Revealed: The reason Trump keeps attacking the judge who will decide his financial fate

Donald Trump's continuous attacks on the judge overseeing his New York fraud trial are part of a desperate ploy to escape accountability, according to a report.

It's hardly surprising that he has publicly insulted state attorney general Letitia James, who has hit him with a $250 million civil fraud lawsuit, but his attacks on Justice Arthur Engoron, who holds his financial fate in his hands, make less sense, according to New York Times columnist Peter Coy.

"I think there are at least three reasons that Trump is attacking Engoron, a 74-year-old Democrat and former cabdriver, who is presiding over Trump’s civil trial on fraud charges in New York State Supreme Court (which, despite its lofty name, is the trial-level court)," Coy wrote. "Two are obvious, one less so."

The most obvious reason is that Trump is angry that Engoron ruled last week that he had inflated the value of his assets and his net worth, but Coy said another reason is that the former president likes the publicity that comes with the closely watched trial that just got underway.

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"A less obvious reason is that Trump and his lawyers are looking past Engoron to the almost inevitable appeal," Coy wrote. "That mostly unspoken possibility popped up in court on Tuesday when Engoron told Trump’s lawyers not to reintroduce arguments that he’s already knocked down."

There's a fourth, and less obvious, reason that Trump may be attacking the judge presiding over his bench trial that's intended to build support for his 2024 presidential campaign by weakening public trust in the court where he's being tried.

"Trump’s modus operandi is to undermine any institution that stands up to him, whether the news media or the military or the courts," Coy wrote. "Causing people to lose confidence in the judiciary may be precisely what Trump is banking on."