Donald Trump screws up, makes damaging admission on witness stand

| 4:28 pm EST November 6, 2023
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When Donald Trump took the stand today in his New York civil fraud trial, he appeared to be under the confused impression that he could just BS his way through it, and that doing so would get him off the hook. But if he listened to real legal advice he’d understand that non-answers are a good way for a defendant to lose a civil trial badly. Moreover, Trump is so cognitively incompetent that he blew his own misguided strategy.

While Trump was busy showing off for the nonexistent cameras, the prosecutor baited Trump into admitting that his financial statements and personal guarantees were for the specific purpose of goading banks into lending him money. This may sound like a technicality, but it is in fact the key to the New York AG’s case. In other words, Trump just really blew it.

Legal expert Andrew Weissmann thought it was such a pivotal moment, he tweeted about it in all caps. Legal expert Joyce Vance said that Trump’s admission will hurt his ability to mount an appeal. This is the stuff that courtroom wins and losses are made of.

What Donald Trump failed to understand was that his job on the stand today was to very carefully try to avoid acknowledging these kinds of damning things. While he was busy mouthing off and acting like a toddler, the prosecutor managed to get Trump to confess to the key point in the state’s case, which is that Trump intentionally misled people into lending him money. Trump just sank his own ship.