Donald Trump was just slapped with a $355 million fine from the State of New York, but evidently he’s more concerned about an unflattering photo of himself making the rounds. On Friday (February 16), hours after Trump appeared in court, the former president addressed a photo of himself playing golf that depicted him with a bulging beer gut. He claims the photo was generated by artificial intelligence and is, in fact, not even him.
Taking to his Truth Social platform, Trump contested, “The Fake News used Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) to create the picture on the top left. These are despicable people, but everyone knows that. The other pictures are me hitting golf balls today to show the difference. Sadly, in our country, fake news is all you get!”
meanwhile here’s what Trump’s posting about on Truth Social pic.twitter.com/sxiCQRmvQc
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 16, 2024
Donald Trump was not only fined the massive amount in his civil fraud case, he was also banned from serving as a director or officer of any New York corporation for three years. Judge Arthur Engoron handed down the punishment at the end of a three-month trial. Trump was found liable of conspiring to inflate his net worth to deceive banks and others.
Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba claimed Engoron’s decision was the culmination of a witch hunt and plans to appeal the ruling.
“This is not just about Donald Trump,” Habba said. “If this decision stands, it will serve as a signal to every single American that New York is no longer open for business.”
Engoron, meanwhile, cited Trump’s refusal to admit error in the ruling and said Trump would only continue to exploit the system if he wasn’t severely punished.
“This Court is not constituted to judge morality; it is constituted to find facts and apply the law,” the judge wrote. “In this particular case, in applying the law to the facts, the Court intends to protect the integrity of the financial marketplace and, thus, the public as a whole.
“Defendants’ refusal to admit error—indeed, to continue it, according to the Independent Monitor—constrains this Court to conclude that they will engage in it going forward unless judicially restrained. Indeed, Donald Trump testified that, even today, he does not believe the Trump Organization needed to make any changes based on the facts that came out during this trial.”
Trump, who’s running for president yet again, has been impeached twice. He’s also facing four criminal cases: two election interference cases, a classified documents case and hush money case.