TRENTON, NJ (AP) — After a long week in class, Donald Trump is heading to the Jersey Shore. And his campaign says he will be joined by “tens of thousands” of his friends.
Trump, the presumptive The Republican presidential candidate is hoping to draw what his team calls a “mega-crowd” to a rally Saturday night in the southern New Jersey resort town of Wildwood. The hearing will take place 150 miles south of the New York courthouse, where he was forced to spend most weekdays sitting in silence during his crime. silence, money test.
The seaside rally is designed to serve as a show of force at a critical time for Trump, a presidential candidate known for drawing huge crowds.
Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said the “tens of thousands” of expected attendees would be a notable contrast to the number that typically shows up at President Joe Biden’s political events, which Miller described as just “eight circles, two of which are empty. »
Trump’s rally in deep-blue New Jersey comes less than six months before Election Day.
The former president’s extraordinary legal woes, which include three other unrelated criminal casesbecame a central element of the campaign.
Trump has repeatedly accused the Biden administration and Democratic officials in New York of using the legal system to block his return to the White House. Prosecutors say the former president broke the law to cover up an affair with a porn actor that allegedly hurt his first presidential bid.
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And while Trump will almost certainly benefit from his legal woes on Saturday, a judge’s silence order — and threat of imprisonment — will limit Trump’s ability to publicly comment on witnesses, jurors and a few other related people at the New York trial, which is expected to take a long time. most of the month. The judge in charge of the case has already Trump fined $9,000 for violating the order and warned that prison could follow if he did not comply.
Trump’s responsibilities as a defendant limited his ability to convince voters on the campaign trail.
He spent his day off from court last week on the general election battleground of Wisconsin and Michigan. And he expects to face a massive crowd Saturday in New Jersey, a reliably Democratic state. Parts of New Jersey have deep red enclaves, and the South Coast in particular attracts tourists and summer homeowners from neighboring Pennsylvania, a key state.
Saturday’s visit to the New Jersey resort town is not Trump’s first.
While president, Trump held a rally there in January 2020 to thank Rep. Jefferson Van Drew, R-N.J., the congressman who had just left the Democratic Party for the GOP, as a rebuke for the former president’s first impeachment.
Trump then drew a crowd that lined the streets, filled the bars and supported many vendors in what is usually a sleepy town in winter. This time, the summer season is fast approaching for the resort known for its vast beaches, games and shops.
Wildwood is part of New Jersey’s 2nd District, which Van Drew represented for three terms and covers all or part of southern New Jersey’s six counties. He opted for Trump in 2016, then again in 2020, after supporting Barack Obama.
Trump is expected to return to the courtroom next week, when the prosecution’s key witness, Michael Cohen, Trump’s fixer-turned-enemy, is expected to take the witness stand. Last week, he was visibly angry at times when he was forced to hear testimony from former porn actor Stormy Daniels, who described a sexual relationship with the former president in shocking detail.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying the Trump Organization’s internal business records. The fees come from documents such as invoices and checks that were considered legal fees on company records. Prosecutors say those payments were largely reimbursements to Cohen, Trump’s lawyer, who paid Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet.
The prosecution could close its case by the end of the week. It is unclear whether Trump himself will speak when the defense presents its arguments.
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People reported from New York.
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News Source : apnews.com
