‘I'm not a windmill person’: Trump takes the witness stand and doesn't break character

NEW YORK — Testimony by Donald Trump in a civil fraud trial Monday quickly descended into bitter sniping as Trump’s discursive answers and outbursts prompted the judge to repeatedly admonish him.

During his four hours on the witness stand, the former president lost his temper and attacked the judge, railing against the person who will decide the fate of his business empire and suggesting one of his pretrial rulings was “very stupid.” Trump continually flouted the judge’s instructions to provide succinct and direct answers to questions, instead offering much of the political animus Trump typically deploys on the campaign trail.

“It’s a terrible thing you’ve done. You know nothing about me,” Trump said to Justice Arthur Engoron during one verbal strike from the witness stand. “You believe that political hack back there,” he added, looking toward New York Attorney General Tish James, who brought the $250 million civil fraud case against Trump, his adult sons and officers in the Trump Organization.

In a crucial pretrial ruling, the judge found that Trump systematically inflated his assets on financial statements to obtain favorable terms from banks and insurers. Because it is a bench trial, meaning there is no jury, Engoron will decide what penalties Trump and his company will face.

Trump’s primary defense, which he has offered publicly since the start of the trial and which he repeated during his testimony, is that his financial statements contained “very, very powerful” disclaimers and therefore weren’t intended for use by banks or insurers.

“We have a disclaimer clause that says do your own due diligence, don’t under any circumstances count on anything in here,” Trump said. Of the financial statements, he said: “If you were borrowing money … they were not really documents that the banks paid much attention to. They looked at the deal, they looked at the asset … but these were not very important.”

After Trump launched into yet another monologue about the disclaimers, the judge stopped him.

“No, no, no,” Engoron said. “We’re not going to hear about the disclaimer clause. If you want to hear about the disclaimer clause, read my opinion again — or for the first time, perhaps.”

“You’re wrong in your opinion,” Trump replied, adding: “He called me a fraud and he didn’t know anything about me.”

Aside from grimacing, Engoron didn’t react to Trump’s attacks. But the judge did become incensed at several points when Trump seemingly refused to answer questions he was being asked by a lawyer for the attorney general’s office.

“I beseech you to control him if you can,” Engoron told Trump lawyer Chris Kise less than an hour into the former president’s turn on the witness stand. “If you can’t, I will,” the judge said. “I will excuse him and draw every negative inference that I can.”

“This is not a political rally. This is a courtroom,” Engoron told Kise, ordering him to counsel his client to provide answers responsive to the questions.

Trump was in a sullen mood from the start. On his way into the courtroom on Monday morning, he called the case “political warfare” and said it was something that occurs in “banana republics.”

With a scowl on his face and his shoulders hunched, he took the stand, raised his right hand to be sworn in and sat in the witness box to face questions in what is just the current chapter in a long line of legal problems that Trump is grappling with as he seeks a return to the White House.

It didn’t take long for Engoron to grow frustrated as Trump delivered repetitive and non-responsive answers.

Asked to name properties he believed were over- or under-valued, for example, Trump responded by saying his Trump Tower triplex apartment had likely been overvalued, then launched into a soliloquy about brand value.

During one heated exchange, Trump attorney Alina Habba snapped at the judge, telling him: “You are here to hear what he has to say.”

Engoron shouted in response, commanding her to “sit down.”

“No, I am not here to hear what he has to say!” he yelled. “I am here to hear him answer questions.”

From the witness stand, Trump interjected, leaning into the microphone: “This is a very unfair trial — very, very — and I hope the public is watching.”

In a navy suit, royal blue tie and light blue shirt, Trump sat just a few feet from the judge, whom Trump has called “tyrannical and unhinged,” and the judge’s law clerk, who has been a long-running target of the ex-president, earning him a gag order.

During his testimony, he often sat with his shoulders slumped and his hands clasped between his legs. On occasion, he crossed his arms over his chest and looked down his nose.

Lawyers for the attorney general’s office questioned Trump about his level of involvement with financial statements valuing his net worth and whether he directed the people creating those statements to inflate the figures.

He also faced questions about the reporting structure of the Trump Organization and how that changed after he became president, as well as whether he intended for banks and insurers to rely on the allegedly fraudulent financial documents.

Trump testified that he believed he was worth more than his financial statements reflected, concluding: “Therefore, you have no case.”

As for the banks and insurers, Trump again pointed to the disclaimer clause, describing it as an extensive caveat that “goes on forever.”

Kevin Wallace, the lawyer for James’ office who was questioning Trump, replied: “Well, that clause isn’t the only thing that goes on forever.”

In between battling the judge, Trump’s lawyers heaped praise on their client, with Kise calling Trump’s answers “great” and “brilliant,” even while admitting, “I’m just not sure what he’s answering.” Kise also referred to Trump as the “former and soon-to-be chief executive of the United States.”

His lawyers did not cross-examine him after lawyers for the attorney general’s office finished their questioning.

On his way out of court, Kise further applauded Trump’s performance, telling reporters: “In 33 years, I’ve never had a witness testify better.”

At times, Trump sprinkled his testimony with some of the signature subjects and phrases likely familiar to anyone who has observed one of his political rallies.

“I’m not a windmill person,” he said at one point.

“I have a castle,” he said at another.

Of his golf course in Aberdeen, Scotland, he testified: “At some point, maybe in my very old age, I’ll go there and do the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen.”

“Aberdeen is the oil capital of Europe, very rich,” Trump began to say, but he was interrupted by the judge shouting, “Irrelevant!” Trump murmured, “It is.”

Hours into his testimony, Trump attempted to read from a piece of paper he retrieved from his pocket. “I’d love to read this, your honor, if I could. Am I allowed to do that?” Trump asked. When the judge said no, Trump muttered sarcastically: “I’m shocked, I’m shocked.”

Reporters began lining up outside the courthouse on Sunday afternoon around 5 p.m. in hopes of snagging one of the seats in the courtroom to observe Trump’s testimony the next morning.

On Sunday evening, Trump used his upcoming turn on the witness stand as part of a fundraising effort, saying in a campaign email that “I am being forced to take the witness stand tomorrow in a SHAM trial in New York City where an extremely anti-Trump Attorney General is trying to impose the ‘corporate death penalty’ upon me and even my family.”

His testimony Monday was technically the second time Trump has taken the stand during the month-old trial. In late October, he testified for several minutes about out-of-court statements about the clerk, Allison Greenfield, which resulted in the judge issuing the second of two fines for violating the gag order.

Kierra Frazier and Jason Beeferman contributed to this report.