Defiant Donald Trump has declared he will run to become the next US president even if he’s convicted on criminal charges.
Defiant Donald Trump has declared he will run to become the next US president even if he’s convicted on criminal charges
The 76-year-old former ‘Apprentice’ judge, arraigned on 4 Aprilat a Manhattan courthouse on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, said he will “never drop out” of next year’s presidential race.
Trump – the first former US president to be indicted – told Fox News host Tucker Carlson in his first major interview since his historic arrest in New York: “I’d never drop out. It’s not my thing. I wouldn’t do it.”
He also claimed staff and officers at the Manhattan courthouse where he was booked were moved to tears over his plight.
Trump added: “They were incredible. When I went to the courthouse, which is also a prison in a sense, they signed me in and I’ll tell you people were crying.”
The former 45th US president is expected back in court in December in Manhattan after pleading not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business record charges, thought to be linked to an alleged $130,000 hush money payment to former porn star Stormy Daniels, 44, in the run-up to his 2016 presidential campaign after she claimed they had a fling, which Trump denies.
Stormy claims the money was paid by Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, and it emerged on Tuesday the former US president is suing Cohen for more than $500 million, according to a filing in a Florida court.
If he wins the Republican presidential nomination, Trump is likely to face President Biden, who said on Monday he planned to seek re-election, but no formal announcement has been made.
Biden, 80, told NBC News: “I plan on running, but we’re not prepared to announce it yet.”
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