Trump being stuck in court during peak campaign season is 'a major disaster': experts

26 April 2024

Former President Donald Trump is not only having to spend significant sums of money to defend himself in court, but he's also losing valuable time that could be spent on the campaign stump.

That's according to several political experts, who recently told Newsweek that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee being prevented from engaging with voters in swing states could hurt him in the long run.

"A general can't lead from the rear-and neither can presidential candidates," Boston University associate professor of politics Thomas Whalen said. "By spending the bulk of his time in a courtroom, Trump is neglecting his political garden. This is a major disaster for the Trump campaign, plain and simple."

The 45th president of the United States is still in the early stages of his criminal trial in Manhattan, where he is defending himself from 34 felony counts of falsifying business records relating to an alleged scheme to pay off women who claimed to have had extramarital affairs with him. The trial is expected to last up to six weeks, meaning that as a criminal defendant who has to be present during proceedings, Trump will be missing out on campaigning in must-win battleground states like Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has been hitting the campaign trial in numerous swing states, garnering voters' attention and time while his opponent is stuck in a Manhattan courtroom. After blitzing battleground states in the wake of his fiery State of the Union address, Biden has closed in on Trump's polling lead and is in a virtual tie with his GOP rival in the latest national polls.

"This is truly unchartered territory for any candidate for the presidency," Heath Brown, an associate professor of public policy at City University of New York, told Newsweek. "However, while some may make the case that any attention is good attention for a candidate, I can't imagine a campaign aide believing former President Trump's ongoing legal troubles are a good thing for his chances."

"Anything that takes a candidate's focus and resources away from campaigning is a bad thing for their campaign," he added.

Whether Trump is found guilty or acquitted in the Manhattan trial, he'll have three more criminal trials to contend with this year, meaning the 45th president of the United States won't be able to spend hardly any time on the campaign trial between all of his courtroom appearances.

Trump has not yet had a definitive date nailed down for any of his three remaining trials, however. His classified documents trial in the Southern District of Florida is still on hold as U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon — whom Trump appointed to her lifetime position in 2020 — is still mired in the pre-trial process and has since scuttled the initial May 20 trial date. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is still awaiting a trial date to be announced by Judge Scott McAfee after successfully fending off the defense's efforts to remove her from the case, though she has suggested an August trial date.

The ex-president's DC election interference trial was originally scheduled for March 4, but that date was struck from the calendar amid Trump's ongoing appeals rooted in his absolute immunity claim. If the Supreme Court ultimately strikes down the former president's claim of absolute broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts, U.S. District judge Tanya Chutkan will likely schedule a trial date shortly after.

Click here to read Newsweek's full report.

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