It appears Donald Trump had a rare moment of self-reflection upon seeing his visage in a courtroom sketch, joking with the artist: “I think I need to lose some weight.”
The “moment of levity” was reported by MSNBC reporter Yasmin Vossoughian after Trump made another appearance at his New York civil fraud trial in Manhattan Thursday.
The former president reportedly stopped to compliment sketch artists Jane Rosenberg and Isabelle Brourman on their drawings of the proceedings on the way out of the courtroom during a recess, saying simply, “nice!” But he apparently returned later to offer a second appraisal.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Is that me?” Trump asked Brourman of her drawing, she later relayed to Reuters. “I think I need to lose some weight.”
A courtroom portrait led Donald Trump to deliver a blunt self-assessment on Thursday.
Jane Rosenberg/ReutersHis defense attorneys questioned one of their final witnesses Thursday in the case, which centers around an alleged decade-long scheme carried out by the Trump Organization to fraudulently inflate property values and, by extension, Trump’s personal wealth, to acquire favorable interest rates on future loans. Trump, as well as the other defendants named in the case, have all denied wrongdoing.
Thursday represented the eighth day of proceedings that Trump has personally attended.
He reportedly listened intently during hours worth of testimony from New York University accounting professor Eli Bartov, who weighed in on the property values and financial paperwork that make up the crux of Attorney General Letitia James’ case. Bartov at one point admitted that the value of the former president’s penthouse in the eponymously named Trump Tower had been inflated—but that the error was “not unusual.” He also said he “absolutely” agreed with Trump attorneys’ declaration that “from an accounting perspective, the attorney general's complaint had no merit.”
Following the day’s proceedings, Trump went on a characteristic rampage outside the courtroom, calling AG James a “lunatic” while arguing that the case should be dropped.
He is scheduled to take the stand in his own defense on Monday—the final defense witness in the case.
