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Several of Donald Trump’s allies are flocking to the Manhattan criminal courthouse where Trump is on trial to display their support for the former president as explosive testimony unfolds about his alleged sexual encounter with an adult film actress and the hush money payment made to keep it under wraps before the 2016 election.
On Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has increasingly aligned himself with the former president amid blowback he’s received from the far right, will become the highest ranking Republican and latest Trump ally to make the trip, per a GOP source.
The politicians coming to Trump’s defense are attacking the people Trump is barred from publicly speaking about under his gag order, including the prosecution’s star witness Michael Cohen, whose testimony began Monday. Their presence at the courthouse also allows them to show their loyalty — a trait highly valued and rewarded by the former president — and gives them a high-profile platform to angle for a potential administration position should Trump win another term.
Also on Tuesday, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who is under consideration to be Trump’s potential running mate, will join the former president in court, according to a Trump campaign official, as well as Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, Florida Rep. Cory Mills and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
Their court visits come after Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, another potential vice presidential pick, and Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville joined Trump in the courtroom on Monday.
Both Vance and Tuberville spoke to reporters outside of the courthouse and attacked Cohen, trying to undermine his credibility during his first day of testimony.
“Does any reasonable, sensible person believe anything that Michael Cohen says?” Vance told reporters outside of the criminal courthouse moments before Tuberville panned Cohen’s testimony as “an acting scene” and said he was a “serial liar.”
In addition to Vance and Tuberville, New York Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall and Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird also appeared in court with Trump on Monday and spoke to reporters outside the courthouse. Florida Sen. Rick Scott joined Trump in court last week, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton made the trip the week before. Eric Trump has appeared with his father at the trial, and several of the former president’s top advisers regularly accompany him to court.
In the weeks ahead, more of Trump’s allies are expected to join Trump in court, according to a Trump campaign official. The official said “a number of” his friends and supporters have reached out to him and the campaign to ask if they could come to the courthouse.
“It’s going to continue, and it’s just a demonstration of how offended so many of our friends are by what’s happening to the president,” the official told CNN.
One person familiar with the campaign argued there were no political downsides for the politicians making the trip to the courthouse to rail against the case against Trump, and that it would give them coveted airtime amid the highly publicized trial.
“If there was a safe trial to show up to, this is the one,” this person said. Trump is a defendant in three other criminal cases and faces charges over his alleged mishandling of classified material and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all 88 charges against him.
Mark Serrano, who was a senior adviser to Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign, said in an interview with CNN he thought the gag order Trump is under was one of the main reasons Trump’s allies felt compelled to show up at the trial.
“Judge Merchan has taken Donald Trump’s voice away to a degree. He has stripped him of his first amendment rights and people like J.D. Vance and Tommy Tuberville and others are going to come to New York and they’re going to lend their voice to Donald Trump,” Serrano said.
Trump has been fined a total of $10,000 for violating the gag order that bars him from publicly discussing witnesses. The violations included comments he made about Cohen, who is a key witness for the prosecution as they make the case Trump illegally falsified business records after paying off adult film actress Stormy Daniels as part of an alleged election interference scheme in 2016. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the 34 felony criminal charges of falsifying business records in the New York case.
CNN’s Manu Raju and Kristen Holmes contributed to this story.
