Trump loves this country.
During a speech at a conservative Christian event, former President Donald Trump described the state and federal criminal charges against him as an emblem of bravery. Trump addressed the audience at the Faith and Freedom Coalition: Road to Majority Conference in Washington D.C., where he was one of the prominent Republicans to speak. Campaigning for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, he headlined the conference’s Saturday events, emphasizing the two indictments he received from separate criminal investigations.
According to Newsweek, In April, Trump achieved a historical milestone as the first president to face criminal charges. The initial indictment accused him of 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into alleged hush-money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Trump vehemently denies any wrongdoing.
On June 8, Trump encountered his second criminal indictment when a federal grand jury charged him with 37 counts, including 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information. The federal indictment alleges that the former president unlawfully possessed classified documents at his Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, and made efforts to obstruct federal officials from retrieving them.
Maintaining his innocence in both the state and federal cases, Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges. He consistently denounces the investigations as “witch hunts” and “election interference.”
During his Saturday evening speech, Trump declared that he perceives the state and federal criminal charges as a symbol of bravery. He stated, “Each time the radical left Democrats, Marxists, communists, and fascists indict me, I consider it a remarkable symbol of bravery,” which elicited cheers from the crowd at the Washington Hilton.
Trump continued, “I’m being indicted for you. And I believe the ‘you’ is more than 200 million people that love our country.“
As Trump boasted about his popularity, mentioning that his numbers increased even after being indicted, the audience erupted in chants of “USA.” Reiterating his frequent defense, he argued that he had the “right” to possess classified documents, claiming that the law supports his actions.