Donald Trump was a two-time loser on Friday.
First, the former president was ordered by a jury to pay writer E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million for damages from defamation, and then he had to suffer the slings and arrows of snarky social media users.
Carroll, a longtime advice columnist, has alleged that she was raped by Trump in 1996 in a dressing room at Manhattan’s Bergdorf Goodman department store.
After she wrote about the experience in 2019, Trump called her a “whack job” and a “fraud,” inspiring her to sue for defamation. That resulted in Trump being found liable for defaming and for sexually abusing Carroll (though not raping her). He was also ordered to pay her $5 million in damages.
Still, that first penalty did not stop Trump from defaming Carroll, which led her to sue him again and Friday’s massive judgment.
Many people on X, formerly Twitter, used the verdict as an excuse for a popular social media activity: busting Trump’s chops.