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Donald Trump hasn't listened to anyone telling him to sit down since he was sent to boarding school, but that streak ended with Judge Juan Merchan the other day, according to a man who was in the room at the time that it happened.

During an appearance on MSNBC, columnist and longtime Washington insider Jonathan Alter set the scene for what happened when Merchan instructed Trump to have a seat. It has been reported that Trump was "fuming" after being made to sit like a dog would.

The host asked Alter how the event might affect Trump's "psyche."

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"In the final minutes of the trial on Friday as Donald Trump was standing to leave the courtroom, the judge firmly told Donald Trump, 'Sir, can you please have a seat?' That moment has come to represent the stripping of control from a man who used to be the most powerful person in the United States, some could argue in the world. How could you -- how does this impact Donald Trump's psyche?" she asked Alter.

"Well, first of all, I was in the courtroom when it happened and it was a stunning, dramatic moment," he said. "You know, you have a former president of the United States who since the time he was a little boy never listen to anything -- anyone about anything. He was sent to military academy for being disobedient. Ever since, he has never sat down when someone told him to. In this case, he had to. He sat down meekly, like the obedient little boy he never was, and it was quite striking and I think it symbolizes that he is not the most powerful person in that courtroom."

"That honor," accord to Alter, "belongs to his honor, Judge Juan Merchan, who the country is becoming increasingly familiar with."

"And he is going to make Donald Trump face the music."

Watch the video below or click the link.

Eagle-eyed New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman once again caught former President Donald Trump dozing off during a hearing related to his hush-money trial in New York on Friday.

In an update posted to the New York Times' live blog of the proceedings, Haberman wrote that "Trump appears to have fallen asleep in court again," and then added that "it happened several times just now" as "his eyes were closed for extended periods and his head dropped down twice."

Haberman also had some observations about Trump's appearance as he entered court on Friday.

"His hair is uncharacteristically messy," she wrote. "Like the wind hit it on the way into court."

Multiple reporters this week have observed Trump nodding off during his criminal trial for allegedly falsifying business records related to his 2016 hush-money payments of adult film star Stormy Daniels.

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Trump's sleeping through an event that could end with him becoming a convicted felon has led to widespread ridicule on the internet all week, as Twitter hashtags such as "#SleepyDon" and "#DonSnoreleone" have trended at various times.

Although Trump appears to be subdued inside the courtroom, his behavior is markedly different outside of it, where he has gone on extended tirades against Judge Juan Merchan, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and even trial witnesses such as former "fixer" Michael Cohen and adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Trump's trial related to hush-money payments is far from the only legal trouble he faces, and many legal experts have called the other charges that have been leveled against him — including allegedly trying to defraud the United States with a scheme to illegally stay in power and allegedly obstructing government efforts to retrieve top-secret government documents from his Mar-a-Lago resort — as significantly more serious.

Details never before made public are expected to be admissible in Donald Trump's latest New York trial — and onlookers are expecting them to be revealing.

New York Times investigative reporter Sue Craig said she was "struck" by the "new information" revealed in Monday's opening statements, which includes a series of text messages from National Enquirer reporters involved in investigating the stories of adult movie actress Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claimed to have had affairs with Trump.

One of the text messages, Craig said, read: "What have we done?"

Trump's latest trial kicked off in earnest Monday as each side delivered their opening speeches over Trump's 34-count felony indictment over the hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

"We've heard about text messages that went back and forth with the National Enquirer when they went out to see Karen McDougal, one of the women who had a relationship with Donald Trump," Craig said.

"They were trying to confirm if the story was true."

Craig noted that one of the lawyers representing McDougal was involved in election night texting with somebody at the tabloid, which was previously unknown.

Read Also: A criminologist explains why Trump’s Manhattan trial is the biggest threat to his freedom

"We'll see a lot of that come through. And David Pecker was not on the stand for very long, but just hearing the details that we got, the idea that ... reporters were given about $10,000 to get that story," recalled Craig.

"And I wasn't clear if that included payment to somebody or expenses and payment, but anything above that, he would have to sign off on it. What that told me was the payments that went to Karen McDougal, that went to Stormy Daniels, were unusual. They were high."

She referenced a Trump doorman who was paid $30,000 to stay quiet about a possible Trump love child. McDougal was given $150,000, while Daniels was given $130,000.

During the second half of the show, Lawfare's Anna Bower agreed with the assessment that there was new information that dropped and there will likely be even more. There is some conversation about what will ultimately be admissible out of that information that is new.

"We heard a lot about phone records the prosecution intends to introduce," Bower said. "So, I think that we certainly will see new evidence. But the question is — there were these questions about whether it would be admissible for hearsay reasons."

See the video below or at the link here.

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