Trump's courtroom campaign set to become reality with hush money trial

Former President Trump’s courtroom campaign is set to take center stage in his bid for the White House after a New York judge set an April 15 start date for a trial over an alleged hush money scheme.

Trump and his allies have for the past year sought to turn outrage over his legal troubles into enthusiasm among his supporters, describing the myriad investigations and charges over his conduct as “election interference” from Democrats worried about beating him at the ballot box. 

But now that the GOP primary is over and Trump is actually set to go on trial, he’ll face a fresh set of hurdles in competing with President Biden’s campaign. Barring further delay, Trump will be in a courtroom in Manhattan four days a week beginning April 15, with the trial expected to last several weeks.

The former president has kept a light public schedule since he became the presumptive Republican nominee earlier this month even as general election polls have tightened, and his ability to hit the road could be further hampered by his upcoming court dates.

Trump will likely hold rallies in battleground states on the weekends, but Trump is also expected to turn the courthouse itself into a bully pulpit for his campaign. That strategy was on display at Monday’s hearing, where Trump addressed reporters during breaks in the proceedings to decry the charges against him as a “hoax” and a “witch hunt" before holding a press conference at one of his nearby properties.

“Joe Biden and the Democrats’ entire strategy to defeat President Trump is to confine him to a court room,” Karoline Leavitt, a Trump campaign spokesperson, said in a statement. “Unfortunately for them, their strategy is failing and Joe Biden is losing because the American people see right through their communist tactics and know President Trump is the strongest candidate to lead our country. 

“President Trump will continue to fight for truth in the court room and share his winning message on the campaign trail,” she added.

The lost time on the trail could be critical for Trump, whose lead over Biden in the polls has narrowed in recent weeks ahead of what both campaigns expect will be a closely fought general election. 

A Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll showed Biden narrowing Trump’s lead in six out of seven battleground states likely to decide November’s election, including in Wisconsin, where Biden pulled ahead by 1 percentage point, and in Michigan and Pennsylvania, where the two candidates are even.

While Trump has only traveled to Ohio in recent weeks for a rally ahead of the state’s competitive Senate primary, Biden has visited every major battleground state in the month of March.

Trump is also at a major cash disadvantage compared to the Biden campaign. Trump’s operation brought in roughly $20 million in February, while the Biden campaign raised about $53 million. Biden’s campaign also boasts a major advantage in cash on hand, while Trump continues to put huge sums toward paying his legal costs.

The former president is no stranger to using the courthouse and legal troubles as a springboard for his 2024 campaign. His lead in the polls in the Republican primary steadily grew throughout 2023, even as he faced fresh indictments in New York City, Florida, Washington, D.C., and Georgia.

Trump successfully fundraised off of his mug shot at the Fulton County courthouse in Georgia, and his various court appearances earned him significant media coverage, including across networks that have largely stopped airing his campaign speeches.

“A typical candidate wouldn’t cherish a court appearance in the middle of their presidential bid, but Donald Trump isn’t a typical candidate,” said Dan Eberhart, a Republican donor who initially backed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) but has since urged the party to unite behind Trump.

“Voters are long past being surprised by anything that happens around Trump,” Eberhart added. “There’s no longer an October surprise in Trump world. His supporters know who Trump is and I can’t think of much that he could do to change that.”

Trump and his allies are counting on the fact that his legal troubles will solidify his support among the Republican base, and even win over more moderate voters who view the charges against Trump as politically motivated.

The former president, asked Monday if he worried a conviction in New York City could tank his reelection bid, suggested it could make him more popular “because the people know it’s a scam.”

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), a contender to join Trump on the ticket as his running mate, said Monday on Fox News that he wasn’t surprised that Trump’s legal troubles continued to fuel his White House bid.

“If you are a red-blooded American and you believe in fairness, you believe in justice, you believe that America must be the fairest nation on the planet and when you see this level of injustice, you are disgusted by it and you will rally to the cause of the underdog,” Scott said.

But there is reason for skepticism that Trump’s courtroom campaign will have the positive effect the former president and his allies are expecting.

A Politico/Ipsos poll conducted March 8-10 found 50 percent of respondents believe Trump is guilty of the alleged crimes in the Manhattan case, and 36 percent of independents said a conviction in the case would make them less likely to support Trump.

Trump is charged in the New York case with 34 counts of falsifying business records of reimbursements to his then-fixer, Michael Cohen, who paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 just before the 2016 election to stay quiet about an alleged affair with Trump.  

Exit polling from Super Tuesday earlier this month found 37 percent of GOP primary voters in Virginia and 31 percent of primary voters in North Carolina said Trump would not be fit to be president if he’s convicted of a crime.

“There’s this myth out there that somehow these trials are going to win him over more voters and there’s going to be sympathy,” Alyssa Farah Griffin, who worked as Trump’s White House communications director, said Tuesday on “The View.”

“I reject that as a Republican because yes, his base is going to be with him and they’re going to vocally defend him,” she continued. “But to this sort of 30 percent, call them the Nikki Haley voters or the ‘somebody other than Trump’ Republicans, there is no way that hush money payments to Stormy Daniels or this fraud case in New York are going to make them more sympathetic to him. I find it to just be complete lunacy.”