Donald Trump eats steak alone in Trump Towers as legal woes wrangle on
Donald Trump has been chomping down on some steak at his Trump Tower while his legal woes continue to rage on.
As he faces gag orders and an ongoing fraud trial in Manhattan, insiders close to Trump are claiming that he is “unfazed and happy," taking a rest bite in his towers. But his actions in court and legal woes suggest this might be a far-fetched claim.
Trump stormed out of the courtroom while in the middle of a witness testimony amid his $250 million New York fraud trial, in which he is accused of obscuring reimbursement for his ‘fixer’ Michael Cohen for a $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels regarding their alleged affair. Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron put Trump on the witness stand.
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When Trump said there was “a person who is very partisan” sitting “alongside” the judge, Engoron fined him $10,000 for violating a gag order - while Trump denied he was talking about the court clerk. As Trump faces off with Michael Cohen, who is the prosecution’s key witness in the New York case, a number of former attorneys have also turned on him regarding his Georgia election interference case.
Teachers, civil servants and train drivers walk out in biggest strike in decadeBut according to Trump’s pal, he is “acting like nothing’s wrong” and “projecting strength and seems on top of the world, not nervous or anxious," New York Post Page Six reported. His good mood must be restricted to private circles, as he continues his public verbal rampages on his social media platform Truth Social - against anyone providing the slightest whiff of opposition to his claims.
The disgraced former President was accused of “threatening” key witness Mark Meadows in the election interference case, after reports emerged that Meadows had told prosecutors that he repeatedly said to Trump the allegations of major voting fraud were not credible. Trump responded, describing those who claimed the election was rigged as “weaklings and cowards, and so bad for the future of our Failing Nation."
Meadows allegedly was granted a form of immunity which means he won’t face federal prosecution when he gave his evidence to a grand jury in March - before Trump’s indictments. Trump wrote on Truth Social that he didn’t think Meadows would “lie about the Rigged and Stolen” election “merely for getting IMMUNITY” but that “some people would make that deal."
Special counsel Jack Smith and his team filed against Trump, requesting that he be given a gag order to prevent him using “external influences to distort the trial in his favour." While U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan recently gave Trump a limited gag order, it was lifted after his legal team appealed to a higher court.
Trump’s team has argued that a gag order violates his First Amendment rights. But Smith’s team responded in their filing that the provisions of the First Amendment do not “grant free reign” when “balanced against the bedrock values of a fair trial unaffected by external influence."
Trump’s sour online mood - whether he really is a happy chappy in private circles or not - does not seem to be having a major effect on public opinion polls. New Yorkers still only give President Biden a 9-point margin on Trump, according to a new poll. The former President is also looking strong in a number of key battlegrounds.
According to a Democrat-commissioned poll, Trump leads Biden among voters in three battleground states who dislike both of them. The “double-haters” prefer Trump by a narrow 51% to 49% margin in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, NBC News reported. This demographic is most likely to be men with college degrees who previously identified as Republicans.