Bernie Madoff, left. Donald Trump, right.
Bernie Madoff and Donald Trump. Trump's New York fraud-trial judge asked that the two be compared.
  • Donald Trump's fraud-trial judge asked a pointed question in the New York attorney general's closings.
  • "How would you compare the fraud you're alleging to the Madoff Ponzi scheme?" he asked on Thursday.
  • "It's smaller," a lawyer for the AG said, adding both cases demonstrated a sense of entitlement.

In a possible bad omen for Donald Trump, the judge in his New York fraud trial interrupted Thursday's closing arguments to ask a lawyer for the New York attorney general's office to compare him with Bernie Madoff.