Former President Donald Trump is voluntarily attending two court proceedings in Washington and New York this week instead of blanketing Iowa in a sign of his front-runner status against his GOP rivals and how he has made fighting legal battles core to his political strategy.
His opponents, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, and Vivek Ramaswamy, are spending nearly all of their time in Iowa during the final days ahead of Monday’s Republican caucuses. And while former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is not traveling to Iowa, he is still focused on the primary race, putting all his effort and time into New Hampshire, which will hold its primary on Jan. 23.
But Trump’s schedule in the state is relatively light and instead relies on some of the former president’s many prominent campaign surrogates such as Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) and Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake. Despite the proximity to the all-important caucuses, Trump decided to attend a hearing Tuesday in Washington regarding his presidential immunity claim in the federal election interference case against him.
Following the arguments in D.C., Trump lawyer John Lauro told reporters, “We can’t have a country where every four years there is a cycle of political recrimination, where one administration attacks a prior administration when in fact that candidate is leading in the polls and will be the next president of the United States.”
Trump echoed his legal representation, claiming President Joe Biden has politicized and weaponized the Department of Justice to go after him and warning that setting such a precedent may open “a Pandora’s box.”
“When they are talking about the threat to democracy, that is the real threat to democracy,” he said, referring to Biden’s campaign.
“I feel that as a president, you have to have immunity,” he added. “It’s very simple.”
Trump will be in Iowa on Wednesday to participate in a Fox News town hall, taking place at the same time as CNN’s debate between DeSantis and Haley.
On Thursday, he plans to be in New York for the closing arguments in Attorney General Letitia James’s civil fraud trial against his family’s business. Unlike a criminal trial, Trump is not required to attend these court proceedings.
“The legal stuff, after seeing how folks have reacted to each of the indictments, have become a key part of his campaign strategy,” Iowa Republican strategist David Kochel said.
“Not the least of which is how it drives much of his fundraising,” he added.
Another advantage of showing up is the ability to garner widespread attention, beyond conservative media, Kochel said.
That way, “They’re talking about him 24/7 and ignoring his GOP opponents.”
Prompted on Trump’s court attendance over being present in Iowa, Haley spokeswoman AnnMarie Graham-Barnes said, “As Nikki has pointed out, rightly or wrongly, chaos follows Donald Trump. Consider this a preview of what Republicans would get with him in a general election: a part-time candidate marred in legal battles that will ultimately lead to four more years of Joe Biden’s disasters.”
Ramaswamy wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, “It’s disgusting what they’re doing to him & the reality is that many in the GOP establishment are quietly rooting for it.”
A representative for the DeSantis campaign did not provide comment.
In a recent New York Times/Siena College poll, 83% of Republicans said they believe the indictments against Trump are politically motivated.
That is exactly what Trump’s campaign has honed in on as it prepares to shift to the general election, presuming he will be the GOP nominee. In a memo last week, campaign managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles embraced the sentiment, denouncing “unprecedented indictments by the political opposition” against Trump.
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They further claimed that the 91 felony charges, spread across four cases, are actually “indictments against millions of freedom-loving, hardworking Americans across this country.”
In Iowa, specifically, the most recent Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll revealed that 73% of likely Republican caucusgoers think Trump can beat Biden, even with his legal troubles. That number was 65% in October.
