(NewsNation)— Former President Donald Trump will spend the coming weeks campaigning from the courtroom as his historic hush money trial in New York City kicks off.
Trump was ordered to attend the criminal proceedings, taking him off the campaign trial for much of the next six to eight weeks. But so far, Trump has been using the media attention to his advantage, holding press conferences and calling the charges against him a “Biden trial.”
The former president hit the campaign trail in Pennsylvania over the weekend ahead of President Joe Biden’s three-day stop in the state starting Tuesday.
Biden is kicking off his visit to the key battleground state in his hometown of Scranton before heading to Pittsburgh and then Philadelphia.
In Scranton, Biden’s campaign team is touting what they call a “rejuvenation” of the Electric City thanks to the president’s investments in the middle class.
“I feel like for the first time in a long time we have a President who understands normal middle-class people like me,” a voter in Biden’s official ad says.
“I do not believe that President Trump was for the little guy. He was for the wealthy — that was his lifestyle, and that’s what he protected. Trump was for Trump,” another Pennsylvania voter noted.
Biden’s team is trying to sell the public on his accomplishments as concerns persist that voters are unaware of what he’s done in office and are instead focused on frustrations over high grocery costs and concerns about the sharp rise in illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign tells NewsNation he plans to be on the campaign trail as much as possible amid his ongoing legal battles.
“I should be in Pennsylvania and Florida, in many other states, North Carolina, Georgia — campaigning. This is all coming from the Biden White House because the guy can’t put two sentences together. He can’t campaign,” Trump said at a press conference Tuesday after the first day of his hush money trial.