Why did Trump bother showing up at his New York fraud trial?

There may be more than ego at play in the former president’s appearance

Donald Trump and New York State Supreme Court
Trump's voluntary appearance in the Manhattan courtroom this week was a departure from the last time he was on trial in New York’s civil courts
(Image credit: Illustrated / Getty Images)

Day one of Donald Trump's New York fraud trial this week offered a scene both familiar and utterly unprecedented in modern memory. While the past year of indictments and arraignments have slowly acclimated the public to scenes of the former president stalking in and out of various judicial buildings around the country, Trump's day-long perch at the defendant's table — caught briefly on camera — inside a courtroom itself was a scene "unlike anything in US history," Bloomberg reported. Trump entered the trial already "effectively branded a fraudster" after presiding Judge Arthur Engoron ruled the former president had regularly inflated his net worth and property values as part of a yearslong effort to defraud various banks and investors. 

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Rafi Schwartz, The Week US

Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.