WASHINGTON—Former President Donald Trump has breathed new life into a push by media companies to televise his federal trial on election-subversion charges, but the odds of cameras being in the courtroom remain slim.

On Friday, Trump’s lawyers urged U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to allow broadcasting of the trial, scheduled to begin in March, saying that the “prosecution wishes to continue this travesty in darkness” and that “President Trump calls for sunlight.”