Donald Trump briefly left the dock on Wednesday to hold his first campaign meetings since the start of his criminal trial, blaming all his legal troubles and the country’s ills on his rival, Joe Biden.
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“Everything he touches becomes shit,” the former president said during a speech in Michigan, multiplying the invectives about his criminal trial and his 2020 electoral defeat.
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“I have to do two things at once every day,” he lambasted in front of his supporters wearing the famous red caps. “You know why? Because I’m in New York all the time for the Biden trial.”
Donald Trump regularly accuses the president of being involved in the trials against him, without ever providing evidence.
The billionaire in any case took advantage of this break in the hearings to travel to Michigan and, earlier on Wednesday, Wisconsin, two northern states that are decisive for the presidential election in November.
“If I don’t win this election, I don’t think our country will survive,” Donald Trump said, looking serious, to his supporters during a public meeting in Wisconsin.
“Anti-Robin Hood”
These two meetings are opportunities for Donald Trump to paint a very dark picture of the presidency of his Democratic successor.
“Biden is presiding over the country like an anti-Robin Hood, stealing from the poor to give to the rich,” he told the crowd in Wisconsin.
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Before accusing his successor of being too silent on pro-Palestinian student demonstrations, and of letting the country be “invaded” by hordes of migrants.
His trip is also an opportunity to escape from the Manhattan court, where he has been on trial for two weeks in a case of payments to a pornographic film star.
This historic trial has everything to displease Donald Trump.
The Republican launches and closes each day of hearing with on-the-spot statements, during which, annoyed, he evokes pell-mell his legal troubles, the media coverage of the trial, and the temperature, “icy” it seems, of the court .
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He then enters the courtroom, through a glass door, surrounded by metal barriers. Reduced de facto to silence, the tribune, known for his escapades, showed no emotion. Faced with the ball of witnesses participating in his trial, Donald Trump sometimes appears to be bored, or even to doze off.
It is clear that his clan, previously so united, is also showing cracks: only his son Eric has so far come to support him in person in court.
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“He hates being in court, where he is just another defendant,” says political scientist Larry Sabato. “He has no control.” A status that Judge Juan Merchan constantly reminds him of.
“Sleeping Don”
The billionaire’s setbacks are a hit with Joe Biden’s campaign team, which now gives the Republican the nickname “Sleeping Don.” A form of return to sender, Donald Trump having given his rival the nickname “Sleepy Joe” a long time ago.
This trial also coincides with Joe Biden’s slight advance in the polls since March, with the two candidates now neck and neck.
But Donald Trump and his supporters also hope to take advantage of the media attention surrounding his criminal trial, counting on the fact that it offers him an amplified platform for campaigning.
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It was with this idea in mind that the Republican moved to Wisconsin and Michigan.
The Republican had not organized any of his emblematic rallies since the start of his trial: the only one he had planned was canceled due to the weather.
However, it is well known that he draws his energy from his big meetings.
On stage, Donald Trump, 77, launches into diatribes, sketches dance steps, throws his famous red caps to the crowd.
In one of his favorite numbers, the showman mocks the age of his rival – even though only four years separate them – and plays a haggard, distraught Joe Biden, unable to get off the stage.
A way for the accused Trump to remind us that his rival also juggles his share of difficulties, linked to his age.
