Why can’t Donald Trump stop verbally attacking judges, prosecutors – and anybody who crosses him?

Donald Trump, whose hush money trial began on Monday with discussion of whether he should be held in contempt for his social media posts, has over the course of the last year spent more and more of his time attacking judges, prosecutors, and anyone involved in the legal cases against him.

The hush money trial, which comes after the former president was charged with 34 counts of business fraud last year, will begin with jury selection, a process which could take days or weeks and go through hundreds of prospective jurors.

The charges relate to the hush money paid to adult actor Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election, which was logged as legal expenses.

On Thursday, Mr Trump referred to Attorney General Merrick and Special Counsel Jack Smith as being part of President Joe Biden’s “crew of Hacks and Thugs,” calling Mr Smith “deranged”. He also slammed the judges overseeing his criminal and civil cases in New York as “dishonest, politically biased, and conflicted”.

On Monday morning, just hours before the trial was set to begin, he called the case a “witch hunt” as he argued for the trial to “be ended by the highly conflicted presiding Judge”.

It’s become an increasingly common refrain from Mr Trump, who appears unable to stop his attacks even when they put him in increased legal, personal, and financial jeopardy.

A litany of pundits have argued that if Mr Trump could just stop talking about himself and start talking about the issues voters care about, he’d be much likelier to win re-election this fall.

“He’s unable to tolerate evidence of his own fallibility, and [he’s] not willing to take accountability publicly, he seems to have to insist on being right all the time,” Dr Leonard Glass, an associate clinical