Trump spends week before Iowa caucuses in court - The Boston Globe

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

71% : On Wednesday night, Carson drew more than 100 people to a church in Davenport, Iowa -- comparable with the number at many DeSantis and Haley events -- and preached to the audience of Trump supporters in a calm voice about restoring Christian values to the national identity.
65% : Aides have said Trump is deeply invested in the cases, which threaten everything from his control of his business empire to his freedom.
51% : "Any event that he has is loaded to the hilt," said Dave LaGrange, who owns a financial services business in Winterset, southwest of Des Moines, and plans to caucus for Trump.
50% : The less frantic schedule also doesn't seem to have mattered in a state where Trump maintains a dominant lead over his rivals, with the focus not on whether he will win but his margin of victory.
49% : But the appearances also guarantee Trump the media spotlight, giving him the opportunity to hammer his case, and pulling attention away from his rivals in Iowa as they make their final pitch to voters.
49% : It's also a way for Trump to appeal to different constituencies.
38% : The Des Moines Register's candidate tracker this week listed 25 public Trump events in the state since March versus more than 125 for DeSantis, 79 for Nikki Haley, and more than 300 for Ramaswamy.Trump campaign aides argue that because Trump's events draw far more voters than his rivals, he can reach just as many people with fewer events.
38% : "Dude, you're the president," Peiffer said of Trump.
34% : Both court appearances are voluntary and Trump was not required to attend.
31% : "President Trump is always going to defend himself," senior adviser Jason Miller said.
31% : "His campaign has also continued to fund-raise off the appearances, including one email Monday in which it falsely stated Biden was "forcing" Trump "into a courtroom in our nation's capital to defend my right to presidential immunity.
31% : "Since long before the race's final stretch, however, Trump has spent far fewer days campaigning in the state than his chief rivals including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who visited all of the state's 99 counties, and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who visited each one, twice.
29% : That may not work in a general election when Trump will need to win over moderate and independent voters who turned from him in 2020 while he fights four separate criminal cases in four jurisdictions.
20% : But in the primary, Trump is using his court appearances to cast himself as the victim of a coordinated effort by Democrats to hobble the chances of their chief political rival and to push back against President Biden's assertion that his reelection poses a threat to democracy.

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