Trump Furious as Legal Troubles Hamper His PGA Championship Plans

Former President Donald Trump voiced his anger about his mounting legal troubles affecting his plans to go to a PGA golf tournament at his golf course in Aberdeen, Scotland.

Taking to his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump wrote on Sunday, "I have the Staysure Senior PGA Championship in Aberdeen, Scotland, on my great course, and I can't go. I have to stay around and fight off the Crazed Radical Left Lunatics, Communists, Marxists, and Fascists. I wouldn't want to be in Europe and watch this COUNTRY DESTROYING Scum work their disgusting and illegal 'magic' on unsuspecting Republican 'leaders' who just don't think it is appropriate to Fight Fire With Fire. BUT WE WILL WIN. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

The former president has been indicted four times this year, two at the federal level and two at the state level. Trump was indicted earlier this month on four criminal counts in the Department of Justice's (DOJ) probe headed by special counsel Jack Smith in relation to accusations that he attempted to subvert American democracy by trying to overturn the results of 2020 presidential election. Smith also led the investigation that resulted in Trump being charged with 40 criminal counts related to accusations that he took sensitive government records with him to Mar-a-Lago, his Florida residence, after leaving the White House and conspired to obstruct government efforts to retrieve them.

Trump faces additional trials in New York and Georgia. In New York, he has been charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to payments made to his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, as reimbursement for a hush money payoff to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign. Daniels alleged that she had an affair with Trump in 2006, an allegation that Trump has denied.

In Georgia, Trump is facing 13 criminal counts related to accusations that he illegally sought to subvert the 2020 election results in the state. Trump was booked at Fulton County Jail in Atlanta on Thursday night on the charges, where he became the first former president in United States history to have his mug shot taken. Meanwhile, Trump has plead not guilty to all the cases and maintains his innocence as he continues to run for president again in 2024.

The question of Trump's schedule has been top of mind even for the former president's lawyers. Earlier this month, Trump's legal team filed a pleading in the Mar-a-Lago case advising the court that Smith's office's proposed schedule in the Washington, D.C., case conflicts with his Florida case. They then asked the court to take "appropriate action."

On Saturday, former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner also predicted more calendar restraints on Trump and said that he thinks U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the DOJ's 2020 election interference case, will set an early 2024 trial date for the former president on Monday. Trump's legal team has asked for an April 2026 trial date instead.

"I suspect you are going to see Tanya Chutkan set a trial date for some time in early 2024 so this case can be resolved well in advance of the November 2024 presidential election," Kirschner said when speaking to MSNBC's Katie Phang.

Meanwhile, former federal prosecutor Michael McAuliffe told Newsweek on Sunday, "Donald Trump's legal woes as a defendant in an unprecedented four criminal cases will have a significant and adverse impact on his ability to campaign in the traditional sense. However, Trump appears to be able to successfully feed off the indictments and turn his status as a defendant to his short-term political advantage."

He continued: "That likely will change in the larger political theater as the cases go to serial trials, one after another. He will have to be present in court and sit passively while a mountain of evidence is introduced against him. He won't be able to control the narrative any longer. And his ability to comment outside the courtroom will become very limited given juries will be seated continually over a course of months. And hanging over all of it is the notion that he doesn't listen to anyone about his campaign and his commentary.

By the time the trials start, he may be subject to one or more gag orders. His puts himself at great legal risk in the manner in which he tries to create political upside to his ongoing prosecutions. It's the ultimate legal gamble given a presiding judge may well conclude he needs to be sanctioned to preserve the integrity of the legal process."