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.

In the first test of how receptive the court may be to Trump, 4 of the court's 6 conservative members said they would have granted his emergency request.

The high court’s action clears the way for the president-elect to be sentenced for his criminal conviction in Manhattan on Friday.