"These are all articles over the last day and a half," Donald Trump said in the court hallway just after 2 p.m. as proceedings wrapped early for Passover.

"They're very good articles and they tell you the case is a sham. It shouldn't be tried, it shouldn't have been submitted."

"This is like reading a novel," he said.

"It's totally unconstitutional," Trump again claimed of the gag order imposed on him by the judge. "I don't believe it's never, not to this extent, ever happened before. I'm not allowed to defend myself and yet other people are allowed to say whatever they want about me. Very, very unfair."

The ex-president flashed a large stack of printed-out online news articles one day last week at the end of court proceedings, too.

Judge Merchan is weighing whether Trump violated the gag order, as prosecutors argue, and whether to fine him $1,000 each for 10 alleged violations of it.

With David Pecker still on the stand, court is now off until Thursday morning at 9:30.

We're off every Wednesday while Justice Juan Merchan deals with the other cases on his docket.

Court ended for the day with David Pecker on the stand testifying about the National Enquirer's plan to "catch and kill" a story from Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal about a year-long affair she says she had with Donald Trump.

Pecker said he mostly dealt with Trump's then-fixer Michael Cohen, but that Trump called him about McDougal while Pecker was meeting with an Enquirer investor in New Jersey.

Pecker wanted to buy the story on Trump's behalf to bar McDougal from going public, but Trump initially feared that the truth would later emerge, Pecker said.

"He said, 'I don’t buy any stories. Any time you do anything like this, it always gets out,'" Pecker testified.

Pecker, Cohen and Trump later worked together to pay McDougal $150,000 to silence her -- in a payment that is now a key component of Trump's criminal trial, prosecutors say.

David Pecker said that he bought a doorman's phony story claiming Donald Trump had an illegitimate child because it would have been an embarrassment to Trump's 2016 presidential run.

"It would have been very embarrassing for the campaign," he said about the article getting out.

Pecker agreed to pay doorman Dino Sajudin $30,000 for exclusive rights to the story, Pecker testified.

He said that if he had purchased the story, it would have been the tabloid's most popular article since Elvis Presley's death.

“If I thought it was true, it would have probably been the biggest sale of the National Enquirer since the death of Elvis Presley," Pecker said.

(A photo of Elvis dead in his coffin was one of the highest-selling issues of the National Enquirer in the magazine's history when it was published in 1977. The magazine had paid a family member to covertly take the pictures with a small camera at a viewing of the body.)

At one point, Michael Cohen offered that Trump would take a DNA test that would show he was not the father because Trump is German-Irish and not Hispanic like the woman in question. But Pecker said he assured him that would not be necessary.

"I said I believe it's a big story, and I believe it's important that it should be removed from the market," Pecker recalled of a convo with Cohen.

Cohen responded that “the boss will be very pleased,” Pecker said. He testified earlier that Cohen had referred to Trump as "the boss."

Pecker said he later learned that the story was "100% not true."

David Pecker testified that he called Donald Trump fixer Michael Cohen right after getting a tip about a Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have knowledge of Trump having a secret love child with a maid.

Pecker said Enquirer editor Dylan Howard "came to me with a tip from a source" that Trump had had an "illegitimate girl" with a maid who "worked in Mr. Trump's house."

"I immediately called Michael Cohen and I described to him exactly what I was told by Dylan," Pecker said.

Pecker was asked how Cohen responded.

"'Absolutely not true, but I’ll check it out,'" Cohen said, according to Pecker.

David Pecker testified that Donald Trump introduced him to political adviser Steve Bannon, and that Trump claimed the pair "would get along really well."

"[Trump] said, 'You and Steven [Bannon] would get along really well,' " Pecker said about the meeting he had with Trump.

Pecker said Trump told him Bannon had complimented the National Enquirer on some of its stories about Trump's political opponents — which attacked then-presidential candidates — in a mutual agreement that would benefit Trump and the tabloid's sales.

"He liked them very much and he had some ideas," Pecker said Trump told him.

He added that Trump "said he thought all of us could work very well together."

Pecker told the court that he sent a box of magazines with negative headlines about Trump's foes to Bannon, which included stories about Hillary Clinton.

The publisher then said Bannon had suggested that the National Enquirer should send a reporter on "The Hannity Show" to discuss the articles live on the air.

Trump's attorneys objected to the prosecution's questioning, which resulted in a sidebar where Emil Bove slammed the line of queries as "eliciting hearsay arguments." Prosecutors then moved on from the Bannon questioning.

His eyes scanning the rows of reporters in the court gallery, Donald Trump just walked back to the defense table.

"Where's Melania?," a reporter could be heard yelling in Trump's direction in the hallway.

There have been no sightings to date of Trump's wife or children at his trial.

Jurors are now being shown some of the National Enquirer's attacks on Ben Carson and Ted Cruz during the 2016 presidential campaign.

One negative story attacked Carson on Oct. 7, 2015, with the headline, "Bungling Surgeon Ben Carson Left sponge in patient’s brain!"

Two critical Cruz headlines were, "Ted Cruz Shame By Porn Star," published on Feb. 12, 2016, and "Boozin' Ted Cruz Fixin' to Lose," published on Feb. 19, 2016.

David Pecker said he would speak to Michael Cohen, then Trump's attorney, who would comment on them and adjust the stories if they needed tinkering.

"We would send him PDFs of the story before it was published to show him the direction the story was going," Pecker said about his correspondence with Cohen at the time.

He added that Cohen "would comment on them."

"We would add content... based on the information Michael Cohen shared," Pecker said.

When describing the August 2015 meeting at Trump Tower, David Pecker said he warned Donald Trump that women would try to sell stories about him as his presidential campaign heated up.

"I was the person that thought that there would be a lot of women to come out try to sell their stories because Mr. Trump was well known as the most eligible bachelor and dated the most beautiful women," Pecker said.

"It is my experience that when someone runs for office like this, it's very common for these women to call the National Enquirer and try to sell their stories."

David Pecker worked with Donald Trump and Michael Cohen to identify and "kill" women's stories about Trump before the 2016 election, he testified just now.

"They asked me what can I do and what my magazines can do to help the campaign," Pecker testified.

"Thinking about it, I said what I would do is I would run or publish positive stories about Mr. Trump, and publish negative stories about his opponents," Pecker added.

"I said I would be your eyes and ears, and then I said that anything I hear in the marketplace, if I hear anything about women selling stories, I would notify Michael Cohen," Pecker testified.

Donald Trump took to his Truth Social platform around 11 a.m. to vent after a hearing on the gag order imposed on the ex-president, saying Justice Juan Merchan "has taken away my constitutional right to free speech":

"HIGHLY CONFLICTED, TO PUT IT MILDLY, JUDGE JUAN MERCHAN, HAS TAKEN AWAY MY CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH," Trump wrote.

"EVERYBODY IS ALLOWED TO TALK AND LIE ABOUT ME, BUT I AM NOT ALLOWED TO DEFEND MYSELF. THIS IS A KANGAROO COURT, AND THE JUDGE SHOULD RECUSE HIMSELF!"

Merchan did not immediately rule whether Trump violated the gag order and will be fined up to $10,000. The order does not prohibit the ex-prez from slamming the judge.

David Pecker is testifying about the first time Donald Trump introduced him to Michael Cohen in 2007.

Pecker said Trump told him that if any "negative stories comes out," Pecker should consult with Cohen, then Trump's attorney.

Pecker also said Trump is "very cautious, very frugal" about his money.