence and bury stories was routine, Blanche said.
“Every campaign in this country is a conspiracy,” he told the jurors, according to reporters at the courthouse.
While no hard contract existed between Trump and Cohen at the time, Blanche argued that the two had entered into an “oral” retainer agreement, and that Cohen was lying about how much work he was actually doing for Trump.
By the time Trump reached the Oval Office and personally signed nine of the 11 checks for Cohen, the then-president was too busy “running the country” to realize what he was signing, Blanche said.
As for the classification of the payments on the ledger, Blanche argued that the Trump Organization’s software featured limited dropdown menu categories, and that “legal expenses” was one of the options.
Blanche’s closing statements were largely dominated by his effort to persuade jurors that Cohen’s testimony could not be trusted.
“There is no way that you can find that President Trump knew about this payment at the time it was made without believing the words of Michael Cohen — period,” Blanche told the jurors, according to reporters in the courtroom.
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 for lying to Congress.
Using another sports metaphor, Blanche told jurors that Cohen is the “G.L.O.A.T.”
“He’s literally the greatest liar of all time,” Blanche said.
He closed by urging the jurors to not send Trump “to prison” based on Cohen’s testimony.
Justice Juan Merchan admonished Blanche for mentioning prison, pointing out that a guilty verdict does not necessarily mean prison time. Merchan told the jurors to disregard that “improper” comment, according to reporters at the courthouse.
‘The only one who’s paid the price’
For just under five hours, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass led jurors through his closing argument, clocking the longest day of the trial.
Steinglass started off by telling them the prosecution only needs to prove the following: There were false business records used as part of the conspiracy and that Trump knew about them.
Steinglass reviewed earlier evidence presented to the jury — phone records, handwritten notes, recorded phone conversations and checks bearing Trump’s own signature. He also recalled the damning testimony of several Trump allies, including Pecker, the publisher.
“The conspiracy to unlawfully influence the 2016 election — you don’t need Michael Cohen to prove that one bit,” Steinglass said, according to reporters at the courthouse.
Steinglass leaned into Cohen’s seedy past, including his lying to Congress and his jail time for campaign finance violations related to hush money payments to women who alleged extramarital affairs with Trump.
These actions, he said, were taken on Trump’s behalf to defend and shield him; the irony, Steinglass said, is now they are being used against Cohen, again, to protect Trump.
Cohen transformed from a loyal Trump ally into a bitter foe who has published books titled “Disloyal” and “Revenge,” and produces a podcast called “Mea Culpa” on which he regularly lambastes Trump.
Cohen is “understandably angry that to date, he’s the only one who’s paid the price for his role in this conspiracy,” Blanche told the jurors, according to reporters, who noted Trump was shaking his head.
Steinglass attempted to humanize Cohen for the jurors, telling them one can “hardly blame” the former fixer — who now has a criminal record and no law license — for selling merchandise including t-shirts depicting Trump in an orange prison jumpsuit.
Steinglass also refuted the defense’s argument that Trump’s actions ahead of the 2016 were routine, describing the National Enquirer as “a covert arm” of the Trump campaign and “the very antithesis of a normal legitimate press function.”
“Everything Mr. Trump and his cohorts did in this case was cloaked in lies,” Steinglass said nearing the end of his closing statement. “The name of the game was concealment, and all roads lead to the man who benefited the most, Donald Trump.”
Biden deploys DeNiro
On the sidewalk just outside the New York County Supreme Court, the Biden campaign deployed DeNiro, the voice of the latest campaign ad, and former U.S. Capitol Police officers Harry Dunn and Michael Fanone. The officers are campaigning for Biden in battleground states, the campaign said in a press release.
The campaign’s Michael Tyler, communications director, introduced the trio and said they were not in Manhattan because of the trial proceedings, but rather because that’s where the media is concentrated.
Prosecution rests in Trump hush money trial, after former fixer Cohen is grilled
Loud protesters, whom DeNiro called “crazy,” competed with the speakers.
“Donald Trump has created this,” DeNiro said, pointing to the demonstrators. “He wants to sow total chaos, which he’s succeeding in some areas … I love this city, and I don’t want to destroy it. Donald Trump wants to destroy, not only this city, but the country, and eventually he could destroy the world.”
“These guys are the true heroes,” De Niro said, pointing to Dunn and Fanone behind him. “They stood and put their lives on the line for these low lives, for Trump.”
