WILDWOOD, NJ – After a long week in court, Donald Trump is on his way to the Jersey Shore. And he is being hailed by thousands of his friends.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, drew what his team called a “mega crowd” of “tens of thousands” to a Saturday night rally in the southern New Jersey resort town of Wildwood. He was being held 150 miles south of the New York City courthouse, where he was forced to spend most weekdays sitting silently during his secret crime trial.
The waterfront gathering, described by Rep. Jeff Van Drew, RN.J., as the largest political gathering in the state’s history, was designed to serve as a show of force at a critical time for Trump, who faces dozens of charges criminal cases in four separate criminal cases, with less than six months to go until the elections. There is a real possibility that Trump will be a convicted felon by Election Day.
Hours before he took the stage, thousands of Trump supporters wearing “Never Surrender” T-shirts and red “Make America Great Again” hats crowded the sand between the boardwalk and carnival rides to greet the former Republican president.
“The average American people support him 100 percent,” said Doreen O’Neill, a 62-year-old nurse from Philadelphia.
“They have to deceive him, defame him and humiliate him in that courtroom every day,” O’Neill said. “This country will go crazy if they steal the election again.”
Trump’s extraordinary legal troubles, which include three other unrelated criminal cases, have emerged as a central issue in the campaign.
Trump has repeatedly accused the Biden administration and Democratic officials in New York of using the legal system to block his return to the White House. Prosecutors allege that the former president broke the law by hiding an affair with a porn star that would have harmed his first presidential bid.
And while Trump will almost certainly capitalize on his legal troubles on Saturday, a judge’s gag order — and the threat of arrest — will limit Trump’s ability to comment publicly about witnesses, jurors and some others connected to the New York trial, which is expected consume much of the month. The judge in the case has already fined Trump $9,000 for violating the order and warned that he could be arrested if he doesn’t comply.
Trump’s responsibilities as a defendant limited his ability to win over voters during the campaign.
He spent his day off last week in court in the general election battlegrounds of Wisconsin and Michigan. And he was campaigning with tens of thousands of voters Saturday in New Jersey, a reliably Democratic state. Parts of New Jersey have red enclaves, and the South Shore in particular attracts tourists and summer home owners from neighboring Pennsylvania, a key swing state.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden opened his weekend with a series of fundraisers on the West Coast.
He sidestepped legal challenges from Trump — as he has consistently done — while addressing donors in Seattle. Instead, the Democratic president focused on Trump’s recent interview with Time magazine, in which the former Republican president said states should be left to decide whether to prosecute women for abortions or monitor their pregnancies.
Saturday’s visit to the New Jersey Shore resort wasn’t Trump’s first.
While president, Trump held a rally there in January 2020 to thank Van Drew, the New Jersey congressman who had just left the Democratic Party for the Republican Party, as a rebuke of the former president’s first impeachment.
At the time, Trump drew a crowd that lined the streets, filled bars and supported several vendors in what is usually a sleepy town in winter. This time, the summer season is upon us at the resort known for its wide beaches and boardwalks of games and shops.
Wildwood is in New Jersey’s 2nd District, which Van Drew represented for three terms and covers all or parts of six counties in southern New Jersey. He went for Trump in 2016 and again in 2020 after previously supporting Barack Obama.
Trump is due back in court next week, when the prosecution’s star witness, Michael Cohen, Trump’s fixer-turned-enemy, is expected to take the witness stand. Last week, he became visibly angry at times when he was forced to listen to testimony from former porn star Stormy Daniels, who described a sexual encounter with the former president in shocking detail.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying the Trump Organization’s internal business records. The charges arise from documents such as invoices and checks that were considered legal expenses in the company’s records. Prosecutors say those payments were largely reimbursements to Cohen, Trump’s lawyer, who paid Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet.
The prosecution could close the case by the end of the week. It’s unclear whether Trump himself will take a stand when the defense presents its case.
Back on the Jersey Shore, 65-year-old Pat Day said he felt some urgency to see Trump in person on Saturday.
“We want to see Trump before they take him out,” said Day, who was visiting from the Florida Keys. “I’m worried. They will do everything they can to ensure he is not elected again.”
