'Don't treat him like a child!' CNN panel slams judges for going soft on Trump

Reacting to Donald Trump's refusal to abide by gag orders imposed by Judges Tonya Chutkan and Arthur Engoron, two CNN analysts complained that it is time to seriously drop the hammer on the former president in order to get his attention.

To both CNN contributor John Avlon and legal analyst Elie Hoenig, Trump is being treated like a petulant child and that measures beyond financial penalties the former president can easily pay need to be taken.

After co-hosts Phil Mattingly and Poppy Harlow shared an assorted number of inflammatory social media posts Trump has made recently, Hoenig explained why the fines aren't working.

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

"This is a discipline problem, really, first and foremost, by the judge," Hoenig said of Judge Arthur Engoron. "He [Trump] can't help himself. It's like if you have kids, you all know this situation: sometimes you have a big punishment that they know you really won't impose, and then there's a bunch of smaller punishments that the kids aren't really afraid of, and that's what we have here."

"The big punishment is imprisonment," he suggested. "Any of these judges can theoretically imprison Donald Trump, but he knows that's almost certain not to happen. The small punishments, which he doesn't really care about, are the financial punishments. He violated the other gag order twice so far and has been fined $5,000 and $10,000. I think in Donald Trump's mind, it's great. 'I'll keep doing this,' so I'm not exactly sure what these judges do other than hit him with really, really severe financial sanctions."

'The infantilization of Donald Trump continues," Avlon interjected, "literally in that argument."

"Look, this is a case where you need to apply the law fairly and equally, and adjust it for the fact that he can simply discard what to normal working people will be serious financial penalties and act irresponsibly in a way that shows continued contempt for our courts and our system of justice."

"Can't be allowed to do it," he insisted. "Don't treat him like a child! He's a former president, he should be held to a higher standard, not a lower one."

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