Trump knows he’s lost this case and that this judge isn’t going to let him off easy. His only recourse is to attempt to illegitimize his prosecution with his MAGA base and provoke a bar fight with Engoron which might potentially lead to a mistrial or even an appellate court reversal. In classic Carl Sandburg fashion, Trump is pounding the table and yelling like hell. He’s taking swings at anything to piss off the judge. He knows that Engoron is protective of his law secretary so she’s a target for his bullying too.

Towards this end he’s also engaged his disposable attorneys, as could be seen yesterday in Alina Habba’s well-rehearsed, self-righteous outburst on the courthouse stairs.

1. The judge’s full quote was “I’m not here to hear what he has to say. He’s here to answer questions.” Her idiot client was filibustering, not answering questions.
2. Good luck on your “getting paid as an attorney” with this deadbeat.
3. Unlike your client, Ms. James actually won her election to NY Attorney General, and quite handily.
4. One also has the right to hire bad lawyers who overlook rather important questions on the trial menu like “Do you want a jury trial?” which lead to trial-shortening motions like summary judgements which found your client liable.
   
5. What you will and won’t tolerate is immaterial. It’s his courtroom, sweetie. He makes the rules; you follow them. They didn’t teach you that in law school either?
6. This trial is about Mr. Trump, the sleazy con man who’s been cheating banks and the government since long before he won the electoral college. Maybe she doesn’t comprehend the timeline of the charges here?
7. Hope she’s got some spare cash in her tip jar because I suspect she’ll be paying for her own violation of the gag order.

Habba is a great example of Trump Lite:  all the Trump entitlement without the Trump genes.

But I think it’s less a contrived strategy than it is that Trump is pissing his pants that, probably for the first time in his life, there’s an authority figure placing boundaries around his willfully nasty behavior

Trump knows that all of these trials nail him dead to rights and with little coherent defense to offer so his intent is to illegitimize the prosecution… to politicize law enforcement and the judicial system as public enemies, to play the wounded victim and even a martyr to some nebulous cause, to rally the rubes to his side.

That’s what dangerous narcissists and pseudo-populists do. It seems to be working too. As H.L. Mencken famously said, “No one has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.” We call those rubes “Republicans”.

Trump did himself no favors today. Neither did his two male spawn in recent days. Ivanka’s testimony later this week will be interesting. Unlike DJTJ and Butthead, Ivanka seems to want to publicly disassociate herself from the foulness of Trump World so she can return to the happiness of her pre-2016 Hollywood years. She could go either way on the stand but more likely she’ll just play dumb and passive-aggressive.