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Judge Smacks Down Trump in Scathing Memo: Show Up for Trial or Don’t, but Don’t Try to Blame Anything on the Court

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Senior U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan appears to be losing patience with Donald Trump and the attorney defending the ex-president in a defamation rape case brought by journalist E. Jean Carroll.

Trump, through his lawyer Joe Tacopina, was supposed to inform the judge by Thursday whether or not he would be showing up at trial, which begins next week. Trump is not being called as a witness by Carroll’s attorneys, nor is he legally required to appear or attend.

But Judge Kaplan needs to know if Trump will show, for reasons including security arrangements for the ex-president.

Tacopina appears to have tried to essentially get an excused absence note from Judge Kaplan, so he could blame his anticipated non-appearance on the Court rather than on the ex-president, but Kaplan wasn’t having it.

READ MORE: ‘Crisis of Public Confidence’: Chief Justice Invited to Testify Over ‘Decade-Long Failure’ to Fix Ethics – GOP Warns Against It

“Mr. Trump’s lead counsel expresses Mr. Trump’s alleged desire to testify at trial but seeks an order from the Court excusing his presence unless either party calls him as a witness and, in the event he does not testify, instructing the jury that his ‘absence . .. by design, avoids the logistical burdens that his presence, as the former president, would cause the courthouse and New York City,'” Judge Kaplan writes in a scathing memorandum (below).

“First, the Court neither excuses nor declines to excuse Mr. Trump from attending the trial or from testifying in this case,” Kaplan makes clear.

“Mr. Trump is under no legal obligation to be present or to testify. The plaintiff [Carroll] has made clear that she does not intend to call him as a witness. The decision whether to attend or to testify is his alone to make. There is nothing for the Court to excuse.”

“Second, the Court notes but does not accept Mr. Trump’s counsel’s claims concerning alleged burdens on the courthouse or the City were Mr. Trump to attend or testify,” Kaplan adds, making clear Trump cannot get away with claiming he did not attend or testify as a courtesy to the Court.

And Kaplan reiterates his confidence in all the entities that exist to ensure the ex-president’s safety and security.

READ MORE: ‘Chumbawumba of New York Lawyers’: Trump’s Attorney Allegedly Again Trying to Bypass Judge’s Anonymous Juror Ruling

“Mr. Trump is entitled by law to the protection of the United States Secret Service, which he now has enjoyed as a former president for more than two years. He has a right to testify in this case. As it would do for any person with business before the Court, the Court will do everything within its power to enable Mr. Trump to exercise that right. Moreover, it is entirely confident that the United States Marshals Service and the City of New York will do their parts in securing that right to Mr. Trump, just as they repeatedly have done in other cases involving security concerns.”

Judge Kaplan then makes clear he’s very aware of Trump’s schedule, writing, “the Court notes from Mr. Trump’s campaign web site and media reports that he announced earlier this week that he will speak at a campaign event in New Hampshire on April 27, 2023, the third day of the scheduled trial in this case.”

“If the Secret Service can protect him at that event, certainly the Secret Service, the Marshals Service, and the City of New
York can see to his security in this very secure federal courthouse.”

Kaplan also points out that  Trump has had months to decide – and points out his recent federal indictment.

“Mr. Trump has been on notice of the April 25 trial date in this case since on or about February 7, 2023,” he writes. “There has been quite ample time within which to make whatever logistical arrangements should be made for his attendance, and certainly quite a bit more time than the five or six days between his recent indictment on state criminal charges and his arraignment on that indictment approximately one block from the location of the trial of this case.”

“The question of the requested jury instruction is premature. Mr. Trump is free to attend, to testify, or both. He is free also to do none of those things. Should he elect not to appear or testify, his counsel may renew the request.”

Kaplan also issues a warning: “there shall be no reference by counsel for Mr. Trump in the presence of the jury panel or the trial jury to Mr. Trump’s alleged desire to testify or to the burdens that any absence on his part allegedly might spare, or might have spared, the Court or the City of New York.”

MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin points to Tacopina’s Thursday afternoon response to Judge Kaplan.

“While Trump was ordered to tell Judge Kaplan today whether he intends to attend part or all of the Carroll trial,” she writes, “he won’t give the judge a straight answer. (And if you’re not a lawyer, let me translate: That’s not going to go over well. At all.)”

Read Judge Kaplan’s memo below or at this link.

Image via Shutterstock

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Trump Slammed for ‘Bragging’ He Kicked Millions Off Food Stamps

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February 24, 2026

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President Donald Trump was blasted during his State of the Union address after he declared that he has “lifted 2.4 million Americans — a record — off of food stamps.”

Critics noted that in his 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Trump cut billions of dollars from food stamps, also known as SNAP, and put in regulations making it harder for recipients to stay on the program.

“Trump didn’t ‘lift’ anyone off food stamps—he kicked them off,” wrote U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA). “He’s forcing millions to go hungry. She also noted that SNAP is “not charity, it’s an investment.”

“Interesting way to say he kicked people off of SNAP,” said Democratic Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois.

Senate Budget Committee Democrats also slammed the president’s remarks.

“Republicans *cut* food funding for 3 MILLION hungry Americans making it harder for struggling families to put food on the table. All to fund more tax breaks for billionaires,” they wrote.

“Trump cut millions of people’s food assistance and is bragging about it,” said U.S. Rep. Gabe Amo (D-RI).

The progressive social media account The Tennessee Holler added, “He spelled ‘kicked’ wrong.”

Image via Reuters

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Trump Confronted With Sign Saying ‘Black People Aren’t Apes’ at State of the Union

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February 24, 2026

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President Donald Trump was confronted with a sign held by a Democratic congressman that read, “Black People Aren’t Apes,” as he entered the chamber and began to deliver his State of the Union address.

U.S. Rep. Al Green (D-TX) held up the sign before House Majority Leader Steve Scalise tried to remove it from him. Minutes later, as the president was speaking, Green was reportedly removed from the chamber.

The sign apparently referred to video President Trump posted to his Truth Social account that included a meme of former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama depicted as apes. The video received widespread bipartisan condemnation before Trump removed it. He refused to apologize for it.

 

 

 

 

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GOP Infighting Threatens to Derail Party’s 2026 Agenda

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3 hours ago

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February 24, 2026

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Republicans in Congress are so divided they may not be able to pass legislation to further President Donald Trump‘s and the Republican Party’s agenda — namely, a budget reconciliation bill that builds on Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

GOP lawmakers are attempting to stuff a legislative package with a wide variety of goals, including health care reform, tax cuts for the working class, voting legislation, and methods to reduce the deficit.

According to The Hill, “none of those legislative goals has the same support across the Senate and House GOP conferences that tax reform and major defense and homeland security spending initiatives had last year.”

A massive budget reconciliation bill does not appear to appeal to the president.

“It’s a tacit recognition that Trump is unlikely to muster the near-unanimous votes he needs to pass major partisan bills through Congress at a time when the federal debt has ballooned to nearly $39 trillion and Republicans up for reelection in swing states are worried about facing Democratic attack ads in the fall,” The Hill noted.

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“It doesn’t seem to me that there’s a plan for a second reconciliation bill and I don’t know how you could do one in the House,” a Republican senator, referring to the GOP House’s razor-thin majority, told The Hill. “The president says it’s not a good idea. At the moment, I don’t see reconciliation as a likely aspect of the remaining months this year.”

Some Republicans in the Senate appear to be ignoring the odds and are pushing forward — they just can’t agree on what they want to include in the legislative package.

“I don’t care how we do it but we’ve got to get health care costs down. The best way to do it is get the consumer involved,” said U.S. Senator Rick Scott (R-FL), who wants to funnel taxpayer dollars into individual health savings accounts called Trump Health Freedom Accounts.

“I believe that we can do this. We’re going to be up here the rest of the year. We got to get some things done,” Scott added. “The American public demands that we accomplish some things.”

U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) wants to go in a different direction — finding funding to restore the Affordable Care Act premium subsidies that Republicans let lapse in the fall against Democratic support for the programs.

“I do want them addressed. I’m very concerned that people are losing their insurance, they simply can’t afford it. We do need to reform the whole health care system and bring down the costs,” Collins said.

It may all come down to process.

Senate Republican Majority Leader John Thune “doesn’t want to risk a protracted negotiation over a budget reconciliation bill only to have it blow up on the Senate floor — an embarrassment that befell the GOP effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act during the first year of Trump’s first term in 2017.”

READ MORE: ‘Orwellian Gaslighting’: Trump CIA Slammed for Retractions of ‘Biased’ Reports

 

Image via Reuters

 

 

 

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