'Box Trump in for real if he pulls another stunt. Put him behind bars.'

Donald Trump at Manhattan criminal court in New York, US, on Thursday, May 2, 2024

Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of an alleged scheme to silence claims of extramarital sexual encounters during his 2016 presidential campaign

(Image credit: Mark Peterson / New York Magazine / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

By Harold Maass, The Week US

published 2 May 2024

'Trump is likely to violate his gag order again. Jail him if he does.'

Chris Brennan in USA Today

Fining former President Donald Trump $9,000 for violating the gag order in his hush money trial isn't going to make the former president "control himself," says Chris Brennan. Trump has spent a lifetime "testing the limits of what he can get away with." If he keeps bad-mouthing witnesses, "New York Judge Juan Merchan must jail Trump for at least one night." That "might be the only way to get through to him."

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.