Amid Donald Trump’s rambling court appearance in his fraud trial on Monday, there was one thing that really piqued Fox News: the former president’s appearance in a courtroom sketch.
“A travesty,” was the verdict of Kayleigh McEnany, who served as Trump’s press secretary during the dying embers of his one-term presidency before she became a Fox News host.
During a standard Fox News segment about Trump’s court appearance – the Guardian described his testimony as “wistful, boastful and bizarre” – McEnany told her co-hosts on The Five show that the sketch, by courtroom artist Elizabeth Williams, was the real disappointment.
Asked by Fox News stalwart Greg Gutfeld what advice she would offer to Trump in court, McEnany said: “Keep doing what he’s doing. I mean, look, I would advise them to ask for a better sketch artist because that does not look like my former boss there.”
The sketch shows a seated Trump with his hands raised and his head tilted to the right. The twice-impeached former president, known for his distinct orange skin tone, appears more wan in the artwork.
“This is a travesty of justice,” McEnany said of the trial, in which Trump has already been found liable for fraud after inflating the value of his properties and other assets.
“And that sketch is a travesty too. It looks nothing like Trump.”
Trump appeared as a witness in the $250m civil trial for the first time on Monday. During his testimony an angry Trump, who has already been fined $15,000 for violating a gag order that prevents him from criticizing court staff, was admonished by the judge for making “speeches” on the stand.
However, the Trump campaign, and his supporters in the rightwing media, have claimed Trump is innocent of any wrongdoing and have sought to deflect attention on to Letitia James, the New York attorney general who brought the case, and Judge Arthur Engoron, who is presiding over the trial.
During Trump’s legal travails – aside from the New York civil trial, he has been charged with 91 felony counts related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, his alleged mishandling of classified documents and hush money payments to a porn star – other courtroom sketch artists have also come in for criticism.
When Trump was arraigned in Miami in June in the classified documents case, artist William J Hennessy Jr was castigated on social media for making Trump, 77, “look too young and svelte”, the Boston Globe reported.
In October, at the beginning of the New York fraud trial, Fox News co-host Jessica Tarlov said that Trump “loses 20lbs every indictment”, in response to a courtroom sketch by Jane Rosenberg.
On Tuesday, Williams, who drew the “travesty” sketch of Trump, responded to criticism of her work in an interview with Newsweek.
“This dumping on court artists has now become part of our business,” she said. “I am getting used to it.”
