'This is Pulitzer worthy!' Onlookers crack up hearing Trump's praise for National Enquirer

MANHATTAN CRIMINAL COURT — Onlookers of Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial Friday broke into laughter when the former president's onetime press secretary Hope Hicks described the praise he heaped on the tabloid "National Enquirer."

Prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney's office asked Hicks about her contact with Trump's friend and political ally David Pecker, who they contend helped Trump quash salacious stories ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Hicks recalled a phone call between Trump and Pecker, who was on speakerphone, to discuss the tabloid's piece targeting political rival Ben Carson.

"He was congratulating David on a great investigative piece," Hicks said. She reported Trump as saying, "This is Pulitzer worthy."

At this point, laughter erupted among onlookers watching the trial in an overflow room in Manhattan Criminal Court.

The piece — which Pecker testified previously was planted to aid Trump's presidential campaign — was called "Bungling surgeon Ben Carson left sponge in patient's brain," previous reports show.

Carson later joined Trump's cabinet as Housing and Urban Development secretary.

Hicks testified Friday that she knew Pecker professionally as a publicist and through Trump, whom she said was his friend.

Pecker last week testified about "catch and kill" practices in which the magazine would purchase negative stories on behalf of Trump to keep them out of the public eye.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges that he falsified business records to cover up hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.