Donald Trump was reportedly “irked” that the judge at his arraignment Thursday referred to him as “Mr. Trump” rather than “Mr. President” – and left the hearing in DC in a “sour and dejected mood.”
Trump, who enjoys the presidential honorific, “was, quote, ‘pissed off,’ according to someone who spoke to him,” CNN’s Kaitlan Collins said after the former commander-in-chief pleaded not guilty to a four-count indictment Thursday.
“I’m learning tonight that Trump left here in a sour and dejected mood,” she added.
“I am told that the former president, one thing that irked him particularly, was during that hearing today that lasted about 27 minutes, was when the magistrate judge referred to him as simply ‘Mr. Trump,’” Collins continued.
“That may not sound odd to anyone else, but he is still referred to by his former title ‘President Trump’ when he’s at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey, as he is tonight, or at Mar-a-Lago,” the anchor of “The Source” told viewers.
The judge’s everyman greeting was also not lost on people following the arraignment yesterday — as it quickly sparked speculation on social media about whether Trump would be offended by it.
“Wow. The first words of the Judge overseeing today’s arraignment are “Good afternoon, Mr. Trump,” Democratic commentator Victor Shi tweeted.
“No mention of Donald Trump being former president. No special treatment. Treating him as just another man in a Courtroom. This is the rule of law at its best,” he added.
ABC News producer John Santucci also noted how the judge addressed Trump.
“If there is one thing I know Trump loves that he’s called Mr. President now,” he wrote.
Others, meanwhile, believed Trump would have every right to feel slighted.
“Every other president would have been addressed as ‘President’ not ‘Mr.’… Let’s be real,” the right-wing Daily Caller chief national correspondent Henry Rodgers tweeted.
In the courtroom, Trump, 77, shook his head slightly as US Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadyaha read out the docket number and said: “United States v. Donald J. Trump.”
He then emphatically pleaded not guilty to charges that he engaged in criminal conspiracies aimed at subverting the results of the 2020 presidential election results and keeping himself in power.
“When you look at what’s happening, this is a persecution of a political opponent,” Trump said in a brief statement to reporters at Regan National Airport.
“This was never supposed to happen in America. This is the persecution of the person that’s leading by very, very substantial numbers in the Republican primary and leading Biden by a lot,” he continued.
“So if you can’t beat him, you persecute them or you prosecute him. We can’t let this happen in America,” Trump added before departing without taking any questions.
Trump later struck a different tone and declared in a full-caps, defiant post that he had a “very good day.”
“CONSIDERING THE FACT THAT I HAD TO FLY TO A FILTHY, DIRTY, FALLING APART, & VERY UNSAFE WASHINGTON, D.C., TODAY, & THAT I WAS THEN ARRESTED BY MY POLITICAL OPPONENT, WHO IS LOSING BADLY TO ME IN THE POLLS, CROOKED JOE BIDEN, IT WAS A VERY GOOD DAY!” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.