Trump’s difficult 'trial schedule' an 'unprecedented constraint on a presidential campaign'

Now that they have enough delegates, Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump have officially secured the nominations from their parties in the 2024 GOP presidential primary.

Many polls released in March show a close race, with Trump enjoying narrow single-digit leads of 2 percent (The Economist/YouGov and Yahoo News), 4 percent (Forbes/HarrisX) or 1 percent (Morning Consult). Biden, however, leads Trump by 2 percent in an Emerson College poll released on March 7.

But Trump enters the general election with a great deal of baggage, including four criminal indictments and a variety of civil lawsuits. Trump's first criminal trial — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr.'s hush money/falsifying business records prosecution — is set to begin in New York City on Monday, March 25.

READ MORE: Why 'skeptics are wrong' to underestimate Manhattan DA’s Trump case: analysis

In an article published on March 14, Daily Beast reporters Jake Lahut and Jose Pagliery take a close look at Trump's difficult schedule — one that will find him juggling court appearances and campaign activities in the weeks and months ahead.

"Although he's been leading President Joe Biden in polling," Lahut and Pagliery explain, "Trump is far behind in fundraising, and he desperately needs to make up a cash discrepancy that could hobble his 2024 campaign. There's just one big problem: Trump is going to have to park his jet in New York for the crucial early months of the presidential campaign, thanks to his upcoming trial in Manhattan court."

The journalists continue, "Once the Stormy Daniels hush money trial begins on March 25, the former president will be in court four days a week for much of the subsequent two months. His only free day to leave the city for campaigning and fundraising will be Wednesdays. The trial schedule will be an unprecedented constraint on a leading presidential campaign."

Lahut and Pagliery point out that this spring, there will be "plenty of told-you-so moments" among Republicans who "raised warnings about the risk of nominating someone with such extensive legal baggage in a tight presidential election."

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One such Republican is conservative Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served as White House communications adviser in the Trump Administration but endorsed former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the GOP presidential primary and is now an outspoken Trump critic.

Griffin, a co-host of ABC's "The View," told the Beast, "Republicans were warned, but they decided they'd rather go with the guy with (88) pending felony charges who will be campaigning between court dates…. They could have had a candidate like Nikki Haley who would have spent the next eight months crisscrossing the country making the case to voters and boosting other Republicans. If Republicans lose the House and the Senate — which skews in their favor — they'll have themselves and Trump to thank."

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Trump, the reporters observe, "will be stuck in Room 1530 of the criminal courthouse in Lower Manhattan for most of the spring."

"In the aftermath of the Daniels case," according to Lahut and Pagliery, "Trump will likely start the summer with a short break from courtrooms and be able to hit the road. But that path could look markedly different depending on the outcome of this first criminal trial."

The journalists add, "If he's acquitted in New York, he'll have perhaps a few weeks before starting a federal trial in Washington, D.C. for election interference or one in Florida for hoarding documents at Mar-a-Lago. That is, if the Supreme Court doesn't eviscerate the cases first. But if New York jurors find him guilty, he might only have a short time before getting sentenced to imprisonment — taking him off the campaign trail entirely."

READ MORE: Michael Cohen predicts Trump will be found 'guilty on all charges' in Manhattan trial

Read the Daily Beast's full report at this link (subscription required).