A protester then interrupted DeNiro to call the officers “traitors.”
“I don’t even know how to deal with you, my friend,” DeNiro snapped back during the livestreamed event.
Both Dunn and Fanone testified two years ago before lawmakers investigating the violent mob that overran the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as Congress gathered for a joint session to certify Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory. Trump still falsely claims he won the election.
Trump’s campaign immediately followed with its own press conference.
Jason Miller, senior adviser to Trump, held up Tuesday’s copy of the New York Post bearing the headline “Nothing to Bragg About,” a play on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s name.
“Everybody knows this case is complete garbage,” Miller said. “President Trump did nothing wrong. This is all politics.”
On Trump’s social media platform Truth Social, the former president posted “BORING!” in all capital letters during a break in the Steinglass summation.
Late Monday, Trump posted in all caps a complaint about the order in which closing arguments would occur — a routine, well-established series of remarks in trials.
“WHY IS THE CORRUPT GOVERNMENT ALLOWED TO MAKE THE FINAL ARGUMENT IN THE CASE AGAINST ME? WHY CAN’T THE DEFENSE GO LAST? BIG ADVANTAGE, VERY UNFAIR. WITCH HUNT!” he wrote.
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South Dakota is separated from Central Europe by about 4,000 miles. On the outside, it seems the two have little to nothing in common, but longstanding partnerships known as “sister cities” have forged a deep bond between the Mount Rushmore State and the country of Germany.
It makes sense as approximately 34% of South Dakotans identify with German heritage. But these connections go far beyond just family trees.
From the Black Hills to the banks of the Big Sioux River, here are the four South Dakota communities that have found their ‘twins’ across the Atlantic Ocean.
Credit: Canva
Sioux Falls, South Dakota – Sister City: Potsdam, Germany
Credit: Canva
Sioux Falls and Potsdam have been ‘Sister Cities’ since 1990. That year stands out as it was just one year prior when the Berlin Wall fell, uniting East and West Germany after nearly 45 years of being apart. Potsdam is located in the former East Germany and has a similar population to that of Sioux Falls, at around 184,000 residents. It’s famous for its Sanssouci Palace and for being the spot of the legendary ‘Potsdam Conference’ of 1945, in which the allied powers of the United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union decided on Post-WW2 order.
Other sister cities include Rapid City and Apolda, Germany. This partnership began in 1994 and contrasts the ‘City of Bells’ (Apolda) with the ‘City of Presidents’ (Rapid City). Both towns have a great respect for public art and historic landmarks.
There are also the sister cities of Vermillion and Ratingen. Established in 1969, this is by far the oldest partnership of all the cities on the list. The two have traded students in an exchange program for decades and have also shown their friendship in other ways. In Ratingen, the Vermillionring and the South Dakota Bridge were built to honor the partnership. In Vermillion, Ratingen Square was inaugurated back in 2010.
Finally, much like Sioux Falls and Potsdam, the cities of Brookings and Schwanewede began their partnership back in 1990. The two have one big thing in common, too, as they’re both college towns. It has since become a very active exchange, particularly focusing on student programs and cultural visits that highlight their shared agricultural and university-town identities.
Even more surprising, Potsdam isn’t Sioux Falls only sister city. The other is found in Northern Ireland, and you can read all about it in this article.
10 Smallest Towns in South Dakota
Some ghost towns in the United States used to be popular hotspots along Route 66, the “Mother Road” that extended thousands of miles from Illinois to California. Others, like the once-thriving prairie town of Okaton, South Dakota, were established along historic railroads. Now largely abandoned, the eerie ghost town makes an interesting detour on the way to one of America’s best road trip destinations, Badlands National Park.
Located in south-central South Dakota, about a 45-minute drive east of the national park, Okaton was founded in the early 1900s on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad. According to Legends of America, the town was thriving in the years immediately after it was built, home to a farming community as well as a number of railroad workers. However, most of those workers didn’t stick around as the railroad expanded westward, and the town grew quieter. The remaining residents were primarily farmers and homesteaders — and many of them ultimately left, too, in search of employment during the Great Depression. Decades later, in the 1980s, the train tracks fell out of use, and few people stayed there.
Around the same time, one enterprising couple from Illinois, the Westlakes, tried to turn Okaton into a tourist attraction. Signs on the I-90 highway nearby advertised “Westlake’s Ghost Town,” bringing in visitors to enjoy a stroll around the abandoned prairie town (and newly installed features, including a petting zoo and a rock shop). Their venture was moderately successful, but after the owners passed away, their tourist site became a thing of the past. Just like Vinton, Ohio, another abandoned railroad community, Okaton is a ghost town that visitors can still explore today.
