Keep televising Trump

It's not enough to read about Trump's behavior in court. We need to see it for ourselves.

Donald Trump and his disciples often whine about “two-tier justice” being waged against him, and they have a point.

That is, anyone else who acted like this while on the witness stand would likely be held in contempt or asked to leave the courtroom:

Donald Trump's day in court was never going to go any other way.

On the stand for a landmark fraud trial, he approached his testimony just as he had his real estate business and political career: ignoring the rules and technicalities, and blustering and bragging his way through it.

His aggressive and freewheeling appearance on Monday offered a glimpse at how he may behave as a defendant in the four upcoming criminal cases against him.

The former president repeatedly angered Judge Arthur Engoron by refusing to directly answer the questions put to him by the attorney general's office.

Yes-or-no questions about accounting documents and dates became extended riffs on the incredible values of his properties, or the partisan leanings of the judge and prosecutors.

At one point, Mr Trump declared: "This is a very unfair trial...and I hope the public is watching."

While cameras were not allowed inside, dozens of reporters gathered in the courtroom to transmit his testimony to the outside world.

[…]

Midway through his morning testimony, Mr Trump dared to take a swipe directly at the judge.

"I'm sure the judge will rule against me because he always rules against me," Mr Trump said.

"You can attack me, you can do whatever you want," Judge Ergonon said. "But answer the question."

While the former (and, gulp, possibly future) President was thoroughly making a fool of himself on the stand, he was also admitting to key elements of the fraud allegations against him, notes Chris Clizza:

Donald Trump accidentally told the truth in court

Asked about the massive exaggerations of his wealth in financial statements, Trump said this: “We have a disclaimer clause that says do your own due diligence, don’t under any circumstances count on anything in here.”

At another point, Trump pointed to his “very, very powerful” disclaimers to absolve himself of any guilt for inflating his wealth and assets.

Which, pretty amazing, right?

What Trump is telling us is that anyone who believed what he said he was worth on his financial statements — literally a statement of his finances — is a rube. That, of course, he was lying — and that the disclaimer made all of that clear.

Which seems bad in the context of a trial about filing false financial statements that you knew were false!

Here’s a live look in at Trump’s legal team:

---

And here’s a live look in at Joe Biden’s campaign staff, following the release of polling data showing Trump leading in several key battleground states:

Nick “stop calling me Allahpundit” Cattogio recently wondered if Americans have kind of forgotten just how batshit insane Donald Trump is, and the degree to which he has psychologically deteriorated since having the 2020 election blatantly stolen from him leaving office:

“I wonder if some of the problem is that most Republican primary voters don’t actually hear Trump enough,” one staffer said in Slack, referring to the former president’s enormous polling lead. “I believe this,” another responded. “Most people have no idea [about] the stuff he actually says.” A third agreed: “That is absolutely true. Fox doesn’t cover it, so they don’t know it.”