Trump unleashes Truth Social rant as he wakes to historic first day of criminal hush money trial

Donald Trump lashed out on Truth Social on Monday morning as he prepared to make history by becoming the first current or former American president to ever face a criminal trial.

In a series of rants on his social media platform, the former president called for the New York hush money case against him to be dropped and once more claimed without evidence that the indictments he faces are part of a plot by “Radical Left Democrats” to prevent him from campaigning for the presidency.

“As virtually every legal scholar has powerfully stated, the Biden Manhattan Witch Hunt Case is, among other things, BARRED by the Statute of Limitations. This ‘trial’ should be ended by the highly conflicted presiding Judge,” the candidate claimed in a post.

In a follow-up post, he again blamed Democrats – and mistakenly claimed he was going to court for “bogus lawsuits” rather than a criminal trial on 34 felony counts.

“The Radical Left Democrats are already cheating on the 2024 Presidential Election by bringing, or helping to bring, all of these bogus lawsuits against me, thereby forcing me to sit in courthouses, and spend money that could be used for campaigning, instead of being out in the field knocking Crooked Joe Biden, the WORST President in the History of the United States. Election Interference!” he said.

After a third, less characteristic post in which he pointed to the absurdity of Russia calling for restraint from Israel in response to the drone attack from Iran it suffered over the weekend, Mr Trump returned to his own plight, asking: “Why didn’t they bring this totally discredited lawsuit 7 years ago??? Election Interference!”

In a fifth post, he bemoaned the gag order imposed on him by Judge Juan Merchan, which came after