‘Frazzled’ Trump looks to be ‘fraying a bit at the edges’ after days in court: expert
Reacting to an angry rant delivered by Donald Trump when he showed up for court on Friday morning, CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig noted the former president looked "frazzled," which could be a clue to prosecutors that they are getting to him after only three days in court.
Speaking with host Kate Bolduan after the former president had already been admitted into the courtroom, where he will tried on 34 felony counts in the Stormy Daniels hush money trial, Honig noted that Trump seemed agitated as he addressed the press and listed off a series of grievances.
"Elie, from just watching how Donald Trump was in speaking to reporters before he went in, he was — he was definitely at least projecting that he was angry and frustrated, if he wasn't actually angry and frustrated," CNN's Bolduan prompted her colleague. "If you're a prosecutor and you're watching him act the way he did this morning, what do you think? Do you already think you are winning?"
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"So he definitely looked frazzled," the legal analyst replied and then added, "I think that's a good word we can use for this."
"If he's frazzled now, just wait until week three because I think what Donald Trump is learning is that it is enormously stressful to be on trial," he continued. "I've never even had, of course, the experience of being the defendant, I've just done it as a lawyer."
"It's incredibly stressful," he elaborated. "It's long days, it's excruciating. It can be boring. We saw him nodding off during jury selection and it will get to him.
"And I think, if I'm the prosecutor — I'm not so into the head games in the psychology of it all — but I do think I would see someone who's perhaps fraying a bit at the edges and, who knows, that may lead to poor strategic decisions by Donald Trump or other behavior that could be self-destructive."
CNN 04 19 2024 09 33 00 youtu.be
Trump Media scrambles to stop short sellers from tanking share prices
Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, is scrambling to stop short sellers from tanking its share values.
NBC News reports that Trump Media this week sent around suggestions to shareholders to prevent their shares in the company from winding up in the hands of short sellers who are essentially betting on the company's failure to make money.
According to NBC, the "tips include holding DJT shares in a cash account at a brokerage firm as opposed to a margin account, 'opting out of any securities lending program,' moving Trump Media shares to the company’s designated transfer agent, and transferring shares to a bank and 'holding them in your retirement account.'"
Short sellers essentially pay brokerage firms fees to borrow shares on a temporary basis on the belief that the shares will sink in price.
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After borrowing the shares, the short sellers proceed to sell them on the open market and then by them back by a specific date when they have to be returned to their owners.
If the share price in that time has indeed gone down, then the short sellers pocket the difference they made between the original sale and the repurchase.
If the share price increases, however, the short sellers lose money because they'll be buying back the shares at a higher price than the original sale.
Short sellers have swarmed to Trump Media shares for weeks now, as its price has plummeted from a high of $66.22 on March 27th to a low of $22.84 on Tuesday, although its price has recovered some of that lost value in the last day-and-a-half of trading.
The longer-term threat to Trump Media's value likely isn't short sellers, however, but simply a lack of profitability. The selloff in shares started earlier this month when the company released an earnings report showing that it lost $58 million in the last fiscal year while generating just $4 million in revenues.
‘Coming for them’: Ex-prosecutor says Trump is promoting ‘fake allegations about jurors’
Donald Trump is already sharing "fake allegations about jurors" in his criminal hush money case, a former federal prosecutor said on Wednesday.
Trump made history this week when he became the first former president to face criminal trial after jury selection began in the case accusing the ex-president of falsifying business records to hide an affair from the public ahead of the election. Before the fog has even settled on the jury selection, the former president is now coming directly for those jurors, according to MSNBC legal analyst Joyce Vance.
For his part, Trump quoted Fox News host Jess Watters.
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"'They are catching undercover Liberal Activists lying to the Judge in order to get on the Trump Jury,' Jesse Watters," Trump wrote on his own social media network, Truth Social, Wednesday. He didn't add further context.
But Vance thought that was inappropriate behavior coming from a criminal defendant.
"Trump is now 're-truthing' fake allegations about jurors," she wrote on Wednesday. "A fully jury isn't even sworn in and he's already coming for them."
Democrat Harry Sisson called it "jury intimidation."
"This is absolutely jury intimidation," he said. "This is against the rules of the court and Donald Trump should be held accountable for it. No more playing games."
