Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event April 2, 2024 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
Donald Trump said Saturday he welcomed the prospect of going to prison for violating a gag order in his upcoming secret trial in New York.
“I will gladly become a modern-day Nelson Mandela: it will be my GREAT HONOR,” the former president wrote in a long post on Truth Social attacking New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who is presiding over Trump’s case .
It’s not the first time Trump has compared himself to a martyr as he faces a barrage of criminal charges.
In an October outburst against his various lawsuits, the presumptive Republican nominee also compared himself to Mandela, the former president of South Africa who spent 27 years in prison for his anti-apartheid activism.
And last week, Trump took to Truth Social to share a message that compared his legal troubles to the persecution of Jesus Christ.
Saturday’s outburst came just over a week before the trial is scheduled to begin April 15.
Jury selection will begin that day in the state criminal case against the former president on 34 counts of falsifying business records, allegedly to conceal a cash payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels weeks before the 2016 presidential election .
Trump accused Merchan of being compromised because of his daughter’s role at a progressive consulting firm that worked for Democrats.
Trump’s social media outburst Saturday was the latest of many he has posted about the judge’s daughter since Merchan first imposed a gag order in late March.
That order prohibited Trump from making public statements about witnesses, jurors and lawyers in the case. He was also banned from speaking publicly about court personnel, employees of the Manhattan district attorney’s office and their family members. That first gag order came in response to Trump’s repeated requests for the judge to recuse himself.
A day after imposing the first gag order on March 26, Trump went after Merchan’s daughter on social media.
Soon after, Merchan granted prosecutors’ request to broaden the scope of the order to prohibit direct attacks on members of Merchan’s family and the family of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Under the expanded order, Trump can still criticize Merchan and Bragg individually. But he is not allowed to publicly target their families.
Playing with the fire of his gag orders is becoming routine for Trump.
In October, Judge Arthur Engoron threatened Trump with prison time for violating a similar order in a civil case and ultimately fined him $10,000.
President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign seized on Mandela’s comments on Saturday.
“Imagine being so self-absorbed that you compared yourself to Jesus Christ and Nelson Mandela in the space of just over a week — that’s Donald Trump for you,” Biden campaign spokeswoman Jasmine Harris said Saturday.