Discover the eerie ghost town of Okaton
To get to Okaton, take Exit 183 off I-90, west of Murdo. In the abandoned prairie town, there are a handful of original streets with some buildings still standing. These include several dilapidated houses and shacks, a wooden grain elevator, a general store with gas pumps, and a crumbling old school. Also on view are Okaton’s deteriorated railroad tracks, and out on the fields, visitors can spot rusty farm equipment once used by the region’s cattle ranchers and grain farmers.
Atlas Obscura writes that the ghost town is “a very creepy place to visit, even in the middle of the day, but amazingly photogenic.” Many past visitors echoed the same sentiment, mentioning that it’s a great spot for photographs. As one traveler commented on Instagram, the once-thriving town “felt exactly how I imagined — quiet, worn down, and slowly being reclaimed by time.”
Keep in mind that the ghost town may still have a few residents, even if you don’t see anyone around. The place is no longer a managed tourist attraction — Okaton’s ramshackle buildings are privately owned, and visitors should not attempt to go inside. Luckily, past visitors say that you can take great photos of the crumbling buildings without even getting out of your car. If you love discovering abandoned towns, find out more about visiting Rhyolite, one of the best-preserved and most photographed ghost towns in the country.
LYONS, S.D. (South Dakota News Watch) – Farmer Jeff Thompson had waited months for soybean prices to rebound, and he was getting a little antsy.
Like many of the roughly 18,000 other crop farmers in South Dakota, Thompson is storing corn and soybeans in giant grain bins on his farm because he can’t sell at a profitable price due to a variety of unfavorable market conditions.
After several months of waiting – and suddenly seeking an infusion of cash – Thompson made the decision in mid-March to sell off about 15,000 bushels of beans he had been storing since the fall 2025 harvest.
But the day he hoped to sell, a single social media post by President Donald Trump caused the soybean price to fall by 70 cents a bushel, a decline that would have caused Thompson to lose more than $10,000 on the sale.
Trump’s post indicated he would delay scheduled trade talks with President Xi Jinping of China, the world’s largest importer of soybeans and a country in which the U.S. is embroiled in a trade standoff that has hurt American soybean producers.
Thompson held onto his soybeans, and the wait for better prices began anew.
“The whole geopolitical thing keeps you awake at night and you don’t know what’s going to happen next,” Thompson, 64, said on a recent day at his farm in Lyons, an unincorporated hamlet located about 25 miles northwest of Sioux Falls. “Farming is risky enough on its own, fighting Mother Nature and all that, so I’m hoping things will settle down.”
A trifecta of terrible economic headwinds
The Trump tariffs and resulting trade wars that have devastated foreign export markets over the past year are not the only unsettling reality for South Dakota grain producers, who grew 1.1 billion bushels of corn and 238 million bushels of soybeans with a combined value of $6.4 billion in 2025, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The new U.S. war with Iran has led to the closure of a key global shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz, dramatically driving up prices for fuel and fertilizers. Farmers were already reeling from ongoing inflation that has raised prices for “inputs” required to grow crops, including seeds, water and electricity, rent or loan payments for land, and machinery and parts.
The trade war with China has led the Asian nation to forgo most orders for American soybeans and turn instead to South American producers. Prior to the trade war, about 30% of the soybeans grown annually in South Dakota were exported to China.
All that financial pain has been piled on top of stagnant low prices that have hurt revenues even as South Dakota grain farmers have produced record crops of corn and soybeans over the past couple years.
“The most difficult thing of all is that we’ve had three to four years of depressed prices,” Thompson said. “You can handle one low price year decently. But when they begin to piggy back on each other, it gets tough.”
Seeking new markets and uses
Since Trump took office and imposed tariffs on goods from other countries, cattle ranchers and other livestock producers have benefited from high sale prices and strong markets for their goods, as previously reported by News Watch.
But almost all other farmers in South Dakota and across the country are feeling the financial pain and emotional stress of an unfavorable global market for agricultural goods, said Scott VanderWal, president of the South Dakota Farm Bureau Federation who also serves as vice president of the American Farm Bureau Federation.
