Trump is effectively running his presidential campaign on the doorsteps of various courts

The circus cannot stop. On Thursday morning, a few minutes after nine, Donald Trump made his way down the foyer to where reporters gathered behind metal barriers. Deride ”the fake news” as he might, The Donald seldom ignores its messengers.

Outside was the accompanying street drama: a heavy police presence, a street cordoned off, a few protesters and, as always with Trump, many television cameras. He has become a rolling television show. But as he reported before entering the courtroom, what he noticed on his drive to his court appointment was the demise of his native city. The Manhattan he described belonged to the darker excesses of Gotham.

“There has never been anything like this in our country. I looked out on the streets, and it is so different than when I lived in New York. It’s dirty and it’s crime-ridden. Today you walk down the street, and you get mugged and get shot.”

His point was that the attorney general of New York was more interested in prosecuting a case Trump claimed was non-existent rather than tackling what he saw as the prevailing issues of the day.

Trump verdict is like ‘pouring gasoline on a fire that’s already burning’

---

Trump verdict a stunning end to a quintessentially New York legal tale

---

Robert De Niro’s raging at Trump outside courthouse was an extraordinary moment in American public life

---

Israel’s continuing war in Gaza complicates Egyptian balancing act

---

“It’s a rigged state, it’s a rigged city, it’s a shame. What they oughta do is come out and take care of the violent crime and the migrant crime that is destroying people and killing people. This is not a case. This is no crime. But right outside this courthouse people are being murdered. So, it’s a very unfair situation. They want to keep me nice and busy so I can’t campaign so hard. But maybe I won’t have to campaign so hard because the other side is incompetent.”

The moment offered a grim sneak preview into what lies ahead in the election year: the former president effectively running his campaign on the doorsteps of the various court hearings and potential trials he faces this year. Thursday was such a hectic day that the main television networks elected for the old-fashioned device of split screens in order to cover both Trump’s ”hush money” case in Manhattan and the concurrent hearing in Georgia concerning his election interference.

A salacious question mark hangs over that entire New York case, with the special prosecutor, Nathan Wade, enduring an excruciating morning of pre-trial questioning – broadcast live – as to whether his romantic relationship with Fani Willis, the district attorney who is overseeing the election interference case, and who appointed Wade, compromises her role.

As if the election wasn’t sufficiently complex – with 19 defendants, including the former president – Wade spent the morning, under subpoena, reluctantly detailing trips with Willis to places such as Aruba and Belize, and explaining how Willis repaid her share of those holiday breaks.

In an odd way Trump may have saved Wade a little discomfort. No sooner had the former president entered the courtroom in New York than he was out again, the judge rejecting his claims and setting a trial date for March 25th, when jury selection will begin. That news, at least, deflected attention from the live broadcast from Georgia as Trump stopped again to deliver a solemn state-of-affairs address.

This was the scenario for which he has been preparing supporters at rallies during the wintry speeches in Iowa and New Hampshire: that the gamut of indictments and court cases he faces are the work of his rival Joe Biden and a shadowy deep-state collusion designed to keep him off the campaign trail for weeks and possibly months on end in the critical period before the election.

Thursday became a stage set for the day he said would come to pass, with legal cases – notwithstanding the farcical element to proceedings in Georgia – beginning in two separate states on the same morning. The courtroom serves as a theatrical backdrop but the message remains the same.

Long before this moment Trump had nimbly switched lanes to guarantee that in the 2024 election it won’t matter all that much if he is detained from the gruelling slog of bouncing from state to state for the daily marathon rallies and speeches. Rallies don’t necessarily guarantee broadcast time. Court appearances do. The steps of the courthouse in New York and elsewhere will do just him just fine.

As he skulked away from what looks set to become a recurring tableau of this election, someone shouted after Trump, asking him how he intended to campaign if he was stuck in a courtroom every day. He turned quickly, as though hoping that question would arrive. “I’ll do it in the evening.”