The Daily Fuckup

Donald Trump spent Thanksgiving morning using Truth Social the way he often uses it when legal trouble is in the news: as a place to fire off more grievances. In a post published on Nov. 23, 2023, Trump attacked New York Attorney General Letitia James, Judge Arthur Engoron and Engoron’s principal law clerk while his civil-fraud case was still tangled in a fight over the gag order that had been imposed in the trial.

The timing is the part that matters. The Appellate Division temporarily lifted the gag order on Nov. 16, 2023, and that relief was later vacated on Nov. 30, 2023. So when Trump posted on Thanksgiving, the appellate dispute was still active and the restrictions were not settled. The post landed in the middle of that procedural back-and-forth, not after it had ended.

Trump’s message fit a familiar pattern: respond to courtroom pressure with public attacks on the people overseeing the case. On that holiday morning, he singled out James, Engoron and the law clerk at the center of the earlier gag-order dispute, keeping the fraud case in the spotlight even as the appeal was still pending.