(The Center Square) – Former President Donald Trump didn’t mention his criminal trial Tuesday when he entered the courtroom for the sixth day of his hush money trial.
Instead, he focused on politics in the run-up to the 2024 election. Last November, Trump insisted it would be “very doable” to campaign from the courthouse. As the trial continues, Trump has used it as a platform for his presidential campaign at every turn.
On Tuesday, Trump was focused on the presidential and state primaries in the 2024 swing state of Pennsylvania. Surrounded by cameras, Trump stopped to speak to members of the media with a clear message.
“We hope the people get out there and vote. It’s important to vote to let them know that we’re coming on November 5th, we’re coming big,” he said from a cordoned-off media area. “Today is preliminary, but still, it is very important.”
Trump also used the moment to endorse Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick. Then Trump blamed President Joe Biden for the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University and elsewhere.
In November, Trump predicted he would be campaigning from the courthouse as he faced felony criminal charges in four cases.
“As the leader of the Opposition Party, I should not be forced to campaign from inside a courthouse, which is very doable, but not very Democratic or convenient,” Trump posted on Truth Social at the time. “This is where they want me to spend my time and money, but is not the way our system is supposed to work.”
Trump has used his legal problems as a fundraising pitch and asked donors to help him out.
Trump is set to spend four days a week in the New York courtroom for the next six to eight weeks. Trump pleaded not guilty in April 2023 to 34 felony counts related to charges he paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels through a lawyer ahead of the 2016 presidential election and covered it up as a legal expense before being elected president.
Trump has said the legal challenges amount to a politically charged witch hunt designed to interfere with his bid to re-take the White House.
Polling shows that Trump supporters are loyal and unlikely to change their opinion about the 77-year-old presidential candidate even if he were to be convicted.
The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll found that 84% of Trump voters would vote for him in November even if he was convicted of a felony before the election.
Trump is the first former president to be indicted. He faces 88 felony charges spread across four cases in Florida, Georgia, New York and Washington. Federal prosecutors brought two of those cases. Trump faces state charges in New York and Georgia.
Under New York state law, falsifying business records in the first degree is a Class E felony that carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison.
Even if convicted and sentenced to jail, Trump could continue his campaign to return to the White House.
