BLACKSBURG, Va. (WFXR)– In less than 24 hours, former President Donald Trump will become the first former Commander-in-Chief to ever be arrested and arraigned.
The former president is already in New York ahead of his scheduled surrender tomorrow and is staying at his iconic trump tower. As he prepares for that arrest, people are lining up to support him, and his defense team has announced plans to fight the more than thirty charges.
So, what could this mean for his run for the white house?
Radford University’s, Dr. Jennifer Walton and Virginia Tech’s Dr. Karen Hult weigh in saying it’s hard to tell right now what this could do to his political campaign.
However, Dr. Walton says in the upcoming months we are possibly going to see former President Trump using his arrest as a political device because he has done so with other situations in the past, which could benefit him in his run for the presidency.
“Right now he is getting a lot of publicity, a lot of free publicity, and he definitely believes there is no such thing as bad PR,” said Dr. Walton.
Dr. Hult discusses the monetary side of his campaign. “We know for example he was able to raise over four million dollars in the first 24 hours following the indictment, and another one million after that,” said Dr. Hult.
Walton says trump’s communication and campaigning strategy has always been “If I say it’s true, then it’s true,” said Dr. Walton. This means acts such as the one he is going through now have always been defined by him as political persecution, and wrong. She says a lot of his most faithful base is standing by his side, but there is another side to it.
“I don’t know if it will materialize into votes. He has lost a lot of supporters because they like him, but they don’t want him to run for President because they want a president that can lead without drama,” said Dr. Walton.
Virginia Tech Political Analyst, Dr. Karen Hult thinks this weighs differently when it comes to the democrats and republicans.
“From Governor Youngkin saying this is a manufactured charge, to former Vice President Pence calling it an outrage and several other negative comments. So. they are beginning to say we are not going to attack the former President, but we are concerned about the so-called weaponization of the judicial system. Democrats in contrast are for the most part quiet. I think some of them are relieved that mister Trump is being held to some accountability, others are worried that this might not have been the right charge to start,” said Dr. Hult.
Dr. Hult adds there is nothing in the constitution stopping someone from running for office if they are under an indictment, but that raises another conversation of what kind of person we want governing on our behalf.
The world is expecting to hear from the former President following his arrest. He has a press conference scheduled for Tuesday night at Mar a Lago.
