Looks like Donald Trump has a whole new reason to cancel his rallies [updated]
Update, 10:20pm: some outlets are now saying the gag order hearing has been rescheduled to a different day. Earlier this week Judge Merchan held a hearing to determine the appropriate punishment for Donald Trump’s gag order violations. But even as we wait for Merchan’s ruling in that hearing, prosecutors have made a new filing about additional Trump gag order violations. Now Merchan has scheduled a new hearing. And while it’s not clear what his game plan is, this hearing is already set to hit Trump in an odd way.
Merchan has other duties on Wednesdays, which is why the Trump trial is only being held four days a week. But he did say that if the Trump trial starts falling behind, he’ll start holding the Trump trial on Wednesdays as well. Now the judge has announced that the hearing on Trump’s second round of gag order violations will indeed take place on next Wednesday.
This is a problem for Trump because he has campaign rallies scheduled in two swing states on that same Wednesday. Oops. This means that unless the judge relents and allows the hearing to be held on a different day, Trump will have to cancel his rallies. And so Trump is indeed being punished by default for his gag order violations, even if the judge didn’t intend it that way.
Of course Trump’s handlers are surely thrilled at the prospect of having an excuse to cancel his rallies. They seem to want him on the campaign trial as little as possible, so as to minimize the number of headlines about his worsening senility. They canceled a bunch of Trump rallies last month, blaming campaign finance shortages. The canceled his rally the other day, blaming the wind.
But the big question is what Judge Merchan is planning to do about Trump’s gag order violations. Is he planning to rule on the first round of gag order violations before the hearing on the second round of violations? Does this mean the judge will fine Trump for the first round, and then assign a harsher punishment for the second round?
You’d have to ask the judge, and so far he’s not talking. The thing to keep in mind is that if you trust this judge overall, then you have to trust how he ends up handling Trump’s gag order violations as well. But it looks like Trump’s insistence upon running his mouth is already costing him the opportunity to run his mouth at rallies.
