Former Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) said Monday that former President Trump’s legal trials are taking a toll on him, arguing that he doesn’t have the “juice” he had in previous years.
“It’s really clear that the trial is taking its toll on Donald Trump, and I think his ability to juggle between what he’s doing in the courtroom in Manhattan versus what he needs to do on the campaign trail,” Edwards said in an MSNBC interview.
Trump has been in court multiple days a week for his criminal hush money trial in New York City, which is expected to be decided by a jury this week. That schedule has limited his speaking engagements.
“It is the reason that you saw the organized rally in the Bronx, something close by, he did one at his — near his golf course in New Jersey,” Edwards said. “Trying to conserve his energy and his time to make space for these trials.”
The South Bronx rally Friday received middling attendance of just a few thousand supporters. Trump was also loudly booed at a speech to the Libertarian Party convention on Saturday.
Edwards posited that the attendance and stamina troubles for Trump could be connected to fundraising.
“There is a money issue, and he doesn’t have the same kind of juice to draw those large crowds that he did back in 2016, certainly a lot less in 2020,” she said.
President Biden has consistently led Trump in fundraising throughout the campaign, and Trump’s rising legal bills have raised concerns that his camp could be low on money to use for the campaign.