Donald Trump’s criminal trial is underway this morning, and he’s getting bad news already

When you’re on criminal trial and the case against you is overwhelming, you can’t really expect much of the news to be good for you. But Donald Trump was hoping for at least some bits of good news as his criminal trial got underway this morning. So far it’s going sharply against him.

Judge Merchan announced this morning that if Trump decides to testify in his own defense in this criminal trial, prosecutors can confront him with various civil verdicts against him. The list includes his New York civil fraud verdict, his E. Jean Carroll verdict, and his fraudulent charity that got busted.

This would all seemingly serve to further underscore that Trump is unlikely to testify. The above verdicts won’t be introduced in this trial if he doesn’t take the stand, but can be if he does take the stand. So that’s an easy decision for him, right? But his behavior is becoming increasingly self defeating as his dementia-like symptoms get worse. So who knows what he’ll do? Either way, today is bad news for Trump already.