Donald Trump is currently the target for four separate indictments, but he’s got something else on his mind at the moment: the picture Fox News uses when they talk about him.
“Why doesn’t Fox and Friends show all of the Polls where I am beating Biden, by a lot. They just won’t do it!” the former president, 77, complained in a Thursday, August 17, post on his Truth Social network. “Also, they purposely show the absolutely worst pictures of me, especially the big ‘orange’ one with my chin pulled way back. They think they are getting away with something, they’re not. Just like 2016 all over again … And then they want me to debate!”
Trump has so far refused to commit to attending the first Republican primary debate, which is scheduled for Wednesday, August 23. As for his claim that he is “beating” President Joe Biden “by a lot,” RealClearPolitics shows that nearly every mainstream poll has Biden, 80, defeating Trump in a hypothetical 2024 matchup — including a Fox News poll published earlier this week.
Among a crowded field of Republican candidates, however, Trump remains the undisputed leader in the polls, coming out far ahead of his own former vice president, Mike Pence, as well as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
His polling success has continued amid the fact that he is currently the subject of four separate criminal indictments, the most recent of which was announced this week. On Monday, August 14, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis accused Trump and 18 associates of a racketeering conspiracy to overturn Biden’s win in Georgia during the 2020 election. Trump was charged with 13 felony counts. If he is convicted and then wins the presidency in 2024, he would not be able to pardon himself because the charges are being carried out under state law.
Two weeks earlier, U.S. Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump on four charges in Washington, D.C. This case relates to the actions Trump took before the events of January 6, 2021, when his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying Biden as the winner of the election. The charges include conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.
In March, Trump was indicted in New York on 34 felony charges related to hush money payments he made to porn star Stormy Daniels. Three months later, he was indicted again in Florida on 40 felony charges related to accusations that he mishandled classified documents that were found at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges in all four cases.
