Trump unwisely compared to Charles Manson by Fox pundit

Donald Trump’s extraordinary legal plight inspired Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen to compare him to the notorious cult leader Charles Manson on Monday as the pundit reacted to a series of major developments in two cases concerning the Republican presidential candidate.

Mr Thiessen argued during yesterday’s instalment of The Story with Martha MacCallum that the US justice system is treating Mr Trump worse than it had Manson, who was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder over a series of sensational killings his followers carried out in the late 1960s.

“None of this would be happening if Donald Trump wasn’t running for president,” he claimed.

“They’ve issued 91 indictments against Donald Trump. Charles Manson faced 10… They’ve got multiple cases trying to bankrupt him.”

Mr Trump won an important victory on Monday when a panel of New York appeals court judges granted him a 10-day extension to the deadline for paying his bond in response to the civil fraud trial judgement against him, also ruling that he need only put down $175m of the $464m total, rather than the complete amount.

Nevertheless, the candidate will have to face a jury trial beginning on Monday 15 April in a separate Big Apple case related to his alleged attempts to conceal hush money payments in 2016 and is still battling four criminal indictments in four states and 88 felony charges (three were dropped in Georgia earlier this month) as he seeks a belated second term in the White House.

Mr Trump has continued to deny any wrongdoing, claiming all attempts to bring him to justice are the result of a conspiracy being orchestrated by his political enemies to interfere with his presidential campaign.

“This is all Biden-run things,”