Former United States president Donald Trump’s back-to-back poll wins in two states for the Republican presidential nomination race have been dampened by two consecutive court losses against writer E. Jean Carroll.

A jury in New York ordered Trump on Friday to pay $83.3 million to compensate Carroll, whom he was found to have sexually assaulted and defamed.

“This is a great victory for every woman who stands up when she’s been knocked down, and a huge defeat for every bully who has tried to keep a woman down,” Carroll said in a statement.

The civil order, which prompted an audible gasp in the federal court, far exceeds the more than $10 million in damages for defamation that Carroll had sought.

The order was comprised of $65 million in punitive damages after the jury found Trump acted maliciously in his many public comments about Carroll, $7.3 million in compensatory damages and $11 million for a reputational repair program.

Trump — whom a jury found liable for sexually assaulting Carroll in a separate federal civil case in New York — used his Truth Social platform to fire off a spate of insulting messages attacking Carroll, the trial and the judge, whom he called “an extremely abusive individual.”

Trump lashed out almost immediately, calling the verdict “ridiculous” in a statement and promising to appeal.

“This is not America,” Trump said as he left the courtroom following his short appearance.

The 77-year-old briefly took the stand on Thursday to deny he instructed anyone to harm Carroll with his statements.

Last year, another federal jury found Trump liable for sexually assaulting Carroll in a department store dressing room in 1996 and subsequently defaming her in 2022, when he called her a “complete con job.”

Trump had been in court while he campaigned ahead of the New Hampshire primary, which he won handily over his only remaining challenger Nikki Haley, as he closes in on becoming the Republican candidate in the November election against Biden.

WITH AFP