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MANHATTAN CRIMINAL COURT — Donald Trump's judge launched into Friday's hearing by fact-checking the former president's claim that a gag order was stopping him from taking the stand in his own defense.

Trump had made the complaints in front of TV cameras as he left the courtroom after proceedings closed in his hush money trial Thursday.

"I'm not allowed to testify because of the unconstitutional gag order," he said. "We're appealing the gag order and let's see what happens."

Trump was fined $9,000 earlier this week for violating the order, which forbids him from talking about potential witnesses, jurors, court staff or their families in the case, which has hit him with 34 charges of falsifying business records involving payments to adult movie actress Stormy Daniels to cover up a sexual relationship she allegedly had with him before the 2106 election.

Judge Juan Merchan started Friday's hearing by talking directly to Trump — and putting him right.

"There may be a misunderstanding how it impacts Trump's right to testify," the judge said. "I want to say the Mr. Trump, you have an absolute right to testify. The order restricting extrajudicial statements does not restrict you from testifying in any way. As the name of the order indicates, it only applies to extrajudicial statements."

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Trump has said he intends to take the stand in his own defense in the trial, though several experts have suggested that may not be wise.

The former president began the day in court smiling as he whispered to his lawyers, but he turned on a scowl when the cameras showed up before proceedings started.

Concurrent with Donald Trump's hush money trial finishing up its second week of prosecution testimony, the former president's emails to his supporters are becoming increasingly over-the-top and shrill, leading to speculation he is not only having donation problems but also the pressures of his legal problems are getting to him.

As noted by Salon's Chauncey DeVega who has been reporting on the former president's diminishing mental state and possible psychological problems, there is a growing vibe of panic in Trump's emails as evidenced by a recent one that blared: "All hell breaks loose in 24 hours!" and another declaring he is being held "hostage."

According to DeVega's report, the strident tone in the emails begging for donations are demonstrating an increasing spiral in victimhood as he sits day after day in a Manhattan courtroom while facing the possibility of jail time if convicted on just one of the 34 felony counts he is charged with related to paying hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

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"With the beginning of Trump’s first criminal trial in New York, his emails have only become more extreme – and will only continue to – as the 2024 election and potentially three other criminal trials are closing in on him," he wrote before pointing to the recent Trump email that stated: "Friend, in 24 hours, the hearing on my GAG ORDER will begin. I COULD BE THROWN IN JAIL AT THAT VERY MOMENT! This is what the Hate-America Deep State has always dreamed of. STAND WITH TRUMP I won’t be able to campaign. I will be muzzled and silent. And Democrats will have free rein to destroy our country."

That led DeVega to argued that, "Of course, Donald Trump is lying. There is no substantive evidence to support his fabulist conspiratorial delusions-fantasies of persecution and other harm. The corrupt ex-president is in no way a victim, except perhaps of his own apparent sociopathy if not outright psychopathy, and other parts of his obviously diseased mind."

Add to that, he wrote that there is a sense that the former president is struggling to raise money to fund both his multitude of legal teams fending off criminal indictments as well as his presidential campaign.

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To make that point, he cited a recent Washington Post report that relayed, "In the years after Donald Trump lost the presidency to Joe Biden, Trump sent so many emails and text messages asking for money that Republican consultants warned his mailing lists could become useless. The former president’s friends told him that they were being asked for too much, too often, and Trump himself ordered aides at one point to slow the solicitations. Some of his fans, pockets emptied, mailed handwritten letters apologizing for not being able to give more. Now, as Trump and Biden prepare for a rematch, Trump’s vaunted small-dollar fundraising operation is not bringing in as much money as it once did."

"They will need to find a way to trigger more fear, pain, discomfort, terror, and other negative emotions among the MAGA people and other prospective Trump donors and voters. Those negative emotions will be the motivation for giving a literal form of protection money to Donald Trump and the MAGA leadership," the Salon columnist suggested.

You can read more here.