Trump is doing exactly what some people are suggesting he should do. Continue to behave as if there was no gag order. After all, these $1000 fines probably mean very little to him.
At this point, Trump is pretty much daring Merchan to throw him in Jail. It's one thing to come up with a lame gag order that seemingly violates every issue of fairness we have. After all, there is nothing preventing anyone associated with the Trail to say whatever they want about Trump. But if Trump responds, then he gets hit with a fine. But it would add insult to injury if he were to toss the President in jail.
The biggest problem for Merchan is that he likely understands that everything he is doing on this case will be questioned under appeal and that he not on particularly good standing right now. As suggested by many, we are two weeks into the trial and there has been no mention by the prosecution of the actual falsification of business records that Trump was charged with. The prosecution has spent all of their time basically whining about how negative stories were buried during the 2016 campaign, something that is not illegal in New York or anywhere in the United States. When you cannot even provide a reasonable explanation of what crimes the jury is hearing about (suggesting that the indictment for falsifying business records can be proven by what the former editor of the National Enquirer with the last name Pecker has to say about buried stories, well we have jumped the shark on this being a legitimate criminal trial.
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