The View's Sara Haines Clashes With Co-Hosts After Claiming Donald Trump's Fraud Ruling Seems 'Excessive'

The ladies of The View got heated during the Tuesday, February 20, episode of the talk show while discussing the recent ruling in which Donald Trump was ordered to pay $354 million in his New York fraud case.

While the costars are usually on the same page about the ex-president, Sara Haines revealed she thought the decision was a bit unfair, sparking disbelief from her co-hosts.

"Although I always agree with someone being accountable and held to task — in a little bias, I love seeing Trump held to task because he rarely has been — I do think, and this is not due to any emotion toward Trump, I think the punishment was excessive," she confessed.

Haines pointed to the number in particular, explaining she felt it was too much considering there were no victims involved.

"My criticism of this is not because I feel any sorrow for Donald Trump, but I do think that he is an instigator of sowing distrust in institutions. It’s his one thing. Everyone’s completely kind of against him, it’s a political witch hunt, it’s personal ... this ruling to the number it has been held is slightly playing into the optics that this was political and personal," explained the TV star.

"But the number was proven by evidence," Sunny Hostin pointed out, with Whoopi Goldberg following up, "It didn’t come out of nowhere."

"There’s a paper trail," added Hostin.

"I just think the number is excessive to prove the point and hold him accountable," Haines said, to which Hostin quipped, "Not if you say that you have a billion dollars."

After more back and forth, Goldberg stated, "Bottom line is, the court did what they were supposed to do. That's their finding. Either we say we want people to have to go to trial and get their comeuppance or we don’t."

As OK! reported, the businessman was ordered to pay $354 million after being found liable for fraudulent business practices. His eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, were fined $4 million each.

The ex-POTUS is also prohibited from running businesses in New York for three years.

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"Overall, Donald Trump rarely responded to the questions asked, and he frequently interjected long, irrelevant speeches on issues far beyond the scope of the trial," Judge Arthur Engoron stated of the decision. "His refusal to answer the questions directly, or in some cases, at all, severely compromised his credibility. The accountants created these 'compilations' based on data submitted by the Trump entities. In order to borrow more and at lower rates, defendants submitted blatantly false financial data to the accountants, resulting in fraudulent financial statements."