WATCH: Trump Comes Back To Give Fist-Up Salute When Fans Go INSANE After Bonkers Press Conference
Former President Donald Trump came back to give fans a fist-up salute when they went absolutely insane at the end of his post-fraud-trial press conference at 40 Wall Street.
The trial in the fraud case brought by Attorney General Letitia James and presided over by Judge Arthur Engoron concluded with closing arguments on Thursday — and lots of unexpected fireworks. Trump was initially forbidden to speak in court after his lawyers refused to agree to restrictions, but Engoron relented — and Trump pounced in court.
He went on a courtroom rant that included attacking the judge and the prosecutor, and doing pretty much everything he was warned not to do when Engoron banned him from speaking in the first place.
Trump also ranted about the case several times outside the courtroom, rattling off a familiar series of falsehoods. Then he held a raucous and falsehood-riddled press conference at the building he bragged about on 9/11.
Trump attacked Biden repeatedly during his opening remarks, including falsely accusing him of engineering the dozens of criminal charges. He made a raft of other false claims as well, including doubling down on his insistence that AG James drove Exxon out of New York:
REPORTER: Uh, yes. During the hearing, you said that Exxon left New York and because of the New York Attorney General’s case, but she actually — Exxon actually left in 1989.
TRUMP: No, they took the rest of their divisions out. They left earlier. They were treated very badly in New York. You could have had them in New York. They could have been paying a lot of money.
REPORTER: But it wasn’t Letitia James?
TRUMP: No, I think — if you take a look, you read the case, study the case, you’ll see that they took big divisions out after that. They originally left and then they took the rest out.
As Trump wrapped up and walked away from the lectern, Trump fans in the building went absolutely nuts screaming, even as reporters shouted questions about the bomb threat at Judge Engoron’s home.
Trump apparently appreciated the din. After about 15 seconds, he re-emerged and gave the vocal fans a salute, and mugged for a few more seconds before departing to screams of “TRUMP 2024!!!”
Watch above via AP livestream.
