As failed former president Donald Trump’s hush money trial continues to hang over him like a wet blanket, court proceedings are also “crippling” his bid for a second term in the White House, according to a report from the Daily Beast, which notes the trial has become a “giant time-suck” for the disgraced ex-head of state.
For example, on Tuesday Trump was scheduled to appear at a major fundraising event in Texas that was supposed to raise millions for 2024 GOP House candidates, but he had to cancel because he was in court all day.
Alex Conant, a GOP strategist and a top aide on Marco Rubio’s 2016 campaign, says Trump’s absence on the campaign trail could prove devasting for both him and Republicans who will be on the ticket in November.
“He could be raising six, seven figures pretty regularly at major-dollar events around the country at this point,” Conant said. “That’s literally what Biden is doing. So Trump’s fundraisers are probably frustrated that because he’s in New York, they can’t schedule that stuff.”
“The most valuable commodity in any campaign is the candidate’s time,” Conant added. “It’s the only thing you can’t get more of. And the fact that he’s going to have to spend weeks in the courtroom is time his campaign isn’t going to get back.”
For their part, members of Trump’s campaign insist that the New York trial will eventually backfire on Democrats and President Joe Biden, though their reasoning sounds like little more than wishful thinking, with one Trump campaign consultant remarking, “We’re only at day three now, and I think this is gonna have a backfiring effect on Democrats, I really do. They are interfering with Trump’s ability to get on his plane and go to Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia.”
And yet that so-called “interfering” is indeed keeping Trump off the campaign trail and unable to effectively raise desperately needed donations, where Biden already holds a commanding lead.
At the end of the day, Conant reiterates, time is the most precious thing any candidate has, and every day Trump spends in court puts him further behind the incumbent Biden.
Time is running out for Trump everywhere he looks as he’s finally having to confront the fact that he may be found guilty and sentenced to prison. Meanwhile, his 2024 campaign is stuck in neutral and starting to fade in both the polls and relevance.
