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Former President Donald Trump caught a break on Monday when a New York appeals court drastically slashed the amount he must post in bond to appeal his more than $450 million civil fraud judgment for manipulating property values — as well as 10 additional days to produce that money.

But that doesn't mean this whole matter is settled, said longtime Trump biographer Tim O'Brien on MSNBC's "The ReidOut." On the contrary, it's just beginning.

Donald Trump was on the receiving end of another legal defeat this Monday when the judge overseeing his hush money payment trial refused to delay the trial over the former president's lawyers' concerns over evidence, declaring that jury selection for the trial "will commence in 21 days, on April 15."

Trump’s lawyers asked Judge Juan Merchan to delay the trial at least 90 days, or dismiss it, over what they called “violations” in the discovery process, claiming Manhattan state prosecutors violated the law when if came to showing them evidence in a timely manner.

Former President Donald Trump caught a break on Monday when a New York appeals court cut his bond to $175 million in the civil property fraud case and gave him 10 extra days to come up with the money.

But there is one unlikely group that might be privately dismayed by the development, conservative commentator S.E. Cupp told CNN: pro-Trump political action committees.

Former President Donald Trump on Monday was slammed Monday after claiming the government search for top-secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort was illegal under the Fourth Amendment in the Bill of Rights.

While talking with reporters shortly after appearing in court, Trump claimed, without citing evidence, that the multiple indictments he's facing across four jurisdictions were all orchestrated by President Joe Biden.

Former President Donald Trump snapped at a reporter Monday after he was asked if he would use his own money to fund his campaign.

Trump's remarks came at a press conference after an appeals court reduced the bond he will have to pay in his New York fraud case from $464 million to $175 million.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) believes that members of her own party are part of a nefarious plot to destroy themselves.

Appearing on Fox News Monday, Luna addressed the bitter infighting that's taken place within the House GOP in recent months and she accused Reps. Ken Buck (R-CO) and Mike Gallagher (R-WI) of committing acts of sabotage by retiring in ways that significantly damaged House Republicans' already slim majority.

In what CNN anchor Jim Acosta later called, "Not a good sign for the defense," Judge Juan Merchan raised his voice and scolded Donald Trump's lawyer for making unfounded allegations against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office.

Reporting from outside the courthouse on a chilly Monday, CNN Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent Paula Reid read from texts received from inside the courtroom where cameras are not allowed.

Tristan Snell, the former assistant attorney general for the state of New York who prosecuted the Trump University fraud case, told CNN on Monday that former President Donald Trump has been getting "special treatment" that is given to no other criminal defendants.

During an interview with John Berman, Snell made the case that the courts have gone far easier on Trump than they have on defendants who have also been found liable for decades' worth of business fraud.

During a surprisingly sympathetic discussion about Donald Trump's legal woes, MSNBC "Morning Joe," contributor Katty Kay claimed the former president is being crushed by the burden of trials he is facing and can only find solace in the crowds who attend his rallies — and even those have seen a fall in attendance.

With host Joe Scarborough noting the hearing in Manhattan on Monday in the so-called hush-money case is a criminal case where Trump could end up doing time in jail, he prompted Kay with, "I really do at times wonder, with all these things weighing down on one person, how the guy keeps going. I mean, it is incoming constantly."

"Yeah," Kay agreed. "Obviously, at this point, there are many on the legal side wishing we were dealing with the Jack Smith January 6th case or the Mar-a-Lago documents case, both of which I'm sure you'd agree, look more solid than the hush money case, but that's the case we have."

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"Even that, because you say it's a criminal case, that has to be weighing on Donald Trump," she continued. "It looks like it'll go ahead within the next month, even with this small delay. All of those things, the fact that he's not raising money, the complications around getting money from donors but some of it having to be siphoned off to pay his legal fees, the trials themselves, the prospect of losing a huge amount of his assets to pay this bond, it's very hard to imagine how that's not weighing on Donald Trump."

"All he can do, I guess, is take solace from the fact that when he turns up at those rallies — which are not as big as they were in 2020 or 2016, the crowds are not as huge that are greeting him as they were back then — he's still getting the adulation from his die-hard supporters," she added. "And he hasn't, from when you look at the polling, as remarkable as it might seen from 2020 to 2024, he doesn't seem to be losing much of that base."

CNN reporter Stephen Collinson on Monday found himself unable to conceal how disturbed he was by former President Donald Trump regularly paying tribute to the violent rioters who attacked the United States Capitol on his behalf.

Trump regularly refers to the January 6th rioters as "hostages" and has vowed to free them from jail should he be elected president again later this year.

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski pledged they would not book former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel on "Morning Joe."

Network president Rashida Jones reportedly called anchors over the weekend to assure them there was no obligation to bring McDaniel onto their shows, and Scarborough made clear he disagreed with her hiring as a paid contributor due to her involvement in Donald Trump's scheme to overturn the 2020 election.

On Monday morning's edition of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski questioned the value assigned to Donald Trump's Truth Social following a merger that was put to bed last Friday.

Noting the meager traffic the social media platform has drawn from users in its three years of existence, the hosts, along with MSNBC host Jonathan Lemire, were highly skeptical of its valuation north of $3 billion.

Scarborough kicked off the questioning by cutting to the chase and saying the publicly traded stock has the makings of being part of a scam that will leave some new investors holding the bag while Trump walks away with their cash.

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"I'm not exactly sure how his Truth Social deal is going the way it is, but it looks like a Ponzi scheme to me," Scarborough began. "But I don't understand it. This is, though, a social media network that doesn't appear to be successful. Yet people are throwing around $5 billion here, $5 billion there. Does that provide Donald Trump an economic lifeline in the short term?"

"You're right about Truth Social," Lemire agreed. "It is a website that, frankly, no one uses. It has very little traction outside of the extreme MAGA right. It is where Trump continues to post since he was kicked off of Twitter after January 6th. I believe he's only posted one thing [on Twitter] since, which was his mugshot when he was indicted in Georgia last summer."

"He's still trying to drive interest to Truth Social," he continued. "It's not really working; there have been, you know, merger deals rumored for a couple of years now. It all fell apart."

"Where does this massive valuation come from?" Scarborough interjected.

"In a free and open and fair market, I mean, if you're just talking about economic considerations, who would invest in this company unless you were trying to curry favor with somebody who you think will be the next president of the United States," he added.

Lemire replied, "You hit it there. Someone trying to curry favor with who they believe will be the next president of the United States. We've seen people do that of late. With Truth Social, it is not a success by any measure."

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