might hurt him in any one of his criminal cases? not just high stakes, high unprecedented stakes. >> great point, john. trump is expected to be leaving trump tower any minute now for what has become an oddly familiar drive to the manhattan courthouse where once inside he could speak to cameras set up in the hallway. he's done it many times before. but today is different. he will then head into the courtroom where cameras are not allowed, have not been allowed since the start of this. once in court wild dynamics comes into play including while testifying trump will be sitting next to a judge that he publicly called a wacko, unhinged and also trump hating. talk about weird dynamics there. this marks the first time that trump himself is facing extensive courtroom questioning since he left the white house, even before opening arguments some, you know, month and plus ago. this judge already found that donald trump is liable for persistent and repeated fraud, and since then has fined trump two times for violating a limited gag order. we have team coverage as this is going to be playing out across the next few hours. let's start with cnn anchor kaitlan collins who is outside the courthouse. what have you been learning about how trump has been preparing for this and his mindset going into today? >> reporter: i mean, this is a major moment for trump, kate. he has been angrier about this than almost anything else -- any of his other legal cases that have been surrounding him because this is deeply personal to him. it goes to the heart of what he has built his entire career upon, his real estate empire. while we know the outcome of this given this judge has already found him liable here, the question is how expensive this is going to be and just how much of a threat to that empire this truly poses to him and that is why he has been so angry about this, that's why he's shown up several days to this courthouse behind us to sit inside as he's watched other witnesses be called to the stand, at times where he has complained openly about how that questioning has gone. he's whispered things to his attorneys who then stand up and object to that. you've heard him speak about it in the hallways. now it's going to be a different dynamic today because he himself will be the one under oath on the witness stand. i think that is a moment that shows just how much he cares about this, the fact that his children have been going to testify and really just the first time we've seen him testify himself in open court in over a decade. it's something he certainly has done before, but never in a moment like this one. so he has been preparing for it and really just the logistics of what this is going to look like and he's got three attorneys that will be inside that court with him today, but really trump has been running this. he has been directing his attorneys what to do here and so that's the question of what he says when he's actually under oath compared to what you've been hearing him say out in the hallway every day. >> kara scannell, i want to go to you. you've been inside this courtroom for so much of this trial, specifically what do we expect to see unfold today? >> reporter: well, i mean, as kaitlan was saying his rhetoric outside is going to be very different from what he is going to endure over the course of this entire court day. we expect his testimony to take the full day. he will be under oath, he will be sitting just feet from the judge who he has criticized in the same room as the new york attorney general and he will have to answer specific questions about his business. the core of this case, these financial statements that the judge has already said are fraudulent, trump will have to answer detailed questions about this, about how he valued certain of these assets. he did sit for a deposition in april and he did answer questions under oath then, so we have a sense of what he's going to say, and that is that after he started running for president he said that he had little if any involvement in preparing these statements and like his sons, he also pushed some of the responsibility on to the internal accountants and the external accountants, but the thing here is he will be getting questioned, you know, they will be drilling down into these statements. he is not one who emails, we have not seen his name on any email, but he will be asked pointed questions about this and it does did go to the heart of his business, the heart of his reputation as a successful businessman and the judge already saying this is fraud. when donald trump is here he's been in court seven days out of the 24 days of this trial so far, and when he is here the temperature rises, the tension in the room is palpable. he has been reacting to different things that have taken place in the testimony, he has become more expressive in that and so will he be able to keep his cool under questioning? and the question will be of how well the judge is able to rangel him. the judge has taken control of this, telling certain witnesses he doesn't want a speech, you answer the question yes or no. donald trump is known for wanting to give these speeches, wanting to give an explanation and the attorney general's office has really pressed a number of witnesses here saying these are yes or no questions, answer it yes or no, and then asking for any superfluous things to be stricken from the record. two, just trying to keep donald trump in line, keeping him focused on the questions and not letting it get out of control. this is expected to go all day and court wraps around 4:30. >> kara, thank you very much. let's go from the courthouse to outside of trump tower where donald trump will be leaving very soon. kristen holmes is standing by. you have some great reporting coming out this morning just about how it's really become the trump legal strategy has by force or by design kind of maybe sort of become a campaign strategy as well. how trump's lawyers and campaign staff are managing all of this. >> reporter: that's right. there really is no separation anymore. this is a massive undertaking by both of his lawyers and by his campaign advisers. i spent a lot of time talking to them about how exactly this was going to work, and essentially what it looks like is guesswork. you have the lawyers estimating when exactly these trials are going to be, they do believe a lot of this is going to shift, some of these days might change, but they have to build an entire campaign apparatus and schedule around those trial dates, when they expect trump to be in court. this is really just the kickoff of these enormous