New Jersey: Amid the ongoing court cases against former US President Donald Trump, he headed to the Jersey Shore on Saturday and held a rally amongst his supporters. During the rally, the former President blamed Joe Biden for the criminal charges he’s facing.
The two leaders are set to face each other once again in the 2024 US Presidential elections. Trump called Biden ‘a total moron’ before a crowd of tens of thousands and described the cases against him as being politically motivated and timed to undermine his campaign. “He’s a fool. He’s not a smart man,” Trump said of Biden. “I talk about him differently now because now the gloves are off.”
Trump who is the Republican Presidential nominee drew what his team called a ‘MAGA Crowd’ to a rally on Saturday evening in the Southern New Jersey resort town of Wilwood, 150 miles (241 kilometres) south of the New York City courthouse where he has been forced to spend most weekdays sitting silently through his felony hush money trial.
Lisa Fagan, spokesperson for the city of Wildwood, told The Associated Press that she estimated a crowd of between 80,000 and 100,000 attendees, based on her observations on the scene Saturday, having seen “dozens” of other events in the same space.
Several prominent supporters of Trump were present on stage, including NFL Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor and Governor of North Dakota Doug Burgum. Taylor admitted guilt to misdemeanour criminal charges of sexual misconduct and hiring a juvenile prostitute in New York in 2011 but is still listed as a registered sex offender.
Thousands of Trump supporters flocked to the beach between the boardwalk and carnival rides, wearing red “Make America Great Again” caps and “Never Surrender” T-shirts, hours before the former Republican president was scheduled to take the stage.
Trump has frequently charged that Democratic leaders in New York and the Biden administration of using the judicial system to prevent him from taking office again. Attorneys claim that to hide an affair with a porn star that would have damaged his first-term candidacy, the former president broke the law.
“I heard they were going to do a couple of other things, and they said from Washington … ‘we’re indicting him into the White House,’” Trump said. “They said, ‘Don’t do it.’” Trump exploited his legal troubles on Saturday, but he is not allowed to publicly discuss witnesses, jurors, or some other individuals associated with the New York trial due to a judge’s gag order and the possibility of going to jail. The trial is anticipated to take up a significant portion of the month.
The order makes no mention of District Attorney Alvin Bragg or Judge Juan M. Merchan, who Trump described as “highly conflicted” and claimed to be “doing the bidding for crooked Joe Biden.” During his day off from the court last week, Trump visited Wisconsin and Michigan, two states that are crucial to the general election.
Furthermore, he was engaging in campaigning with tens of thousands of voters on Saturday in the Democratic state of New Jersey. There are deep-red pockets in several areas of New Jersey, and the southern shoreline in particular attracts visitors and summer homes from Pennsylvania, a crucial swing state.
Trump wasn’t the first to visit the resort on the New Jersey Shore on Saturday. In response to the former president’s initial impeachment, Trump hosted a rally there in January 2020 to express gratitude to Congressman Van Drew of New Jersey, who had recently defected from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party.
In what is normally a sleepy city in the winter, Trump drew a crowd that supported multiple merchants, packed bars, and lined the streets at the time. This time, the resort—which is well-known for its expansive beaches, promenade, entertainment, and retail—is approaching summer.
Van Drew has served three terms as the representative for New Jersey’s 2nd District, which includes Wildwood and all or part of six counties in the state’s southern region. It supported Trump in 2016 and 2020, having previously backed Barack Obama. Next week, Trump is scheduled to appear in court again when Michael Cohen, the prosecution’s star witness and former fixer of the president, is due to testify.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying internal Trump Organization business records. The charges stem from paperwork such as invoices and checks that were deemed legal expenses in company records. People rushed to see Trump and show their support.
