Gag Orders May Be Scariest Thing In Trump's World
He's capable of exercising self-control, most of the time. He just doesn't like to.
It’s Thursday morning and Donald Trump is back in criminal court to face charges for his actions in covering up an affair.
Single-sentence review of current circumstances: Trump is accused of having a adult film star paid to keep an affair quiet for campaign purposes; failing to report the payment as a campaign contribution as legally required; then falsifying business records to cover it up.
Trump started Thursday morning, even before making it to the courtroom, with complaints on his social media about the gag order existing. Since the first order of business for the day was to test whether he’d violated it an additional 4 times (after being hit with $1k fines each for the first 9 violations) it’s no surprise it would be on his mind.
(Side note: trial seems to have improved Trump’s sleep schedule. Even with all the days off this week, his last post Wednesday night was before midnight and the first of the morning was at 7am. Those 2am covfefes are a much rarer occurrence these days.)
Trump’s first post of the morning went straight to attacking the judge, and ended with a demand to “remove the unconstitutional gag order.”
In a follow-up post he decried the “radical left revolution taking place in our country,” demonstrating clearly that when Trumpers say he’s living rent-free in our heads, they’re actually describing him apparently living through an experience the rest of us can only dream of.
He had good reason to worry, too. Last time around, Judge Juan Merchan only hit him with monetary fines, but the order warned:
“Defendant is hereby warned that the Court will not tolerate continued willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceratory punishment.”
Now, bear in mind, that order was issued after the alleged violations being examined today took place. That means Trump has to be wondering if Judge Merchan will apply his threat of “incarceratory punishment” only to violations after the order, or to any he still has to hear.
That means Trump headed to court Thursday morning with the possibility of cell bars floating in his head.
As described by Inner City Press in live tweets, though, the hearing was brief, with Merchan reaffirming Trump’s right to address certain matters, including political issues, and to speak about the District Attorney. However, he reminded the defendant he’s not allowed to speak about witnesses — and, as he did in the last contempt hearing, Merchan ended the hearing without a ruling.
That ruling could come later today, or it could be held off for days or weeks, or even to the end of the trial. For the moment, though, it’s hanging over Trump’s head, warning the criminal defendant that he’s running out of chances.