FREELAND, Mich. (AP) 鈥 Donald Trump returned briefly to the campaign trail Wednesday and called the judge presiding over his hush money trial 鈥渃rooked鈥 a day after he was held in contempt of court and threatened with jail time for violating a gag order.
Trump's remarks at events in the battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan were being closely watched after he received for making public statements about people connected to the criminal case. In imposing the fine for posts on Trump's Truth Social account and campaign website, Judge Juan M. Merchan said that if Trump continued to violate his orders, he would "impose an incarceratory punishment.鈥
鈥淭here is no crime. I have a crooked judge. He's a totally conflicted judge,鈥 Trump said speaking to supporters at an event in Waukesha, Wisconsin, claiming again that this and other cases against him are led by the White House to undermine his campaign.
The former president is trying to achieve a balancing act unprecedented in American history by running for a second term as the presumptive Republican nominee while also fighting felony charges in New York. Trump Merchan, prosecutors and potential witnesses at his rallies and on social media, attack lines that play well with his supporters but that have potentially put him in further legal jeopardy.
Later at a rally in Freeland, Michigan, he said he was being forced to spend days in a 鈥渒angaroo court room," and claimed without evidence the district attorney was taking orders from the Biden administration.
鈥淚've got to do two of these things a day. You know why? Because I鈥檓 in New York all the time with the Biden trial,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t's a fake trial. They do it to try and take your powers away, try and take your candidate away.鈥
Even before the hush money trial got underway on April 15, Trump has held just a handful of public campaign events since becoming his party鈥檚 presumptive nominee in March.
The gag order bars him from making public statements about witnesses, jurors and some others connected to his hush money case. Trump is still free to criticize the judge and the district attorney.
Trump insists he is merely exercising his free speech rights, but the offending posts from his Truth Social account and campaign website were taken down. Merchan is weighing other alleged gag-order violations and will hear arguments on Thursday.
Attendees agreed he is being unfairly prosecuted, contending the trial and gag order were designed to distract him .
鈥淚t鈥檚 a trial looking for a crime,鈥 said Ray Hanson, of Hartford. Hanson said he expected Trump鈥檚 lawyers would 鈥渒eep him in line鈥 so he doesn鈥檛 violate the gag order, as much as he likely wants to talk about the trial.
Manhattan prosecutors have argued Trump and his associates took part in an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 presidential campaign by purchasing and then burying negative stories. He has pleaded not guilty.
Trump鈥檚 visits to Wisconsin and Michigan mark his second trip to the swing states in just a month. For the previous rallies, the former president largely focused on immigration, referring to people who are in the U.S. illegally and who are suspected of crimes as 鈥渁nimals.鈥
Meanwhile, Democrats are hoping to remind voters ahead of these visits about Trump's position on abortion, which Trump has been openly concerned about being a political liability for him and Republicans.
Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan met on Wednesday with half a dozen women, including a family doctor, and warned that a second Trump term would threaten abortion rights even in her state, which enshrined those rights in its state constitution after the Supreme Court overturned national rights to the procedure.
Whitmer appeared with the women at a bookstore in Flint surrounded by signs that read 鈥淪top Trump鈥檚 Attacks on Health Care鈥 and 鈥淪top Trump鈥檚 Abortion Ban.鈥 She told reporters not to believe Trump鈥檚 contention in a that Republicans would never have enough votes in the U.S. Senate to pass a national abortion ban.
鈥淲e cannot trust anything that Donald Trump says when it comes to abortion. So no one should take any comfort in the fact that, yes, he wants an abortion ban, but he won鈥檛 get it because he doesn鈥檛 think we鈥檒l have 60 votes in the Senate. Baloney,鈥 she said.
Wisconsin and Michigan are among a handful of battleground states expected to decide the 2024 election.
For Trump to win both states, he must do well in suburban areas like the areas outside of Milwaukee and Saginaw, Michigan, where he visited Wednesday. He underperformed in suburban areas during this year's primary even as he dominated the Republican field overall.
Trump has said that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Trump鈥檚 losses in battleground states in 2020 have withstood recounts, audits and reviews by the Justice Department and outside observers.
In an interview Wednesday with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Trump did not commit to accepting the results of the 2024 election.
鈥淚f everything鈥檚 honest, I鈥檒l gladly accept the results. I don鈥檛 change on that,鈥 Trump said. 鈥淚f it鈥檚 not, you have to fight for the right of the country.鈥
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Gomez Licon reported from Miami, and Bauer reported from Waukesha, Wis.
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