amount of trials that he is expected to face for the election in 2024. and they do believe that they have put an infrastructure in place on the ground in several of these early states so that if trump is having to be tied up in court, that they can actually still run a campaign without him on the ground, but that is a very difficult thing to do. so, again, this is a massive undertaking, one of the things that we really noticed when we were talking to these campaign advisers, to these allies of donald trump, is just how intermingled all of this was. we had a campaign advivisers working directly with lawyers, campaign spokespeople who were getting messaging from the lawyers. the fact that fundraising appeals go between being attacks on these various cases to attacks on ron desantis. there is no two lanes anymore. we are completely in a lane where the politics and the legal has combined and now his team is going to have to navigate that as we get closer to the election. >> just to let people know where things stand and who has moved so far, the judge just walked behind our kaitlan collins at the courthouse, donald trump just left trump tower behind kristen holmes there. so the players are starting to move around right now. kristen, i want to go back to you with one question here. many legal analysts are suggesting that part of trump's plan today may be to blow things up, to go in there and literally blow the trial up with, you know, histrionics and testimony like that. have you picked up anything, any talk among the lawyers or i imagine campaign staff that he plans to make a show of this on the stand today? >> reporter: i think we're going to have to wait and see how he handles this. that wasn't part of the prep session that i heard about from yesterday, they really just went through the logistics, there wasn't any kind of talk about there being histrionics, however, we do expect him to go to the cameras outside of the courtroom. he is going to want to take every opportunity that he possibly can to spin this narrative into what he wants it to be. john, we have talked about this a number of times. donald trump does not want to play cases out in the court of law, he wants to play them out in the court of opinion. what happens in those courtrooms, when he comes out he is going to say whatever it is that he wants and whatever narrative he wants to tell and that's why he's going to likely go to those cameras. and i am told by a number of sources that are close to the former president who say he's actually acting confident going into this trial about this testimony, but, again, a lot of this is going to be what he does on the outside of that courtroom. now, really important thing, i know kara mentioned this, is that anything that he says in that testimony under oath can be used against him in other trials, and one thing that we have been watching is just the fact that there have been some concerns recently over verbal slip-ups that donald trump has had on the campaign trail. is that something that could happen when he's under oath today, when he's making his testimony. that could cause problems for him in the future. but, again, in terms of have i heard that he's going to make a scene, try to take command of the stage when he's actually in the courtroom, i have not, but i have heard there is a likelihood he will try to command the area outside of the courtroom to tell his own narrative. >> all right. well, we have our best reporters and anchors in all the right locations. keep us posted as to what you see and hear over the next several minutes. >> we could be hearing things publicly in the 9:00 hour, they head into court and 10:00 hour there will be a lot coming out in the next minutes. as we wait for donald trump to arrive to court, what could this testimony from the stand mean for his business empire and for his campaign? and is he going to actually testify or could he still plead the fifth? there is a lot to discuss here. that's next. plus, we're also live in tel aviv as the israeli military says that it has effectively cut gaza into two and is advancing toward gaza city. the weekend of huge strikes there, the developments on the israel-hamas war next. we're standing by for donald trump to arrive at the courthouse in manhattan. his business empire at stake. he's getting ready to take the stand. >> just minutes away. with us now elie honig, former assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york. also with us former manhattan prosecutor jeremy isa salan. i mentioned there has been some speculation that trump when he gets on the stand will go in there and try to blow things up. by that i mean derail the trial, go after the judge, go after the clerk. the reason being -- and this is a quote from alan dershowitz in a rolling stone article -- he says, quote, when a defendant honestly believes he can't get a fair trial from the judge one of the tactics is to antagonize the judge to the point of causing reversible errors. in other words, go after the judge, taunt the judge, draw the judge into doing something that will hurt the case going forward. >> you normally would never say poke the bear of the judge, that the ramifications could be quite serious, but when you're looking in this situation it's potentially -- potentially a double win for donald trump, and what i mean by that is you have his court of public opinion which we know that's where he's going with regularity, it's a campaign fundraising opportunity and galvanize the masses, but when you already have to a certain and large extent lost because there's already been a ruling by the judge as to this fraud then this is the opportunity to say i'm going to push that judge to a point where he or she, in this case judge engoron may do something inappropriate that results in a reversal error. you're setting up an appeal possibly. >> how is that possible? when this is not a judge trial, this is a judge-only trial to go in there with the intent and think it's going to be a win to blow things up? >> i'm not sure it's a conservative strategy, lowercase c, but it's a strategy when you're desperate, when you've already lost as donald trump has. one of the counts the judge has already found against donald trump, a persistent fraud count. this is going to be a test for this judge as well because the judge has to resist taking the bait. >> keep talking. we're looking at donald trump arriving at the courthouse as we speak. continue, please. >> this same donald trump has already been poking the judge both in the court proceedings but also in public on social media. donald trump has said over the