Even with his guilty verdict, former President Trump is now free from a “freezing” New York City courtroom after a six-week trial and is ready to hit the campaign trail once again. His campaign is warning President Biden’s team to “buckle up.”
Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree in New York v. Trump.
Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over the case, said Trump was required to be in court every day for the trial, except Wednesdays when court was not in session.
The former president railed against the judge and Democrats daily for confining him to the courtroom, repeatedly telling reporters and supporters it was “freezing” and like being stuck in a “freezing cold icebox.”
TRUMP GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS IN NEW YORK CRIMINAL TRIAL
Former President Trump, a Republican presidential candidate, hosts a campaign stop at Sanaa convenience store in the Harlem section of New York City April 16, 2024. (Reuters/Adam Gray)
“Crooked Joe Biden and the Democrats confined President Trump to a courtroom for more than eight hours a day for more than six weeks, and he’s still winning,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital. “Now that he is fully back on the campaign trial, Biden and the Democrats better buckle up.”
Leavitt told Fox News Digital Trump “generated billions of dollars in earned media coverage throughout the trial, hosted massive rallies and impromptu campaign stops in New York and beyond, increased his lead over crooked Joe Biden in the polls and raised more money than Biden and the Democrats in the month of April. Not even a witch hunt trial could slow him down. In fact, it only made him stronger.”
TRUMP HOLDS MASSIVE BEACHFRONT CAMPAIGN RALLY FOR RAUCOUS NEW JERSEY CROWD: ‘WE’RE GOING TO WIN’
The 2024 presumptive Republican nominee took advantage of the location of the trial — New York City — and highlighted that it has been in decline since Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg took office.
First, Trump was greeted warmly by New Yorkers in upper Manhattan at a Harlem bodega and vowed to “straighten out New York.”
Trump was met by a large crowd chanting “Trump, Trump, Trump,” “Four more years,” and “We love Trump.” The crowd was singing the national anthem.
Trump delivered pizzas to the New York Fire Department after a day in court (Fox News)
Trump blasted the trial and charges against him, saying it is “rigged,” “all politics,” and “coming out of the [Biden] White House.”
And that day was the day the former president decided the criminal trial could actually have a “reverse effect.”
“It makes me campaign locally, and that’s OK,” Trump said. “We’re doing better now than we’ve ever done, so I think it’s having a reverse effect.
TRUMP DELIVERS PIZZA TO NEW YORK CITY FIREFIGHTERS IN CAMPAIGN STOP AFTER DAY IN COURT
“We’re going to come in. No. 1, you have to stop crime, and we’re going to let the police do their job. They have to be given back their authority. They have to be able to do their job,” Trump said. “And we’re going to come into New York. We’re making a big play for New York, other cities, too. But this city, I love this city.”
Trump said New York has “gotten so bad in the last three years, four years.”
“And we’re going to straighten New York out. So running for president, we’re putting a big hit in New York — we could win New York,” Trump said.
Attendees cheer during a campaign event with former President Trump at Wildwood Beach in Wildwood, N.J. May 11, 2024. (Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
A week or so later, Trump spent the day in court, but on his way home, he stopped to deliver pizzas to first responders at a midtown Manhattan fire department, the same New York City fire department he visited in 2021 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks of Sept. 11, 2021.
Trump posed for a photo with each firefighter individually and in a group and left pizzas. He didn’t speak to the press.
The former president crisscrossed the nation for rallies and campaign stops on Wednesdays and would return to New York City for court first thing Thursday morning.
TRUMP VOWS TO ‘SAVE’ DEEP-BLUE NEW YORK CITY IN MASSIVE, HISTORIC BRONX RALLY
The only non-Wednesday Trump spent outside the courtroom was May 17, when he traveled home to Palm Beach, Fla., to attend and celebrate the high school graduation of his youngest son, Barron Trump.
Former President Trump speaks during a campaign event at Wildwood Beach in Wildwood, N.J., May 11, 2024. (Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump also held rallies in and around New York, which drew historic crowds in traditionally blue districts.
Trump held a rally in Wildwood, N.J., the largest political rally in the blue state of New Jersey, bringing between 80,000 and 100,000 people to support the presumptive Republican nominee.
“As you can see today, we’re expanding the electoral map because … we’re going to win the state of New Jersey,” Trump said during that rally. “I think we’re going to win them all. All across America, millions of people, so-called blue states, are joining our movement based on love, intelligence and a thing called common sense.”
And just weeks later, ahead of the Memorial Day weekend, Trump held a massive and historic rally in the Bronx.
Former President Trump during a campaign event at Crotona Park in the Bronx, N.Y., May 23, 2024. (Bing Guan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Trump rallied a crowd of what his campaign estimated to be 25,000 at Crotona Park in The Bronx, far more than the 3,500 attendees they were initially expecting.
“I’m here tonight to declare we are going to turn New York City around, and we are going to turn it around very, very quickly,” Trump said after taking the stage. “We are going to make New York bigger, better and greater than ever before.”
The presidential race against Biden won’t slow down in June, with Trump out of his trial and a debate between the two presumptive nominees set for an unprecedented early date of June 27.
Trump’s sentencing hearing for the New York City criminal conviction is scheduled for July 11, just days before the start of the 2024 Republican National Convention.