“By nature, farmers are pretty optimistic, but economically it’s pretty tough right now,” said VanderWal, a grain farmer from Volga. “The market right now is at a loss position and we’re about to plant the most expensive crop in history.”
National agricultural leaders are urging President Trump to find new international and domestic markets for agricultural products, VanderWal said. An ongoing hope is that Congress will approve year-round use of E-15, the gasoline that contains more ethanol and could boost corn prices and markets.
Jerry Schmitz, executive director of the South Dakota Soybean Association, was one of a dozen South Dakota officials and agricultural leaders who spent eight days in March on a trade mission to expand export opportunities in Japan and South Korea.
Schmitz said those two Asian countries — relatively small buyers of South Dakota corn and soybeans compared to China — were welcoming and eager to maintain or expand imports of American grains and goods.
The majority of South Dakota grains sold as exports are used as hog and poultry feed while a smaller percentage is used for human consumption, he said.
But even the most optimistic agricultural experts and producers are concerned the worst is not over yet for American farmers, Schmitz said.
“Things have been difficult, and possibly this could continue for another year or two,” he said. “Farmers are pretty flexible, but when bad news happens three to five years in a row, and with all the things happening in the world, it gets concerning.”
Fewer profitable farms possible this year
While it may be hard for South Dakota farmers to believe, the Rushmore State has fared better than most of the nation during the recent agricultural economic downturn, said Nate Franzen, president of agricultural lending at First Dakota National Bank in Yankton.
In 2025, the state had only one farm bankruptcy that Franzen was aware of, and about 80% of grain producers made a profit, a higher rate of performance than the 65% he predicted.
Franzen, who has worked in farm lending for three decades, said the best year for farm profitability in South Dakota over the past 20 years was in 2012, when the ethanol market was raging and about 93% of state farmers made money.
In 2025, record yields by producers and a high level of diversification on individual farms put South Dakota in a good position. But 2026 may be more challenging, he said.
“Looking forward, it is troubling,” Franzen said. “We’ve been experiencing inflation on the expense side for the last few years. And this Iran war is not helping because fertilizer is spiking and fuel is spiking.”
Financial and emotional stress the norm
Meanwhile, many farm families are enduring stressful kitchen-table meetings about money and the future of their operations, VanderWal said.
The challenging economic conditions are hardest on young farmers without strong equity or savings, those who recently took over from retiring parents or those who are heavily leveraged with loans for land or equipment.
“We are hearing more stories of bankruptcies increasing, and we’re hearing more incidents of farmer suicides again,” he said. “Farmers and ranchers are very proud people and it’s hard for them to ask for help, so we’re encouraging people to pay attention to family members and neighbors and get help for them if they need it.”
Schmitz said most South Dakota grain farmers are sticking to their planting plans for 2026 even amid great market uncertainty.
He said some farmers may plant more cover crops instead of corn and soybeans to build soil health, and a few may diversify their operations with cattle, hogs or poultry to create new revenue streams and generate manure as a source of low-cost fertilizer. Others may take on new jobs off the farm or expand the hours they spend working outside of agriculture.
Impacts felt beyond South Dakota farms
From a broader perspective, the weakening farm economy is hurting not only farmers but also the communities where they live, VanderWal said.
“Agriculture is what drives the economy of this state and very much so in the small communities,” he said. “These issues could really come home to bite the small communities of South Dakota.”
Ultimately, continued income challenges for American producers could lead to farm consolidation and greater corporate ownership, which could threaten not only American family farms but also the nation’s ability to feed itself, VanderWal said.
“Food security is national security, and if we have to rely on other countries for our food supply, that’s a real problem,” he said.
Thompson, the Minnehaha County grain farmer, said he is hopeful that new trade deals brokered by President Trump will hold up and remain favorable over the long term. He has applied for some of a recent $12 billion farm bailout approved by the president, though he considers that stop-gap program only a “small Band-Aid.”
Thompson hopes that when he retires in a few years, the agricultural economy will be strong enough for someone local to buy his roughly 800 acres and continue to use it for farming.
But he’s no longer sure that will happen.
“We love what we do and look forward to passing things down that we’ve built up over the years,” he said. “There’s a lot of younger guys who love to farm, but it just doesn’t pay.”
South Dakota News Watch is an independent nonprofit. Read, donate and subscribe for free at sdnewswatch.org. Contact content director Bart Pfankuch: 605-937-9398/bart.pfankuch@sdnewswatch.org.
Copyright 2026 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved.
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