Donald Trump Jr. asked courtroom sketch artist to 'make me look sexy'
When former President Donald Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., testified in a New York courtroom earlier this week in the Trump Organization's civil fraud trial, he reportedly had a specific request for courtroom sketch artist Jane Rosenberg.
"Make me look sexy," Trump Jr. told Rosenberg.
Reuters reported that Trump Jr. made the request of Rosenberg after seeing a viral sketch of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried that turned out to be fake. In that sketch, the cryptocurrency billionaire-turned-convicted felon was depicted as conventionally handsome, with a defined jawline, a well-toned physique, and what the Guardian called "artfully messy hair." According to Reuters, Trump Jr. said that sketch made Bankman-Fried look like a "superstar."
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"It doesn't look anything like him, doesn't look anything like Sam Bankman-Fried," Rosenberg recalled telling Trump Jr. "[A]nd there's no one in the courtroom drawing that."
Rosenberg's actual sketch of Sam Bankman-Fried was much closer to how Bankman-Fried — who was convicted on all counts Thursday and faces a possible sentence of more than 100 years in prison — looks in real life. Rosenberg described his face as "unusual" and drew him with scruffy black hair, protruding ears, and a pointy nose.
As for Donald Trump Jr.'s sketch, Rosenberg drew him sitting on the witness stand with a worried facial expression, his signature salt-and-pepper facial hair, and a powder blue tie.
Trump Jr. was called to the stand earlier this week to testify in the ongoing civil fraud trial, in which his family's real estate business is accused of giving falsely inflated asset values to the state in order to obtain more favorable insurance rates and tax breaks. New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking $250 million in damages, and further punishments for the former president and his adult children — including banning them from being officers in any New York-based company in the future.
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The former president is slated for testimony in the trial on Monday.
