Donald Trump’s business records trial will not be heard in Manhattan on Wednesday, freeing him to use the one-day break to greet voters at rallies in the battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan.
The fleeting campaign trail return comes a day after New York County Judge Juan M. Merchan ruled Trump violated a gag order during his trial, holding him in criminal contempt and threatening him with jail time for any further infractions, as Breitbart News reported.
Unreal. pic.twitter.com/SYMVlMsnVV
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) April 30, 2024
The former president has consistently maintained he is exercising his free speech rights, but the offending posts from his Truth Social account and campaign website were taken down.
Merchan is weighing other alleged gag-order violations by Trump and will hear arguments on Thursday.
Trump made public his ongoing frustration after the ninth day of the trial closed, saying he should be out in Georgia and New Hampshire instead of sitting in court, AP reports.
“They don’t want me on the campaign trail,” he told reporters, returning to a theme he has previously espoused.
Trump has often called this case and other criminal cases against him “election interference,” saying they keep him from campaigning for the presidential 2024 election in November.
A majority of Americans appear to agree, doubting Trump’s criminal trial will conclude with a fair outcome, a CNN poll on Friday found.
Increasing numbers of Americans see the criminal trial of Trump as irrelevant to his fitness for reelection, the CNN poll detailed, while only 13 percent believe Trump is being treated the same as other “criminal defendants.”
A social media post by Caitlyn Jenner is going viral for Jenner’s loud and proud support for Trump. https://t.co/smWyUb4UmB
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) April 30, 2024
Only about one-third of American adults believe Trump did anything illegal regarding the case, an AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found Tuesday.
The presumptive Republican Party nominee’s visits to Wisconsin and Michigan mark his second trip to the swing states in just a month.
For Trump to win both states, he must do well in suburban areas like the areas outside of Milwaukee and Saginaw, Michigan, where he will hold Wednesday’s rallies, the AP report notes.
