Donald Trump’s ‘Angry’ Speech Outside Court Mocked: ‘Unhinged’

Critics have hit out at former President Donald Trump’s comments outside a Manhattan court on Monday where he strongly criticized the judge presiding over the case and read printouts from Fox News.

Social-media users reacted to Trump’s remarks with criticism and some mockery after the Republican presidential candidate described Judge Juan Merchan as a “corrupt judge.” Newsweek has reached out to the Trump campaign via email out of office hours for comment.

The former president made the remarks amid his ongoing criminal trial in Manhattan Criminal Court. Trump has been standing trial for the past four weeks accused of 34 felony charges tied to hush money paid ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Trump has pleaded not guilty and repeatedly said that the case is part of a political witch hunt against him.

Trump’s comments came on the same day that his former lawyer Michael Cohen, considered a key witness for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, took to the stand.

“The rantings of an unhinged madman,” wrote Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of MeidasTouch, as he shared a clip of Trump’s comments on social-media site X, formerly Twitter, on Monday. MeidasTouch describes itself as “a pro-democracy news network.” It was founded by the same people responsible for the MeidasTouch political action committee (PAC) that opposed Trump’s reelection in 2020.

In that clip, the former president said: “We have a corrupt judge, and we have a judge who’s highly conflicted, and he’s keeping me from campaigning. He’s an appointed New York judge; he’s appointed. You know who appointed him? Democrat politicians. He’s appointed, he’s a corrupt judge and he’s a conflicted judge, and he ought to let us go out and campaign and get rid of this.”

CNN’s Jake Tapper responded live on air to Trump’s remarks saying that CNN and MSNBC believed there was no case for him to answer.

A video clip of Tapper’s remarks was shared to X on Monday by The Recount, an account of a media and news company that shares political videos and content.

“Every single legal analyst—even CNN, even MSDNC [slang for MSNBC, regarded as having a bias in favor of the Democratic Party]—they’re saying, ‘There’s no case here,'” the former president said.

“A rather angry defendant saying there’s no case here,” Tapper said, pointing out that some analysts on CNN don’t believe the case against Trump is strong. He added: “It’s certainly not the view of CNN per se that there is no case here.”

Justin Baragona, senior media reporter at The Daily Beast, wrote on X that Trump was also reading comments made by people appearing on Fox News who have spoken about the case.

“Time for an angry Trump to read through a bunch of printouts his assistant gave him of Fox News pundits complaining about his hush money trial,” Baragona added.

Former President Donald Trump also shared a number of quotes from pundits and Republican politicians in a series of posts on his Truth Social site on Monday that were critical of the trial.

Former acting U.S. Attorney General Matt Whitaker was quoted as saying: “Another day of trial, and nowhere close to allegations or evidence of illegality.”

Trump’s final quote on Truth Social on Monday was a comment from Republican Senator Tim Scott who was quoted as saying that the “Objective is to keep Trump off the Campaign trail…[It’s a] two-tiered Justice System, Sham, and not a Courtroom – This is a stage to find Trump guilty in eyes of public – Shameful!”