Trump postpones a meeting, the first planned since the start of his criminal trial

Former US President Donald Trump has postponed Saturday a rally in North Carolina, his first major campaign event planned since the start of his criminal trial ; New York, due to bad weather.

Thousands of his supporters gathered at the Wilmington airport, in this state which will be fiercely contested by Mr. Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden on November 5, before the Republican candidate announced the postponement of the meeting.

“We want to make sure everyone is safe first and foremost and so we have been asked to ask people to leave the premises and take shelter” , declared the former president in a telephone call broadcast on the site, according to AFP journalists.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media after leaving the courtroom during his trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on April 19, 2024 in New York © POOL – Spencer Platt

“It seems like there's thunder and lightning (…) I think we're going to have to postpone that for another time,” added Donald Trump, promising to organize a another, “larger” gathering in the same place.

He who hopes to make a triumphant return to the White House is on trial in a case of hidden payments to buy silence of a former porn star, Stormy Daniels, a few days before the 2016 election which he won narrowly against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Denouncing a “witch hunt”, Mr. Trump repeatedly protested against the fact that the trial did not give him free rein.

“I should be in right now in Pennsylvania and Florida, in many other states, in North Carolina, in Georgia, campaigning,” he said this week.

Saturday morning, several hours before the scheduled meeting, his followers in Wilmington had already begun to gather, armed with coolers and hats under the scorching North Carolina sun.

For Stephen Prater, a 29-year-old trucker, it is obvious: the trial of his candidate is “largely due to the left which is trying to do everything to prevent him from becoming president again.”

Grace Miller, 58, thinks the same thing. It’s a “political” trial, she assures us.

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– “Very busy” –

Former President of the United States Donald Trump during his trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on April 19, 2024 in New York © POOL – Curtis Means

Donald Trump attacked again on Saturday the judge of his New York trial, historic because it is the first criminal trial of a former American president.

The magistrate must be “dismissed”, he said. “I did not do anything wrong!” he stormed on his platform, Truth Social.

“If immunity is not granted to a president, every president leaving office will be immediately indicted by the opposing party,” he said.

Although no Democratic presidential candidate has won North Carolina since Barack Obama in 2008, Joe Biden wants to believe in his chances in the state.

Because even if Donald Trump won in North Carolina twice, in 2016 and in 2020, M . Biden narrowly lost to him in this state in the last election.

US President Joe Biden during a campaign rally in Scranton, April 16, 2024 in Pennsylvania © AFP – ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS

The Democrat tries to take advantage of the cases which beset his rival, stuck in court several days of the week, and plows the ground.

He was Tuesday in his hometown of Scranton, in the contested and crucial state of Pennsylvania for the November election.

While he has long kept himself to comment on Donald Trump's troubles, Mr. Biden shot an arrow at him this week, saying that the latter was “very busy at the moment”.

The White House assured that Joe Biden was not following the trial, adding: “he is focusing on the Americans”.

This trial coincides with Joe Biden's advance in the polls since his State of the Union address in March, with the two candidates now neck and neck.

But Donald Trump and his supporters also hope to take advantage media attention surrounding his criminal trial, banking on the fact that it offers him a ready-made platform for campaigning.

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