Every time I look for new photos of Donald Trump during his Manhattan fraud trial, I’m inevitably shocked by the state of him. He’s gained weight, he’s more jowly, his eyes seem even more glazed over and whoever is doing his makeup these days despises him. Monday was Trump’s big debut on the witness stand and his makeup artist didn’t even extend the deep sienna bronzer to his hairline. Yikes. As for Trump’s testimony, this part of the case isn’t even about guilt or innocence or liability anymore. Trump was already found liable of fraudulent business practices by Judge Engoron, so this is “penalties” phase of the trial. Meaning, how much Trump will be fined for his extremely illegal and deeply fraudulent business practices and whether he’ll even be able to do any kind of business in New York again.

Donald Trump opened his high-stakes testimony Monday by pissing off the judge overseeing his civil fraud trial. “Just answer the question,” Justice Arthur Engoron scolded the former president, as he attempted to paint the case against as being brought by politically motivated “Trump haters.”

“No speeches,” Engoron said, later urging Trump’s legal team to “control your client.” “This is not a political rally.”

Even before he headed to the Manhattan courtroom Monday, Trump took a minute to fire off a characteristically unhinged social media missive attacking the case—and the judge he sat next to when he took the witness box. “Got a really Biased, Nasty, Club controlled, but often overturned, Judge, a Racist, Evil, and Corrupt Attorney general, BUT A CASE THAT, ACCORDING TO ALMOST ALL LEGAL SCHOLARS, HAS ZERO MERIT,” Trump wrote, referring to Engoron and New York Attorney General Tish James. “WITCH HUNT!”

While Trump was expected answer questions about his business practices Monday—and possibly to try to shift blame to his adult sons, who have already taken the stand—he has unsurprisingly employed the same old verbal assaults over the course of his testimony, given his notorious lack of impulse control and the political benefits he’s tried to squeeze out of the spectacle. “This is a very unfair trial,” Trump said on the stand. “I hope the public is watching.”

[From Vanity Fair]

I watched some of MSNBC’s coverage and the reporter who was stationed inside the courtroom (there’s no live TV feed, but the trial is open to the media) said that in her opinion, the judge didn’t interrupt Trump enough and that if Trump had been any other defendant, his pitiful and hateful act on the stand would have landed him in contempt of court. That being said, there’s a theory going around that the prosecution likes that Trump can’t shut up because he continues to incriminate himself whenever he opens his mouth.

Also: when the New York AG’s office attorney asked Trump if he gave certain statements in 2021, Trump claimed “I was so busy in the White House with China, Russia, and keeping the country…” He was interrupted and told that he was not president in 2021.

Meanwhile, according to a new NYT/Siena poll, Trump is leading Biden in key battleground states, one year before the presidential election. This is the same newspaper which makes every Biden achievement sound like a tragedy and that negative energy has spread out across the national media. They ALL want Trump back because they’d rather report on chaos, crime, insurrection and stupidity than competent, low-drama governance.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.