The judge, Juan Merchan, reserved ruling from the bench but expressed deep skepticism towards Trump's defense attorney's arguments that the social media posts in question were permissible responses to political attacks.

Lead attorney Todd Blanche faced a major rebuke from Judge Merchan during the proceedings. The judge criticized Blanche for losing credibility with the court and questioned the validity of his arguments. The contentious posts, allegedly in violation of the gag order, were presented by the Manhattan district attorney's office as evidence. Prosecutors requested that Trump be held in contempt and fined the maximum of $1,000 for each of the ten offending posts.

Although the prosecutors did not seek imprisonment for Trump's alleged violation of the gag order, they intended to seek contempt charges against him. Additionally, the district attorney's office plans to file another motion, alleging that Trump further violated the gag order outside the courtroom. Trump's comments to news cameras, in which he referred to his former lawyer Michael Cohen as a serial perjurer, are believed to be in violation of the order.

The 34-count indictment against Trump includes charges of falsifying business records to cover up hush-money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign. The charges are in violation of campaign finance laws. Trump has been particularly vocal about his grievances, directing his ire at Cohen, who facilitated the hush-money payments, and Daniels herself. Both Cohen and Daniels, who are expected to testify against Trump, are protected by the gag order.

During the hearing, attorney Blanche argued that the majority of Trump's posts were responses to personal or political attacks. He claimed that other posts were simply reposts of New York Post articles or shared views expressed by others, including Fox News host Jesse Watters. However, Judge Merchan exhibited deep skepticism towards these arguments, pointing out inconsistencies in Trump's posting behavior.

The judge questioned why Trump waited until after a failed challenge to the gag order before responding to a comment from Cohen, rather than replying immediately. Additionally, Merchan challenged Blanche to provide examples of cases where reposts were treated differently from original posts by a defendant. He also requested specific instances of political attacks against Trump.

Blanche pointed to one post mentioning Cohen, claiming it was political due to a reference to a presidential pardon. However, Judge Merchan was unsatisfied with this explanation, dismissing it as inadequate evidence. The judge further clarified that one post attributed to a quote by Jesse Watters was manipulated by Trump, who added his own content and placed quotation marks around it.

The gag order imposed on Trump has been expanded recently due to his previous statements about the case. Judge Merchan admonished Trump for making "threatening, inflammatory, denigrating" statements ahead of the trial. Under the expanded order, Trump is prohibited from making or directing others to make public statements regarding trial witnesses, prosecutors other than Alvin Bragg, and members of the court staff or the district attorney's staff.

As the judge reserves his decision on the fine for Trump's violation of the gag order, the trial continues to attract intense media scrutiny. It remains to be seen how this delay will impact the proceedings and Trump's overall defense strategy in the criminal trial.