LASHING OUT: Trump threatens judge in demented rally speech

LASHING OUT: Trump threatens judge in demented rally speech

At a rally Sunday night, Donald Trump seemed determined to make sure the name of the judge in his business fraud case was cemented in the mind of every fan.

Trump repeated Judge Arthur Engoron’s name several times, while assuring the gathered audience that the judge was biased and unfair and should not be presiding over his case. It’s not the first time he’s attacked Engoron publicly, either.

Trump is unhappy with a recent ruling appointing a monitor to prevent him from relocating funds in the middle of a lawsuit for allegedly falsifying property values for gain. Engoron is also the judge who held him in contempt and fined him over his attempts to dodge the same investigation.

The former president, rambling semi-coherently, declared that the judge hates him and “actually ran a newspaper” about his hatred of Trump. It’s not clear what that meant, but Trump went on to call the judge a “lunatic,” accuse him of property confiscation and tell his fans to keep his name in mind.

From the speech:

A radical left lunatic judge named Engoron. This is a lunatic. This is a guy that hates Trump so much he actually ran a newspaper about Trump, how much he hates, and he’s allowed to make a decision on me? Engoron. Study the name, watch the name. He’s a lunatic. Started a process of property confiscation…

By “property confiscation,” Trump seems to be referring to the court’s oversight of his finances, after he tried to start a new company named Trump Organization II, in the midst of his financial fraud case. The judge isn’t the only person the business mogul resents for trying to hold him accountable for his own actions — he’s also filed a lawsuit against New York Attorney General Letitia James for the investigation, as she waited for a ruling on that oversight.

Trump has been pointing his fans at Engoron throughout the case, previously posting on Truth Social to declare him a “radical left lunatic,” and accuse him of bias. While he never goes so far as to suggest his followers should do anything more than monitor the judge, MAGA has taken his rhetoric as a call to action before, and his political attacks must be taken very seriously.

You can see his latest attack on Engoron below, or the full rally at CSPAN here.

Stephanie Bazzle

Steph Bazzle is a news writer who covers politics and theocracy, always aiming for a world free from extremism and authoritarianism. Follow Steph on Twitter @imjustasteph. Sign up for all of her stories to be delivered to your inbox here: