News
Trump Witness Turns ‘Strawberry Red’ After Judge’s Scalding Scolding
New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, after becoming visibly angered by Trump defense witness Robert Costello, cleared the courtroom of the jury and the press before admonishing the “MAGA-friendly lawyer” Monday afternoon in the ex-president’s criminal “hush money” trial.
Calling it a “brawl,” The Daily Beast set the scene: “After Costello, a former prosecutor, was reprimanded for delivering outbursts in the court whenever he was interrupted or told not to answer a question that had been objected to and sustained, Costello began to stare down the judge.”
Before the reprimand, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reported: “Twice now the judge has sustained an objection and Costello answered regardless. Judge Merchan addresses him directly to not answer if he’s sustained the objection. ‘Jesus,’ Costello mutters after it happens again. ‘I’m sorry,’ the judge, visibly annoyed, says to him. ‘I’m sorry?'”
And then, the admonition.
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“I’d like to discuss proper decorum in the courtroom,” Judge Merchan said, according to Collins. “If you don’t like my ruling, you don’t give me side eye and you don’t roll your eyes.”
Collins added: “Then in a raised voice, Merchan asks, ‘Are you staring me down right now?!'”
“The jury was NOT in the room for this,” Collins added. “Merchan sent them out, then admonished Costello, then when he was staring him down, Merchan became furious and cleared the courtroom. So the jury witnesses none of this. (And the press missed whatever was said in the interim.)”
Here’s how it went down, according to MSNBC host and legal contributor Katie Phang.
“Judge Merchan is ANGRY,” she observed, before reporting the dialogue:
“MERCHAN: ‘I’d like to discuss proper decorum in my courtroom’
MERCHAN: ‘If you don’t like my ruling, you don’t say ‘Jeez’ ‘
MERCHAN: You don’t say ‘strike it’ because I’m the only one who can strike it.
MERCHAN: ‘You don’t give me side eye and you don’t roll your eyes’
COSTELLO: I understand.”
Phang added, “When the media were allowed back in, Costello is seated at the witness stand looking decidedly chastened. Merchan looks calm.”
The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports the judge didn’t calmly just clear the courtroom:
!!!!! Judge MERCHAN to Costello: “Are you staring me down right now? Clear the courtroom!” https://t.co/2k6g6qK8df
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) May 20, 2024
MSNBC legal contributor Lisa Rubin called it, “one of the wildest things I’ve ever seen in court.”
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And while CNN’s Collins noted the jury was not in the courtroom for exchange, Phang reports: “Although the dressing down of Costello took place outside of earshot of the jury, they witnessed firsthand Costello’s demeanor and petulance and heard firsthand his quips and remarks from the witness stand. Perhaps Costello just reinforced to the jury why Cohen didn’t want to keep Costello as his lawyer…Costello is pandering for an audience of one: Trump.”
MSNBC legal analyst Kristy Greenberg noted, “Michael Cohen was respectful. Bob Costello is acting like a clown. Jurors will notice and this will hurt Trump. Any concerns that jurors may have had about Cohen have now been overshadowed by Costello’s disrespect to the judge right in front of their faces.”
Lowell also reported that after the reprimand, “Costello is so red in the face he resembles a strawberry.”
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From Iran to the Pope to Greenland to tariffs, President Donald Trump and his administration have yet to realize that bullying as a tactic does not appear to be reliably working with either friends or foes — and if the White House has noticed, they may not care, according to Politico Magazine.
“To date, there’s little evidence that Trump or his deputies understand the chain reactions they set off when issuing diktats or that they have learned lessons from past instances of blowback,” writes Politico’s Nahal Toosi. “They believe, with few exceptions, that America can use threats, economic muscle and military action to bend other capitals to its will.”
Richard Haass, a former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, told Politico that if “there were an appreciation that bullying was no longer a likely to succeed tactic you’d see a move away from it,” and yet, they have not.
Even when Trump backs down, after the damage has been done, sometimes he goes back for more.
Just last week, while fuming over Europe’s refusal to team up with the U.S. against Iran, Trump wrote on social media: “REMEMBER GREENLAND, THAT BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE!!!”
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Diplomats have long been distressed that Trump and his team approach foreign relations as if they were real estate deals, that everything is a transaction.
“But treating Russia’s war in Ukraine or the Palestinians’ claims on Gaza as being merely about land misses out on how identity, politics and the desire to simply survive as a people is what fuels many conflicts,” Politico noted. Trump and his team often “fail to realize that people tend to fight for what gives their life meaning beyond the purely rational or material cost-benefit analysis,” a former Latin American official told Politico.
Haass told Politico that Trump could be helping lead the U.S. into a “post-American world,” one in which the U.S. is no longer at the center — which would be playing into China’s hands.
In that world, roles would switch, and the U.S. would be forced to “regularly plead for help instead of knowing it can count on friends who instinctively trust and support it.”
Former Biden administration official Dan Shapiro told Politico, “Look, the U.S. is powerful and we have a lot of influence, but we don’t have infinite influence.”
“Even the best,” he said, “need allies, friends, partners.”
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Image via Reuters
Sir Edward Davey, a UK Member of Parliament who serves as the leader of the Liberal Democrats, blasted President Donald Trump on Monday, and warned that Britain’s King Charles should not visit the American president later this month.
Quoting President Trump’s recent threat to Iran, “A whole civilization will die tonight,” Sir Davey called the statement, “words I never thought I would hear from an American president,” and “a stark reminder of how reckless, immoral, and completely outside the bounds of international law this president is.”
Davey declared Trump “no friend of the United Kingdom” and “no leader of the free world,” but rather, “a dangerous and corrupt gangster” — and warned that is how Trump must be treated.
“So will the Prime Minister advise the King to call off his state visit to Washington before it’s too late?” Davey asked of Keir Starmer. “Because I really fear, for what Trump might say or do, while our King is forced to stand by his side. We cannot put His Majesty in that position.”
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The Independent reports that Starmer did defend the King’s upcoming U.S. state visit, and “held firm, arguing the visit marks the 250th anniversary of the relationship between the two countries.”
BBC News reports that Starmer did call Trump’s threat against Iran “wrong,” and said he would not have used the same words as the U.S. president.
King Charles’ U.S. visit will be the first UK state visit since Queen Elizabeth II came to America in 2007.
Donald Trump is no leader of the free world. He’s a dangerous and corrupt gangster.
The Prime Minister needs to call off the King’s state visit to Washington before it’s too late. pic.twitter.com/xt7nxrDPSu
— Ed Davey (@EdwardJDavey) April 13, 2026
READ MORE: DoorDash Grandma Mum on Trump Tip — and Who She Voted For
The White House, apparently eager to shift focus from President Donald Trump’s failed Iran peace talks to his economic agenda, brought in an Arkansas grandmother who delivers DoorDash to help pay for her husband’s cancer treatments. She knocked on the Oval Office door carrying two brown bags of McDonald’s.
“Nice to see you,” the president said as he opened the door.
“Nice to meet you,” the grandmother of ten grandchildren, Sharon Simmons replied. “I have your DoorDash order for you, Mr. President.”
Even Trump the showman couldn’t help but notice the event looked “staged.”
“The reason for this,” Trump told Simmons, “is that I heard you picked up $11,000 because the tax bill was so big, the refund is the biggest one you’ve ever had.”
“It definitely was,” Simmons said. “I saved over $11,000 by not having to claim” tips, she said.
“It’s such an honor to meet you,” Trump went on to say. “And I think you voted for me?”
“Um, maybe,” Simmons replied, chuckling.
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Moments later, a reporter asked Simmons, “Are the White House good tippers? Do you know?”
“Um,” she responded, before Trump said, “Wait,” and pulled cash from his pocket and handed it to her.
“Yes, very,” she then told reporters.
CNN’s Kit Maher later reported that Simmons “wouldn’t reveal how much President Trump tipped her.”
Online critics pushed back on the event.
“Trump’s winning message: A grandma doing Door Dash because her husband’s cancer treatments are too expensive,” wrote the popular political commentary account on X, PatriotTakes.
“Why is she in a position like this to begin with?” asked Lisa Glass on X. “Does he really think that that’s a brag -that a woman has to deliver DoorDash and depend on a few cents more she might get from tips to help pay her husband‘s cancer treatments?!!!!!!”
“Well, I hope someone can talk to her and make her realize that if she had better representation, she might not have to be delivering DoorDash into her senior years to pay for her husband‘s cancer treatments,” she added.
President Trump receives DoorDash McDonald’s order and speaks with delivery driver: “I think you voted for me?”
Delivery driver: “Maybe.” pic.twitter.com/WRRqlLhxOd
— CSPAN (@cspan) April 13, 2026
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Image via Reuters
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