One of Donald Trump’s longstanding complaints will become a reality on March 25: His legal peril will force him off the campaign trail – at least during the day.
The trial date, set Thursday by a judge in New York, is just a week after Trump’s campaign expects him to reach the delegate threshold to become the presumptive Republican nominee – and roughly seven months before voters will head to ballot box to cast their votes in the 2024 presidential election.
While Trump has spent the last year bouncing in and out of court houses in his various legal cases, almost all of these appearances have been voluntary other than his arraignments. The former president often opts to treat the courtroom as a campaign stop, speaking to cameras and ranting against what he has called “political persecution.”
Come March, Trump will no longer have a choice – he will be required to sit in the New York courtroom four days a week as he faces 34 criminal charges brought by District Attorney Alvin Bragg in an alleged hush-money scheme. The trial is expected to last for roughly six weeks, with court in session every weekday but Wednesdays, severely limiting Trump’s ability to campaign for president during that time.
And the New York trial may not be the last that keeps Trump off the campaign trail before the election, with two federal trials still possible this year, along with a case in Georgia that is still pending despite the trouble now facing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
While Trump may effectively bring an end to the GOP nominating fight before the criminal trial begins, the proceedings could disrupt the former president’s pivot to a general election matchup with President Joe Biden – dividing his attention between his legal battles and his political campaign.
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