Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the National Guard of the United States NGAUS General Conference in Detroit, Michigan U.S.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Former U.S. President Donald Trump is scheduled to campaign on Thursday (August 29, 2024) in Michigan and Wisconsin as the former president ramps up battleground state travel heading into the traditional Labor Day turn toward the fall election.

Mr. Trump’s intense focus on recapturing states he won in 2016 but lost narrowly in 2020 continues with stops in the middle of Michigan and western Wisconsin.

Mr. Trump’s day starts with an afternoon rally in Potterville, Michigan, near the state capital of Lansing. Mr. Trump won Eaton County, where part of Lansing is located, in both 2016 and 2020, but by a smaller margin the second time.

It will be his third visit to the state in the past nine days and second this week after a speech to the National Guard Association in Detroit on Monday.

Later, he will visit La Crosse, Wisconsin, for a town hall moderated by former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who endorsed him in Detroit. It will be Trump’s first visit to Wisconsin since the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, which ended three days before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and made way for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Along with Pennsylvania, which Mr. Trump will visit on Friday (August 30, 2024), these three Midwestern states make up a northern industrial bloc Democrats carried for two decades before Mr.Trump won them in 2016. Mr. Biden recaptured them on his way to the White House in 2020.

Mr. Trump and his vice-presidential pick, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, have blitzed the battleground states in recent weeks, with Vance in both states this week as well.

The battleground offensive comes as a reinvigorated Democratic Party rallies around Harris and her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Ms. Harris and Mr. Walz are aiming to leverage the surge in enthusiasm among the party’s base since her campaign launch just over a month ago. They hope this excitement — which was on full display at last week’s convention in Chicago — will extend to more moderate areas as they embark on a two-day bus tour in Georgia, including events in the state’s rural southern regions.

Mr. Trump’s events in Michigan and Wisconsin are both in swing congressional districts.

Potterville is in Michigan’s 7th District, which features a mix of Republican-dominated counties like Clinton and Shiawassee, and Democratic strongholds such as Ingham, home to the state Capitol and Michigan State University. This district is expected to be one of the nation’s most competitive this fall following incumbent Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin’s decision to run for the state’s open US Senate seat.

La Crosse, meanwhile, is a hub within Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, where Republican Derrick Van Orden won narrowly in 2022. Democrat Rebecca Cooke won the August 13 primary to face him in November.

People look at Fox News screens displaying news announcing that a jury found former U.S. President Donald Trump guilty on all 34 counts in his criminal trial in New York State Supreme Court, in New York City, on May 30, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Donald Trump, the first former U.S. president to be convicted of a crime, will remain a free man while he awaits sentencing and could avoid a prison term entirely for falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to a porn star. Here is a look at what’s next for the Republican candidate for President against Democratic President Joe Biden in a November 5 election.

What happens now?

The judge presiding over the case, Juan Merchan, must first approve the verdict and enter a final judgment, though this is typically a formality.

Criminal defendants in New York are typically sentenced within several weeks of conviction, but post-verdict legal wrangling can sometimes lead to months of delays. In the meantime, lawyers and prosecutors will recommend sentences and then argue over them at Trump’s sentencing hearing, where Merchan will make a decision.

Will Trump go to prison?

That is unlikely.

The maximum sentence for Mr. Trump’s crime of falsifying business records is 1-1/3 to four years in prison.

It is rare for people with no criminal history who are convicted only of falsification of business records to be sentenced to prison in New York. Punishments like fines or probation are more common.

Defendants convicted of falsifying business records who get sentenced to time behind bars typically serve a year or less, and even in those cases most were convicted of other crimes such as fraud or grand larceny — unlike Mr. Trump

If punished beyond a fine, Mr. Trump could be placed under home confinement or subject to a curfew rather than imprisoned.

As a former President, he has a lifetime Secret Service detail, and the logistics of keeping him safe behind bars could be complicated.

Mr. Trump could also be released on bail while appealing his conviction.

Can Trump appeal the conviction?

Yes. Mr. Trump is likely to make arguments that Merchan rejected ahead of trial, including that the indictment is legally flawed and politically motivated. He is also likely to argue Merchan deprived him of a fair trial by making legal errors, including allowing salacious testimony by a porn star who said she had sex with Mr. Trump — testimony his lawyers said was gratuitous and aimed at inflaming the jury against him.

The defense is likely to argue that the charges themselves were legally improper. Falsifying business records on its own is a misdemeanor in New York, but is elevated to a felony when done to help commit or conceal another crime. In this case, Bragg’s office said that other crime was a conspiracy to violate a state election law.

But Mr. Trump’s lawyers have argued that state law does not apply to federal elections.

Could Trump still be President?

Yes. The U.S. Constitution only requires that presidents be at least 35 years old and natural-born U.S. citizens who have lived in the country for 14 years.

In theory, Trump could be sworn in from jail or prison on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 2025, if he were to unseat Biden.