- Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying company records
- The criminal trial comes as Trump makes a bid for the White House
- The ex-president plans to continue his campaign around court hearings
- The Hush Money case is the first in four criminal cases against Trump
Donald Trump will be off the rails for quite some time in 2024 as he faces criminal charges related to hush money payments, but his campaign is moving full steam ahead.
The ex-president is the first to ever be tried criminally in US history, coming as he makes a third bid for the presidency as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
Jury selection in the hush money case began Monday and the trial is expected to last about six weeks.
Trump’s campaign said it will make the most of the trial days on Wednesdays and over the weekend. The president has his own plane, allowing for one-day trips for campaign stops.
The campaign says the ex-president will continue to deliver his message with in-person and virtual events when he’s not in court.
Former President Donald Trump is in court Monday as his criminal trial in connection with hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels gets underway. He is the first former president in history to face criminal charges
Trump speaks outside the courtroom after arriving at Manhattan Criminal Court on Monday before jury selection began
His campaign claims the trials and indictments have backfired on Democrats and Biden and expect this case to be no different.
When Trump appears in court, his team believes all attention will be focused on him and his message.
“Joe Biden and the Democrats’ entire strategy to defeat President Trump is to keep him away from campaigns by locking him in a courtroom,” National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
“President Trump will continue to fight for the truth in court and share his winning message during his campaign,” she said.
Trump’s trial will last a total of seven days in April, and almost all of those days will likely involve jury selection. It’s unlikely there will be any live testimony this month at all.
Trump supporters gathered outside Manhattan Criminal Court on Monday, April 15, 2024
When he appeared in court on Monday, the president described the trial as a “political persecution.”
His campaign adviser Jason Miller on Monday simply tweeted “Wall to Wall” with an image of all the networks broadcasting Trump’s court entrance.
At a rally in Schnecksville, PA, prior to the start of the trial, Trump spent a significant amount of time decrying the case, telling his supporters it was an honor to be indicted and telling them to “have fun have with watching’.
And when Trump appeared in court Monday for the first day of jury selection, the ex-president’s social media pages actively posted messages defending Trump.
Trump’s senior campaign adviser noted that the networks carried Trump’s comments outside the courtroom on Monday with the post “Wall to wall.”
Trump told his supporters to “have fun watching” his trial at his rally on Saturday, two days before jury duty was set to begin on Monday.
A Trump supporter at his rally in Schnecksville, PA on April 13, 2024
One of the president’s events already on the books despite the lawsuit is an upcoming fundraiser in Charlotte, North Carolina on Saturday, April 20.
Tickets cost as much as $250,000 per person, according to the invitation. The fundraiser will raise money for the Trump 47 joint fundraising committee.
On the eve of the start of the hush money case, Trump was already raising money for the start of the trial.
“My SHAM process starts tomorrow. Before I go to court, I need to know that EVERY TRUMP-LOVING PATRIOT has joined my advisory board,” said an email seeking contributions.
While Trump has lagged behind Biden in fundraising, his past courtroom appearances have proven to be a powerful fundraising tool.
At his political events, supporters wear T-shirts decorated with his mugshot from another business.
The hush money case could be the first of four criminal cases the ex-president faces this year.
The three other criminal cases against him include an election interference case in Georgia, the federal election interference case surrounding Jan. 6 and charges over the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago.