Trump is 'going about business as usual' and enjoying higher polling on the day he claimed he'd be arrested, his lawyer says
- Donald Trump said he would be arrested on Tuesday.
- It's Tuesday and he hasn't been arrested.
On Saturday, former President Donald Trump called for his supporters to protest an expected indictment against him.
In a Truth Social post, he claimed he would be arrested on Tuesday and blasted Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is overseeing an investigation into payments he made to Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress who says she had an affair with him.
"THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK," Trump said on his website Truth Social. "PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!"
It's Tuesday. Trump hasn't been arrested.
Trump isn't even in New York, one of his attorneys, Joe Tacopina, told Insider.
He appears to be staying home in Mar-a-Lago. The Associated Press captured a photo of a Secret Service agent stationed at the Florida estate on Tuesday morning. Trump's plane was parked at the Palm Beach International Airport at noon, indicating he was still in Florida, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
"He's going about business as usual, doing what he does, enjoying the fact that he seems to be rising in the poll numbers the more this thing picks up steam," Tacopina told Insider.
The Manhattan grand jury investigating Trump typically meets on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons. It's scheduled to meet with another witness on Wednesday, according to Fox News, before the jurors are given instructions on how to decide whether to bring criminal charges in the case.
Tacopina told Insider he doesn't know the identity of any other potential witnesses. He said he didn't plan to bring any witnesses to speak in Trump's defense other than Robert Costello, who testified on Monday.
Costello said he served as a rebuttal witness to Michael Cohen, who says he facilitated hush-money payments to Daniels on Trump's behalf on the eve of the 2016 election.
"We don't really present the case in the grand jury," Tacopina told Insider. "It's a very one-sided process. It's not our time to present our case. We'll do that when there's an indictment."
If Trump is indicted, it would likely remain under seal until Trump appears in court, an event that would be carefully choreographed with multiple law enforcement agencies, including the Secret Service. It's also possible he could have a virtual arraignment over video.
On Truth Social, Trump spent Monday and Tuesday bragging about his poll numbers and criticizing Bragg.
A Morning Consult poll taken between March 17 and 19 found that Trump enjoyed 54% support in the Republican 2024 presidential primary, ahead of his top rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who sits at 26%. Trump's support rose and DeSantis's support slid by two percentage points compared to a week earlier, according to Morning Consult, although the poll has a margin of error of two percentage points. Trump also shared the results of a Rasmussen poll from earlier this month that showed him ahead of DeSantis in Arizona.
"Ron DeSanctimonious is dropping in the Polls so fast that he soon may be falling behind young Vivek Ramaswamy," Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday, referencing a long-shot candidate for the presidential nomination.
On Tuesday, Trump also lost a bid to delay the trial, scheduled for October 2, for a civil lawsuit brought by New York Attorney Letitia James, who alleges Trump and his three eldest children broke state laws by misrepresenting the Trump Organization's property values.
Alina Habba, an attorney representing Trump in the lawsuit, told reporters outside the courthouse that a decision from the grand jury to indict the former president would be "a grave mistake."
"He's sad by what's going on here," Habba said.