Iphone 12 mini frozen on home screen with unresponsive "Trust this computer?"

Rehabilitated a macbookair a1466 2013 to use temporarily on a trip. finished the upgrades and then attached my iphone12 mini and it flashed over and over the "Trust this computer?" alert.

Checked to see if it was in any app, and disconnected the phone. It stopped flashing the alert.

Updated the software the macbook asked to install to connect the phone and then after that...

I connected the phone.

Same thing happened.

But the alert didn't go away this time after disconnecting. And when I restarted first the macbook and then attempted to the iphone, the iphone froze on the lock screen.

Tried using several fixes using buttons to restart but no joy there.

Now the alert is upper most and blocks the power off button.

Help.