top things about the judge, technically does not violate the gag order because it only applies to the judge's staff, but this judge is going to have to sort of find the sweet spot here between on the one hand keeping donald trump in line, not letting donald trump make this trial into a circus, but on the other hand not sort of lashing out at donald trump, not making a potentially incorrect ruling against donald trump just in the heat of the moment. i want to watch the judge here. >> can we role play for a second here? >> sure. >> if i'm donald trump and i'm on the witness stand and i'm saying, witch-hunt, democratic judge, democratic clerk, what does the judge then say? >> first he says, mr. trump, objection, presumably there will be an objection, objection, sustained, mr. trump. to stop. please stop what you're saying. objection sustained and i'm striking what you said from the record. i'm removing it from the record. >> and then i say donald trump, witch-hunt, democratic judge. >> i'm going to warn you once again, this is an inappropriate answer and again i'm striking it from the record. if you do it again i may have to strike your entire testimony. >> and then just for emphasis trump goes democratic judge, witch-hunt. >> i think the judge will say that's t i've warned you several times, i strike your testimony, i strike your testimony from the record, i'm going to consider this case without t you have disobeyed this court over and over again, i've given you many, many chances. >> if this is a choose your own adventure we're playing out that's avenue a. avenue b could be pleading the fifth when he takes the stand? >> yes, it could. i always loved those books as a kid, the choose your own adventure. >> me, too. >> i just want to follow up. there's always the possibility, though i don't think it will happen that the judge can remand trump, basically put you in whether it's temporary for the afternoon or overnight, that would be a catastrophe for the case and a win for donald trump. >> in a cell? >> correct. in a cell. do i think that would happen, that would be extreme, i don't think that will happen. i don't think that's the way it goes. as to the fifth -- >> yes. >> -- this is not a criminal case where i or you or anyone could say i'm not going to speak and hurt myself. i will take that fifth. you can do that in a civil case but at the same time this judge and there's not a jury here can say i'm going to have an adverse inference -- >> he has already lost, why give them anything else? >> there's also the deniability and we've said this and i've said this to you, john, before and i believe to you, kate. you admit what you can't deny and deny what you can't admit. i may have seen or done this but it wasn't my fault. he's going to push off blame. >> legally speaking this is an easy strategic decision, you take the fifth. all indications from trump's camp and people are that he will not take the fifth and he will, in fact, testify. if you are just doing this by the book as a lawyer you say, okay, you have the right to take the fifth even though this is a civil case. there are any number of prosecutors who already have charged you with various crimes not relating to this fraud but they could still do that. why would you take the stand, testify and give them any opening, any basis to revive an investigation? on the flip side as kate said i would say, donald trump, you've already lost one of the counts in this case. there is going to be a penalty imposed. we're going to appeal for sure, but by testifying you don't really stand to gain much here unless of course you're playing the pr and political game which is out of my court as a lawyer. >> donald trump arrived to the courthouse just minutes ago, presumably he will speak in front of cameras before he walks into the courtroom. we are standing by to hear that. we've asked a lot about what he might do and the judge might do. i want to talk about the state here. he is a state witness today. the state has called him to the stand. what is it that they want to do? how will they approach this? >> they want to confront donald trump, doesn't necessarily have to be aggressive or over the top but they want to confront him with documents, with tangible, objective documents. do you know what i would ask as the first question, i would say to donald trump how big is your apartment? this is the famous apartment that's 10,000 square feet, he claimed it's 30,000 square feet. >> 3 x what it actually was. >> if he says 10,000 square feet which it is rounding off here you say, okay, this is this document where you said 30,000 square feet. that's fams. if he says it's 30,000 square feet you call a surveyor or something that says it's not 30,000 feet. you have to know what you have locked in and you have to have documents. they did this to eric trump last week. when he tried to deny things they had emails showing that he was involved in the creation of the financial statements. that's how i would go about this. >> so trump's attorneys didn't question either of the sons when they took the stand last week. why would they or wouldn't they want to question donald trump? and they would be going obviously second here in doing so. >> almost like they're crossing their own witness. >> yeah. >> absolutely. it's different, there's different types of ways you can ask the questions but depending on what donald trump says and how he acts will dictate the response from his team, his attorneys. >> do you think that could change kind of as the day progresses their thinking in this? >> i think so. keep in mind that he is not the average witness meaning i think most witnesses and certainly my clients are going to be controlled and you never know exactly what they're going to say but you really have an idea where this guy will go off the teleprompter even if it is in front of him. if he does something extremely self-destructive as opposed to i don't know or i don't recall or the fifth, then there is the greater possibility that his attorneys will try to fix that error to make sure that record is correct but at the same time they don't want to give him too much air and oxygen to damn himself further on the stand. >> cleanup on donald trump in the midst of a court hearing could be -- >> a big spill. >> much more to come. >> we are live at the courthouse, outside trump tower, inside the courthouse, watching this very carefully. in the meantime, there is a brand-new poll out this morning that shows what the impact of convictions in the criminal cases would be or rulings against donald trump in this case might be. how could that imp