Trump is bracing his GOP supporters for more indictments
Sahil Kapur
After pleading not guilty to criminal charges in New York, Trump gave a speech in Mar-a-Lago that braced his supporters for more indictments — and insisted they would all be politically motivated.
In Trump’s narrative, the cases are meritless, the prosecutors are liberals and his critics are conspiring to wield the law against him unfairly — all with the aim of stopping him from becoming president in 2024.
The Manhattan case? A “ridiculous indictment,” he said, and “the criminal is the district attorney.”
The probe in Washington involving misuse of presidential records? “Gun-toting” FBI agents targeted him wrongly, he said. “There is no criminality.” The special counsel charged with looking into it? A “lunatic,” he said.
His legal woes in Georgia due to asking Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to overturn his 2020 defeat? He said the phone call was “perfect.” And the case is about trying “to interfere with the 2024 election.”
He also went after New York Attorney General Letitia James as an anti-Trump political actor for the civil case involving him. “It’s cost hundreds of millions of dollars to defend,” he said, vowing not to settle it.
The Mar-a-Lago crowd booed the names as he mentioned them.
Trump is currently the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, and his speech was an attempt to give his supporters a permission structure to minimize further legal woes that he anticipates. And he also sprinkled some more campaign rhetoric in the speech.
“We are now a failing nation,” he said. “We are a nation in decline.”
Get the latest news and live updates on Trump’s arraignment in Manhattan and speech at Mar-a-Lago after pleading not guilty to 34 felony counts.
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