Father of the Bride (2022)

New York Judge Juan Merchan slapped former President Donald Trump with a $9,000 contempt of court fine on Tuesday for repeatedly violating the gag order in his Manhattan hush money trial to publicly attack witnesses and jurors — and warned him that a stay on Rikers Island could be in his future if he continues on his current path.

This led some commenters on social media to praise the judge — but many others urged him to stop showing so much restraint on Trump, who has already been fined multiple times for similar violations in his civil trials.

"BREAKING: Judge Merchan fines Trump for violating gag order 9 times," wrote political influencer Ed Krassenstein on X. "Trump has officially been held in contempt of court. But I'm sure that MAGA will claim that it's because the judge is biased and because Trump is being politically targeted, right? When will Republicans ever just say, 'Trump made a mistake?'"

"The $9,000 Trump has to pay for violating his gag order is good but isn’t going to stop him," wrote political podcaster "JoJoFromJerz." "I don’t see how he makes it through this trial without spending some time in the pokey."

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MSNBC political analyst Tim O'Brien had a sober assessment. "Trump will see Justice Merchan’s $9,000 fine for violating the gag order as a reasonable cost for the ability to continue attacking the judge, court and rule of law," he wrote. "It won’t stop him."

"If any of us violated a gag order so many times, we would be in custody," wrote legal expert and commentator John Collins.

Georgia State University constitutional law professor Anthony Michael Kreis thinks this is an ominous sign for the former president.

"Judge Merchan makes plain by holding Donald Trump in contempt that the New York gag order is a blanket one covering any statements about witnesses, jurors, (or potential jurors earlier in the process)," he wrote.

"He has little room to run to the media: a danger zone for undisciplined Trump."

Former President Donald Trump spent his day off from his ongoing criminal trial by floating a conspiracy theory about pro-Palestinian protests taking place on campuses across the country.

Students have been protesting Israel's war in Gaza in demonstrations that have led to police crackdowns and mass arrests, but the former president claimed Tuesday night on Fox News that "paid agitators" were spurring the movement, and the following morning he suggested the Biden administration might be involved.

“Do you think that the Radical Left Lunatics that are causing all of the CHAOS at our Colleges and Universities are doing so in order to take the FOCUS away from our Southern Border, where millions of people, many from prisons and mental institutions, are pouring into our Country?” Trump posted Wednesday morning on Truth Social. “Just askin’…???”

The protesters have expressed their anger at President Joe Biden for siding with Israel and refusing to pressure its government into negotiating an end to the war, and the president has warned the demonstrators not to engage in antisemitic "hate speech" and to remain "peaceful and lawful."

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“Forcibly taking over buildings is not peaceful, it is wrong, and hate speech and hate symbols have no place in America," Biden said.

Trump has characterized the campus protests as worse than the deadly 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, saying that event that claimed the life of civil rights activist Heather Heyer was "like a peanut" compared to the recent demonstrations in support of Palestinians.

The former president will use his scheduled day off from his hush money trial in Manhattan to campaign for re-election in Michigan and Wisconsin, and he took a potshot against Biden before apparently logging off his social media website.

“Where’s SLEEPY JOE?" posted Trump, who has repeatedly dozed off during his trial. "He’s SLEEPING, that’s where!!!”