'Tremendous pressure': Trump seeks to secure GOP nomination before first criminal verdict

Former President Donald Trump is hoping to complete the transition from presidential candidate to 2024 Republican presidential nominee before he is possibly convicted of a crime in one of his four upcoming trials, according to a new report.

The Messenger recently reported that the former president's campaign is seeking to overwhelm the early state nominating contests (Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada) to build an aura of inevitability. By doing so, one former GOP strategist argued that Trump can then parlay his status as the presumptive Republican nominee into a political shield to protect him in court.

"The Justice Department could end up under tremendous pressure from others and even internally once Trump becomes the nominee de facto or de jure. We are in terra incognita," said Rick Wilson, who is chair of anti-Trump Republican group the Lincoln Project. "The strategy of harvesting as many delegates as quickly as possible isn’t about winning the nomination at this point, it’s to tell the Department of Justice and the courts that he’s now the nominee and claim this is all political."

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According to the Messenger, Trump is hoping to more easily dismiss the numerous criminal prosecutions against him as "election interference" if he wins a plurality of delegates as quickly as possible. The former president reportedly worked with state GOP officials across the country to quietly move up primary dates in delegate-rich states. One notable example is California, whose 169 delegates make up a significant chunk of the 1,215 delegates needed to clinch the nomination.

California is of the 17 states and territories with primaries on March 5 — also known as Super Tuesday. Those contests take place one day after Trump's DC election interference trial is scheduled to begin. And approximately 70% of all available delegates in the 2024 GOP primaries and caucuses will have been awarded by the end of March. This means it's possible Trump could very well clinch the nomination before he gets his first criminal verdict, assuming his polling position remains the same.

"I believe Trump is already the nominee, but when he gets the official delegates, the Democrats will have no more excuses for why they are trying to kick him off the ballot," said Ric Grenell, Trump's former acting director of national intelligence, in an interview with the Messenger. "They will have to admit what we already know: Trump is the nominee and they're trying to persecute the leader of the political opposition."

According to RealClearPolitics polling aggregate data, the former president still maintains a significant lead over his closest opponents, with nearly two-thirds of likely Republican primary voters in support of Trump's 2024 bid.

READ MORE: The GOP primary will be effectively over before Trump gets his first criminal verdict: report

Click here to read the Messenger's full report.