Most people know that twice-impeached former president Donald Trump spent Monday in a New York courthouse for the first day of his criminal trial for allegedly falsifying business records in connection to hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Trump is required to attend court dates for the 34-count felony trial in person.
But Trump isn’t the only busy person running for president. President Joe Biden is also very busy—doing actual presidential stuff. On Monday, while Trump may have fallen asleep in court, Biden was receiving his daily briefing, followed by holding a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani of the Republic of Iraq in the Oval Office. He followed that up with another bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Petr Fiala of the Czech Republic.
How are the two men spending the rest of their week? The president will be campaigning in Pennsylvania, holding campaign events in Scranton on Tuesday, Pittsburgh on Wednesday, and Philadelphia on Thursday. Low-energy Trump is using his legal woes as an excuse for his lackluster campaign schedule. CNN points out that since launching his presidential bid in 2022 he has "rarely held campaign events for more than two days a week."
The good news for Trump is that he can probably keep up his billionaires-only fundraising and golfing schedules. This might be a good thing for Trump’s fragile ego considering the "crowds" of non-billionaires Trump has been pulling in at events and in front of courthouses haven't been particularly … robust. It also leaves Trump more time to do what he loves to do: rant, lie, and freakout on social media.
During Monday’s White House press briefing, when asked whether or not Biden was “going to be paying any sort of attention” to the Trump trial, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded, “Well, as you know, the president is pretty busy today.” Jean-Pierre added “I'm sure he'll, you know, get an update at some point today.”
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