'Have a seat': Trump's legal team gets off to rough start at N.Y. trial

Donald Trump was in New York for a hearing before Judge Juan Merchan in the Stormy Daniels hush money trial on Thursday — and it was rough from the start.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche began that hearing with demands to delay the trial — which went nowhere.

Just Security fellow Adam Klasfeld posted on social media from the courtroom that Blanche then "furiously" opposed the trial date of March 25, saying it was putting Trump in an "impossible situation."

But the judge responded that there was no reason to delay the trial, now set for March 25 and expected to last six weeks.

"You don't have a trial date in Georgia. You don't have a trial date in Florida," the judge said, referring to earlier comments that he'd be willing to push back the New York trial if other federal hearings were ready to proceed. They have now all been delayed.

Blanche tried to speak over the judge, but was quickly shut down.

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"We are in primary season, and it is a different landscape as it was" since the previous hearing, complained Blanche, claiming proceeding with the trial would be tantamount to "election interference." He went on to complain about the media saturation over Trump's previous trials, including the E. Jean Carroll case.

"There are multiple parts, and we don't have control over all of those parts," the judge said.

Still, Trump's lawyer pressed, but Merchan interrupted: "Mr. Blanche, please have a seat."

That's when Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's assistant stepped in, pointing out the irony of Trump's lawyers lamenting the trial length while also throwing up barriers to jury selection, which would add more time.

"We can go through a charade, but that's what it's going to be: a time-consuming charade," she said.

"These lawyers need to learn when to stop. You aren’t scoring points like this," commented national security lawyer Bradley Moss on X.