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Former President Donald Trump leaves the room after addressing reporters following the verdict in his hush money trial, at Trump Tower in New York City on May 31, 2024.
CNN
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Donald Trump has been in the public eye for decades, standing before crowds as a builder of skyscrapers and casinos, a best-selling author, a reality TV host, a husband and father, a New Yorker and Floridian, and a current and former president of the United States.
On Thursday, Trump will address an audience for the first time under his new nickname, “Fellon.”
Trump is scheduled to speak at a town hall rally in Phoenix on Thursday, his first campaign event since a Manhattan jury last week convicted the Republican of 34 charges related to a scheme to bribe porn actresses before the 2016 election. Three days later, he is scheduled to hold his first rally since the verdict in Las Vegas, part of a Western tour that will also include fundraising stops.
The developments signal a new phase for Trump’s campaign with the New York case all but over. No longer tethered to a Manhattan courtroom, Trump is expected to step up his activism this week as he pivots from trial to trial.
But Trump’s return to the campaign trail after being convicted makes the urgency even clearer for him: With his sentence looming in the hush-money case, his best shot at avoiding more serious charges on the three other counts he faces is to persuade the public to let him run for office again.
Trump’s supporters have responded to this unprecedented turn of events by stepping up calls for retribution, both immediately after a conviction and if he retakes the White House. Trump himself has threatened political opponents, continuing the vengeful rhetoric that has permeated his campaign since the start of the election.
“This is a terrible precedent for our country,” Trump said in an interview with Newsmax that aired Tuesday. “Will the next president do the same to them? That’s the real question.”
Trump had been galvanizing his supporters over his legal troubles long before last week’s ruling, using rallies as a platform for him to broach the multiple indictments, test the limits of speech control, attack the justice system and portray himself as the victim of a conspiracy to block him from entering the White House.
The Trump campaign believes the message has prepared Republican voters for this outcome, and it doesn’t see it slowing down. Trump supporters responded with an unprecedented wave of donations — $53 million flowed into the Trump campaign’s coffers online within 24 hours of Trump’s conviction, advisers said — and fundraising calls for his conviction continue.
“I’m still standing. Not even 34 fraudulent felony convictions will bring me down,” the Trump campaign wrote in a text message sent to supporters on Saturday, along with a donation link.
Still, Trump is not likely to emerge from the lingering shadow of his felony convictions anytime soon, casting uncertainty over his third presidential run. Chief among the unknowns is how the broader electorate will react to the first conviction of a former U.S. president.
The Arizona event, organized by the conservative group Turning Point Action, puts Trump in a position where his fate could be decided by undecided voters.
Trump’s arrival in Mexico came days after President Joe Biden took the latest steps on border security. Trump has used the issue to attack Biden, a Democrat, whenever there is a surge in migrant crossings. Biden on Tuesday announced an executive order that gives the president the power to effectively close the border to asylum seekers entering the United States and Mexico illegally if the number of daily crossings exceeds a certain number.
Biden and his allies have positioned the new policies as a response to Republican inaction, pointing out that Trump helped block a bipartisan Senate agreement to provide new resources for border security.
“The American people want solutions to fix our broken immigration system, but Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans have made it clear at every turn that they want only chaos and partisan politics as usual,” Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said in a statement Tuesday.
Trump is expected to use the opportunity in Arizona to deliver a detailed rebuttal to Biden’s actions, a person with knowledge of Trump’s remarks told CNN.
But the event was also clearly aimed at rallying Trump’s supporters against his recent conviction.
“President Trump has proven time and time again that he is an absolute force of nature that the left fears more than anyone,” Turning Point Action founder and Trump ally Charlie Kirk said in a statement announcing the town hall. “They know Joe Biden cannot beat him in a fair fight, so they are shamefully weaponizing our justice system.”
But the Trump campaign isn’t worried that his focus on the legal battles will cloud his message on immigration.
Trump “can walk and chew gum,” the source said.
