Donald Trump is expected to turn himself over to local law enforcement on Tuesday. His campaign team has shared the ex-president’s plans for the unprecedented arraignment and they have offered a rough schedule of the steps.
He will depart his private Mar-a-Lago estate midday on Monday and take his private plane to New York.
He then plans to spend the night at his Manhattan penthouse at Trump Tower and then will head to the courthouse early in the morning on Tuesday. His arraignment is expected to be around 2:15pm, according to a law enforcement official.
Some 40 press vehicles that have been parked outside the courthouse since last week would make it difficult to secure the area, according to the source, who added the former president planned to arrive via motorcade.
The campaign says he will spend his weekend at home in Palm Beach, where he plans to return after completing all necessary business at the courthouse. Over the weekend he plans to stick to his usual schedule — which almost always includes an evening dinner on the club’s patio with his family and associates and golf at his nearby clubs.
His campaign does not have any other public events planned for Monday and Tuesday. Trump, according to his campaign, will be “back at it” on Wednesday. Presumably that means campaigning, although thus far, the only major event on his calendar is a speech at the National Rifle Association conference mid-April in Indianapolis.
Since news of the indictment, Trump’s campaign has worked to drum up support with fundraising appeals. The campaign is also busy trying to control the narrative surrounding the indictment, coordinating surrogates and lawyers who will appear on Trump-friendly television shows.
They are bracing for what will likely be a media spectacle as Trump turns himself in, just as the NYPD is bracing for the anticipated protests from both supporters and antagonists. On Friday Mayor Adams and Commissioner Sewell ordered all 35,000 officers to report for duty in uniform, even the plainclothes officers, in what is meant to be a show of force to discourage unrest. Officials were discussing blocking off the streets around the courthouse and removing all cars in the case of a bomb threat, according to a law enforcement source.
“The bottom line is that everyone is working overtime, it’s a stressful situation, there are a lot of crazies out there. A woman pulled a knife on someone the other day, so we are on high alert,” said Dennis W. Quirk, President of the New York Court Officers Association, referring to a Trump supporter who pulled a knife on a family with small children Wednesday. “Our job is to get this done as quickly as we can, and make sure that no one gets hurt.”
Remarks from the former president ahead of the indictment along with more recent calls for protest from Republican leaders added to concern.
“New York put your MAGA hats on. Under our constitutional rights, we WILL support President Trump and protest the tyrants. I’ll see you on Tuesday,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) in a tweet Friday.
Greene’s tweet came after Trump called on supporters to protest the indictment and predicted “potential death & destruction” if he was charged, using the same kid of rhetoric that inflamed his supporters to storm the capitol on January 6, 2020.
